Lent

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Friday, 17 March 2023 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Hosea 14 : 2-10

Return to your God YHVH, o Israel! Your sins have caused your downfall. Return to YHVH with humble words. Say to Him, “Oh You Who show compassion to the fatherless forgive our debt, be appeased. Instead of bulls and sacrifices, accept the praise from our lips. Assyria will not save us : no longer shall we look for horses nor ever again shall we say ‘Our gods’ to the work of our hands.”

I will heal their wavering and love them with all My heart for My anger has turned from them. I shall be like dew to Israel like the lily will he blossom. Like a cedar he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow and spread. His splendour will be like an olive tree. His fragrance, like a Lebanon cedar.

They will dwell in My shade again, they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like a vine, and their fame will be like Lebanon wine. What would Ephraim do with idols, when it is I Who hear and make him prosper? I am like an ever-green cypress tree; all your fruitfulness comes from Me.

Who is wise enough to grasp all this? Who is discerning and will understand? Straight are the ways of YHVH : the just walk in them, but the sinners stumble.

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Thursday, 16 March 2023 : 3rd 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, all of us are reminded not to give in to our pride and ego, our stubbornness and our waywardness in how we and our ancestors had often behaved in the past, in resisting God’s love and compassion, and in rejecting His ever generous kindness and attention, as we preferred to follow our own path and hardened our hearts, unable to resist the temptations being present all around us that pulled us away from the path of God’s righteousness and grace. We often allowed those temptations to mislead and delude us, leading us further and further away from the path towards eternal life and justification in God. And that is why today, all of us are reminded to turn away from sin and from our disobedience, and humble ourselves, so that we may once again walk in the path of the Lord.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah in which the Lord spoke in lamentation and frustration over the sins of His people to Jeremiah, whom he had sent to the kingdom and the people of Judah, the remnants of the Israelites who have rebelled against God again and again, over the period of time, and despite repeated reminders from the Lord through His prophets, messengers and servants, they still allowed themselves to be swayed by sin and the temptations to disobey the Lord. Their northern neighbours, the kingdom of Israel centred in Samaria had been crushed and destroyed by the Assyrians decades before the time of the prophet Jeremiah, for their continuous sin and disobedience, and they had been scattered and exiled from the lands of their ancestors. It was just a matter of time before the same fate would befall the people of Judah as well.

The Lord had done many good things for His beloved people, and He has reached out to them again and again, guiding and chastising them whenever it was necessary, to help them to remain true to the path that He wanted them all to follow. Unfortunately, more often than not, they chose to listen to the false leads and prophets, to the corrupt guides and all the various temptations all around them, of power, fame, glory, material possessions among other things. All those things had steered them away from what God had told them all to do. Despite God having rescued them from their slavery in Egypt, cared for them and showed them His love and kindness, all throughout the years, but the people of God were often ungrateful and forgot about Him, continuing to follow the path of sin and wickedness and rejecting his love and compassion.

All of those things happened because the people were focused too much on their worldly attachments and desires, all the things that ended up causing them to lose track and control over their lives, and dragged them ever further into the path of damnation and evil. They could not resist the pull and allure of those worldly attachments and desires in their hearts, and as such, they kept on falling again and again into sin. That was also why many among the people refused to listen to the Lord and to believe in Him all throughout the history of salvation, as highlighted in the Scriptures. They were so busy and preoccupied with their worldly pursuits and concerns that they had no place for God in their lives, and they thought in terms of the world and not in terms of what they had been taught and guided with by the prophets and messengers of God.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard one such occasion when the Lord Jesus was confronted by the people who accused Him of colluding with the prince of demons, Beelzebub as He performed His miracle in healing a man who had been struck dumb by demonic possession. This accusation was truly baseless and did not make sense at all, just as the Lord Himself pointed out the folly of such an argument. The Lord told them all that if the demons and evil spirits were divided against each other, then they could not stand or do anything as they would spend all their time just quarrelling and fighting over each other, just like how it worked and what had happened in our world, when a country, a nation and a people were divided against each other in civil wars and conflicts. And those that are divided against the other is truly unlikely to flourish and prosper.

Hence, accusing the Lord falsely of being complicit and colluding with demonic forces is really nonsensical and vile in nature. This accusation came about because those who accused the Lord hardened their hearts and minds and refused to accept the fact and truth that the Lord’s work had been genuine and authoritative. While it was not mentioned explicitly in the Gospel passage today, but it was likely that those who accused the Lord either belonged to the group of the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law or their supporters. Many among those people had often opposed the Lord and were criticial of Him and His disciples, because they could not accept Him as a legitimate source of teaching authority on their faith, and even saw Him as a dangerous rival and threat to their own power and influence in the community.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, they likely opposed the Lord at every turn and opportunity out of jealousy, fear and pride. Many of the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the chief priests feared that the Lord’s growing influence and popularity in the community of the people of God would destroy whatever power structures, influence and privileges that they had gathered, built up and established among the people at that time. Hence, they refused to accept the truth of God, hardened their hearts and minds, resisting the Lord’s effort to reach out and explain the truth to them. That was why despite having witnessed many of the Lord’s miracles again and again, but they still failed to believe in God and even accused Him vilely of such false accusation as what we heard in our Gospel passage today.

Ironically, they were doing exactly what the Lord had been telling them about the folly of the demons being divided against each other. Yes, essentially, by their actions, those who accused the Lord of colluding with Beelzebub were causing division by their actions and words, and also hindered the good works of the Lord, just as how they had hindered many from coming towards the Lord and His salvation by their self-righteous attitude and imposition of an overly strict interpretation of the Law of God. On the contrary, the fact is that the devil and all those who seek our destruction, those demons and evil spirits are no less united in purpose and intention to bring about our downfall, and are united in their actions to crush us and to make us falter and fail in our path towards God’s salvation and grace. They planted the seeds of pride and arrogance in those who opposed the Lord so that more people would have been prevented from coming to reconciliation and salvation in God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all resist the temptations of worldly glory and desire, and learn to be humble and to open our hearts and minds to listen to the Lord, to His Wisdom and truth, and harden our hearts and minds no more, so that we may not act like those who have resisted the Lord. Let us all help one another to come to the Lord by our righteous and faithful attitude, doing whatever we can to follow Him and to inspire others to do the same as well. May the Lord help us in our journey towards reconciliation with Him, especially during this blessed penitential season of Lent. May He empower each one of us to be able to follow Him more earnestly and with greater commitment and zeal. May He bless our every efforts and good endeavours, all for His greater glory, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 16 March 2023 : 3rd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 11 : 14-23

At that time, one day Jesus was driving out a demon, which was mute. When the demon had been driven out, the mute person could speak, and the people were amazed. Yet some of them said, “He drives out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the chief of the demons.” Others wanted to put Him to the test, by asking Him for a heavenly sign.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them, “Every nation divided by civil war is on the road to ruin, and will fall. If Satan also is divided, his empire is coming to an end. How can you say that I drive out demons by calling upon Beelzebul? If I drive them out by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive out demons? They will be your judges, then.”

“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God; would not this mean that the kingdom of God, has come upon you? As long as a man, strong and well armed, guards his house, his goods are safe. But when a stronger man attacks and overcomes him, the challenger takes away all the weapons he relied on, and disposes of his spoils.”

“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me, scatters.”

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Thursday, 16 March 2023 : 3rd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

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.

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Thursday, 16 March 2023 : 3rd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 7 : 23-28

YHVH says, “One thing I did command them : Listen to My voice and I will be your God and you will be My people. Walk in the way I command you and all will be well with you. But they did not listen and paid no attention; they followed the bad habits of their stubborn heart and turned away from Me.”

“From the time I brought their forebearers out of Egypt until this day I have continually sent them My servants, the prophets, but this stiff-necked people did not listen. They paid no attention and were worse than their forebearers. You may say all these things to them but they will not listen; you will call them but they will not answer.”

“This is a nation that did not obey YHVH and refused to be disciplined; truth has perished and is no longer heard from their lips.”

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Wednesday, 15 March 2023 : 3rd 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 all reminded of the obedience that all of us should have towards the Law and commandments of God, the precepts and ways that the Lord Himself has revealed and taught to us. As members of God’s Church, that is as Christians, each and every one of us are called to be truly obedient and committed to God’s path, to listen to Him and to do whatever He has asked us to do. That is what He Himself has tasked and entrusted to us to do. After all, how can we convince others to believe in God and to do our works of evangelisation if we ourselves had not really believed in God and His truth? We are no better than hypocrites and unbelievers if our way of life and actions do not reflect this faith we have in God, or worse still, contradict with that faith.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, we heard of the words of the Lord that He spoke to His people through Moses, who reminded all of them of just how blessed and fortunate they are to have been beloved in such a way by the Lord, their Lord and God. Moses told the people to listen to their God and to follow Him wholeheartedly, and not harden their hearts and minds against Him any longer. He reminded them all that the Law of God, the commandments and the path the Lord has shown them have been presented to them and therefore they should walk in the path of God and to pass down the knowledge of the Law and the truth of God through the generations to come. Moses hence exhorted and called on all the people of God to be truly holy just as the Lord Himself is holy, and to be good just as their Lord and Master is good.

Contextually, we must understand that Moses’ comments and exhortation was made with the understanding of just how stubborn the people of Israel could be, in disobeying God and in refusing to believe in Him. They had often rebelled against the Lord, complained against Him and chose to live a sinful and wicked life rather than obeying God and His Law. That is why the Lord sent them reminders through Moses to adhere to His path of righteousness and grace. God still loved His people all very much despite all those wickedness that they had committed. He even gave His people the reassurances that He would not abandon them and He will guide them all to the path towards salvation and eternal life. In the end, He fulfilled His promises and gave us the most perfect gift of all, that is none other than Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard how the Lord Jesus told the people and His disciples, telling all of them that He came into this world not to annul or remove the old Law, that refers to the Law of God revealed through Moses, but rather, He came into this world in order to make us whole once again, by gathering all of us from whenever we have been scattered throughout this world. He came to clarify the meaning, intention and purpose of the Law of God, which was always meant to help the people of God to redirect their focus and attention towards the Lord. Unfortunately, throughout the preceding centuries, the Law had been often misunderstood and misinterpreted by the people who misused and exploited the Law for their own selfish interests and desires. This led to the Law of God no longer being practiced in the way that they were supposed to be observed.

Hence, the Lord came into the world to reveal the truth to us, about His love for us and about everything that He had done for our sake, that by His revelation and teachings, He might bring us closer to Himself. He tells us that the Law was not meant to oppress us or to make us to feel superior or the right to discriminate one another. The Law has often been misused back then as means for some to gain more renown, praise and fame for themselves, just as what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done, in seeking attention and praise for their piety and actions, in their way of observing the Law and the prayers and practices they did, in the public places and more. Not only that, but they also allowed the temptations of vanity, pride and worldly greed to affect and influence them, and as such, they ended up becoming more distant and sundered from God, just like how their ancestors and predecessors had disobeyed God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are all reminded to turn towards the Lord once again with faith, and commit ourselves anew with the desire to love Him and to follow His path, resisting the many worldly temptations being present all around us. All of us are called especially during the time of this season of Lent to be more attuned to the Lord, and to rediscover the faith and love that we all ought to have for Him. Each one of us have been given the opportunity and the time for us to return with faith back towards our Lord and Master, Who has always looked kindly upon us, always ever reaching out to us, finding us and trying to bring us back to His loving embrace once again. Now it is really up to us if we want to embrace God’s love and compassionate mercy, and it is up to us to choose if we want to walk in the path of His righteousness and grace.

God has presented His Law before us and He has also given us the Wisdom and the opportunities to discern what we are going to do with our lives. He has given us His patient guidance and help so that hopefully we may realise the folly of our evil and sinful ways, and that hopefully we may find our way back once again to His loving embrace, by His grace and mercy. This season of Lent is particularly good time for us to realise this and to reflect on our way of life and on our actions so that hopefully we will not continue to walk down the wrong path. Let us all turn towards the Lord and reflect upon the good examples that His holy saints and martyrs, all the holy men and women of God, our holy predecessors, and see what we can learn in our journey of life throughout this Lent and beyond. Let us all draw closer to God and deepen our relationship with Him, resisting the temptations and the allures of worldly desires and attachments, among other things.

May the Lord continue to bless and guide us in our path this Lent, so that we may have a most fruitful season and time to reconnect with God, to obey His Law and commandments with vigour and zeal. May God bless us all and may He guide us all with the strength and grace to follow Him wholeheartedly and to free ourselves from sin. May God empower us with the courage and strength to dedicate ourselves anew each day. Wishing all of us a most blessed and good season of Lent. Amen.

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Wednesday, 15 March 2023 : 3rd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 5 : 17-19

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Do not think that I have come to annul the Law and the Prophets. I have not come to annul them but to fulfil them. I tell you this : as long as heaven and earth last, not the smallest letter or dot in the Law will change until all is fulfilled.”

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Wednesday, 15 March 2023 : 3rd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 147 : 12-13, 15-16, 19-20

Exalt the Lord, o Jerusalem; praise your God, o Zion! For He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your children within you.

He sends His command to the earth and swiftly runs His word. He spreads snow like wool; He scatters frost like ashes.

It is He Who tells Jacob His words, His laws and decrees to Israel. This He has not done for other nations, so His laws remain unknown to them. Alleluia!

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Wednesday, 15 March 2023 : 3rd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Deuteronomy 4 : 1, 5-9

And now, Israel, listen to the norms and laws which I teach that you may put them into practice. And you will live and enter and take possession of the land which YHVH, the God of your fathers, gives you.

See, as YHVH, my God, ordered me, I am teaching you the norms and the laws that you may put them into practice in the land you are going to enter and have as your own. If you observe and practice them, other peoples will regard you as wise and intelligent. When they come to know of all these laws, they will say, ‘There is no people as wise and as intelligent as this great nation.’

For in truth, is there a nation as great as ours, whose gods are as near to it as YHVH, our God, is to us whenever we call upon Him? And is there a nation as great as ours whose norms and laws are as just as this Law which I give you today?

But be careful and be on your guard. Do not forget these things which your own eyes have seen or let them depart from your heart as long as you live. But on the contrary, teach them to your children and to your children’s children.

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Tuesday, 14 March 2023 : 3rd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us heard from the passages of the Scriptures, the clear reminder and call for all of us to be merciful, kind and forgiving just as the Lord, our God has been merciful, kind and forgiving towards us all. Each one of us should remember the great love and mercy that God has generously shown us, even when we have erred so badly and when we have disobeyed Him time and again. Whenever we come to Him, seeking for His forgiveness and mercy, with a contrite and regretful heart, God is always ready to welcome us back and forgive us, and while He chastised and punished us for our sins, but He did so out of love for us and the desire to see us changed and converted, that we do not allow sin to corrupt and attach itself to us any longer. These are the things that we have been reminded to do this Lenten season, and we should very well heed this call.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Daniel, we heard of the prayer made by Azariah, one of the friends of Daniel who was at that time persecuted upon the orders of the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, who sentenced him and two others, Hananiah and Mishael into a great furnace of fire because of their refusal to bend their knee and worship the great golden idol and statue built by Nebuchadnezzar in his own image. They would have perished if not for God’s intervention, and God sent His Angel to be with them, protecting them from the flames. It was there inside the blazing furnace that Azariah made this heartfelt prayer to God, asking Him to remember His love for His people, to reconcile them to Himself and to forgive them their many sins and mistakes, and to remember the love that He always had for Him.

Azariah highlighted the Covenant that God had made with His beloved people, with their ancestors, and how they had been humbled and truly brought low by their own actions and disobedience, how they had lost everything, and they had been scattered and crushed for their persistent wickedness and evils. Azariah presented before the Lord the face of a people who have regretted their sins and mistakes, and were committed to a path of repentance and atonement. It was henceforth that God rescued His people, beginning with Azariah and his companions, and eventually the rest of the people of God when He moved the heart of the Great King of Persia, Cyrus the Great, after he conquered the Babylonians and freed the Israelites and their descendants, allowing them to return to their homeland after many decades in exile, and to reestablish their cities and towns, as well as the Temple of God in Jerusalem.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the parable of the ungrateful servant, who has been forgiven a great deal of debt towards his master, when he did not do the same with his own fellow servant, who owed him a much smaller sum as compared to what the ungrateful servant owed to the master in the first place. That wicked and ungrateful servant did not show any gratitude or understanding of just how fortunate he has been in being forgiven from his massive debt to his master. He chose to persecute his own fellow servant for a much smaller debt that the latter owed him. This was what angered the master when he found out about what kind of ingratitude and wicked behaviour his servant had done to his fellow man, and as such, that servant had to pay his dues and the prior forgiveness that he received was rescinded from him.

That parable is a reminder for us to remember God’s love and compassionate mercy first of all, as He has forgiven us all our many sins and as He has reached out constantly to us despite us having often disobeyed and abandoned Him for other things in life, for the many distractions and temptations all around us. Each and every one of us have received such great grace and good things from God, just like how the master had shown pity on his servant, forgiving him a massive sum of debt, one that far surpassed the debt which that ungrateful servant refused to forgive his fellow servant. Similarly therefore, we need to ask ourselves and reflect, whether we ourselves are to be blamed for something similar as well. Have we ourselves held grudge or hatred against one another, and refused to forgive others whatever faults and sins that they had done to us?

It is here then that we need to remember that part of the Lord’s prayer in which we say, ‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us’. This means that we have to forgive others first and be kind, compassionate, merciful and forgiving first before we expect to be forgiven our sins by God. That is because, even if we are forgiven our sins, but if we still continue to hate each other, then it is likely that we will still continue to sin, as if we allow hatred, anger, jealousy, greed, pride and all those things to enter into our hearts, they will likely cause us to hurt others, to make the people around us to experience suffering and pain, just as what the ungrateful servant had done to his own fellow servant. If we have not learnt to forgive like how God had forgiven us and loved us, then how can we gain true forgiveness and reconciliation with Him?

Not only that, but how can we claim that we truly belong to God, as His people and children if our actions and way of life are contrary to what the Lord Himself had done for us? Let us recall how God gave us all His own beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as our Saviour and Redeemer, when we have given Him so much hurt and problems, rejecting and abandoning Him, disobeying Him and more. God has done so much for us and yet we still hardened our hearts and minds against Him. That is what happens when we still allow ourselves to be swayed and deluded by the worldly glory, temptations, pleasures and all the things that often lead us down the wrong path in life. Each and every one of us are reminded that we should not be easily pulled by these into the false path of the evil one, and that we should do whatever we can to seek the Lord and His truth, love and mercy.

Let us all therefore strive from now on, especially during this holy and blessed season of Lent, brothers and sisters in Christ, to be exemplary in our faith and way of life that we may inspire many others to follow the Lord as well, and to be the source of hope and strength for all those who are still under the sway of sin and darkness of this world. Let us all do our best as Christian to be faithful to God and to be loving and forgiving in our lives, in our every actions, words and interactions from now on. May God bless us all, in all of our good efforts and endeavours, and may He be with us always in our journey throughout this Lenten season and beyond, and be ever generous with His mercy. Amen.