Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the Law and commandments which God had given us all His people. The Law and the commandments are meant to be guides on how we should live our lives, and show the people the way to reach salvation in the Lord. He had given us these in order to lead us in our way, so that we will not be lost in the forest of temptations and falsehoods that are aplenty in this world.

It is however still up to us, and we all have a choice whether to follow and obey God’s laws or to follow our own path towards destruction and sin. We have been given free will by the Lord, but more often than not, this free will have been misused or corrupted by the temptations and allure of this world which threaten to lead us away from the path towards salvation and into annihilation.

He has reminded His people with many reminders and warnings, which He made clear through the succession of many prophets and messengers, and many servants who have come one after another to call back the people of God back into His loving embrace, that is to abandon their sinful ways and to turn their back on those sins and embrace instead the way of love of the Lord.

But the people refused to listen and they continued in their sinfulness. They rejected the Lord’s prophets and messengers, persecuting them, torturing them, casting them out of their cities and places, and eventually even killed them. And yet the Lord continued to provide them with opportunities and chances, to the point of fulfilling the promise which He had given them so many years before, in the sending of the Saviour who would save all of the world.

Jesus came as the fulfillment of all God’s promises made to us all throughout the ages. In Him lies the perfect fulfillment of the Law and the prophets. The Law spoke about Him, and the prophets were proclaiming His entry into the world. But by the time of Jesus, the Law and the teachings of the prophets had been so greatly misinterpreted and misappropriated by worldly things that they no longer recognised this fact in Jesus their Lord.

In fact, many of them would refuse the Lord their God when He came, thinking of themselves as better and more reliable arbiters and judges of the fate of the faithful, and of their own fate. They were blinded and deafened by their own pride and human desires which prevented them from seeing their own faults and flaws. As a result, they did not change but instead committed ever more sins in the presence of God and men alike.

Yet, God still wants us all to be saved, despite our rebellions and disobedience against Him. He continues to pour forth His heart and His love to us, but we also have to play our part in this. We have to accept the love and grace of God which He had so generously provided us with. Let us not waste this opportunity given by God to us to repent and change.

Therefore, in this holy season of Lent, we are all called to be better disciples and followers of our God, that is disciples who know how to restrain ourselves, our desires and our wants, our pride and our haughtiness, our human emotions and other things that prevented us from truly expressing our genuine and sincere love for our Lord and God, as well as for our fellow men.

This period of Lent, let us all reaffirm our faith for the Lord, and change our ways profoundly, so that while we were once sinful and disobedient against the Lord, from now on we may walk righteously in the path of the Lord. We hope that we may be justified through our actions, and become righteous and worthy of His salvation. God will reward all those who are faithful to Him, and He will grant them everlasting life. God bless us all. Amen.