2nd Sunday of Lent

by

Monday, 26 February 2024 : 2nd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded through the readings of the Sacred Scriptures of the great love and mercy of God, which He has constantly shown us all throughout time. God has always been faithful and committed to the Covenant which He willingly established and constantly renewed with us, and from time to time, again and again, He has shown us all His love, compassion and mercy, reaching out to us whenever we faltered and fell into the path of sin and darkness, calling upon us to return once again to Him, and to embrace once again the path of His righteousness, virtues and truth. God has always loved us all and while He despises our sins and wickedness, He has always desired to be reconciled and reunited with us, through our repentance and desire to be forgiven from those sins.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Daniel of the prayer and supplication which the prophet Daniel made on behalf of all the people of Israel, many of whom at that time were suffering in exile away from their homeland, having been brought out of the Promised Land and the land of their forefathers by their conquerors, the Assyrians and the Babylonians, who sent them to the far-off lands, to be exiled and humbled, to be reviled and humiliated by the nations, for their sins and evils, their wickedness and failures to obey the Lord’s Law and commandments. They have abandoned the path that the Lord had taught and shown them, and they have rejected the many prophets and messengers sent to them to remind and help them to return to the right and virtuous path.

Thus, as we are all presented in our first reading today, we heard how the prophet Daniel, sent to the people of Israel in exile, who at that time had been humbled and suffered in the foreign lands, enduring persecutions and hardships, and God showed mercy and compassion to them, sending them reassurances and help through the prophet Daniel and all the other messengers and prophets that He sent to them. The Lord wanted all of them to know that He had never abandoned them and that He has always loved them regardless of the sins and wickedness which they had committed. The Lord called on His people to return to Him, and He has opened His hands to welcome all of them to come back to Him. What matters then, is for them all to come towards Him with love and the desire to repent from their sins.

That was why, Daniel represented the people in presenting themselves before the Lord, full of sorrow, regret and desire to repent from their sins and wickedness. While sin might have separated the people of God from Him and His love, but the Lord’s ever generous love and mercy, compassion and kindness to His people have prevailed, and through Him reaching out to His beloved ones, He has extended the ever present and ever enduring mercy, forgiveness and grace to those who have been lost to Him. Daniel brought the people of God to His Presence, and presented all of them with their regret and their willingness to change their way of life to their most loving God and Father. And thus, they have received from Him the assurance of hope, new life and liberation, which God would give to all of them, through none other than His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the words of the Lord Jesus Himself telling His disciples to be merciful just as the Father is and has been merciful to all of them. He told them all that they should all continue to love one another and to be kind, compassionate and merciful, because they themselves have been shown great mercy, love and forgiveness from God. Just as the people of God has always enjoyed the favour and grace that He has bestowed bountifully upon them, and just as the Lord has always extended and renewed the Covenant and promises which He had made with each and every one of them, patiently caring for them, leading and guiding them down the path that He has shown to them, therefore, all of us, as God’s people, must continue to follow this same path of the Lord, in our own respective lives at each and every moments.

Today, as we continue to progress through this time and season of Lent, we should keep in mind that the Lord has called upon us to follow Him, and to embrace once again His kindness, love, forgiveness and grace. Therefore, having received this calling and mission from the Lord, and having been given this time and opportunities during this time of Lent, let us all continue to walk ever more faithfully in God’s path, resisting the temptations of evil and sin, the temptations of worldly glory and pleasures that can distract and lead us astray in our path. We must make good use of these moments, all the time and opportunities provided to us so that we may turn away from the path of evil, darkness and sin, and bringing forth the light of God into our lives so that we may once again be filled with His grace and righteousness.

Let us all be humble before the Lord and admit just how fallen and wicked our way of life has been all these while, and how much we are in need of His grace, love and salvation. Let us all realise that we are all sinners who are corrupted and unworthy, and are in great need of God’s mercy and love, for it is He alone Who can heal us and save us from our sins and evils. It is He alone Who can deliver us from our troubles, and open for us the path to true joy and everlasting life. Unless we realise this and unless we are all humble enough to appreciate and to accept that we are all unworthy people, who have strayed from the path of the Lord, then we may find it difficult to progress ever more in this path of righteousness and virtue. That is why we are all reminded today to continue to walk the path of repentance and righteousness, embracing God and His ever wondrous love and mercy, now and always.

May the Lord, in His ever generous love and infinite mercy, and all the compassion and kindness which He has always shown us, continue to love us all wonderfully and help us in our journey of faith towards Him. May He empower and strengthen us all in our path, so that in our every good efforts and endeavours, we will always do what is pleasing to Him, and that we may grow ever closer to Him, rejecting all the temptations of evil and sin, and becoming ever more worthy and righteous in all of our every words, deeds and actions. May God bless us all, and may He lead us all ever more into His Holy Presence, and bless our Lenten observances and journey. Amen.

by

Monday, 26 February 2024 : 2nd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 6 : 36-38

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not be a judge of others and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you, and you will receive in your sack good measure, pressed down, full and running over. For the measure you give will be the measure you receive back.”

by

Monday, 26 February 2024 : 2nd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 78 : 8, 9, 11, 13

Do not remember against us the sins of our fathers. Let Your compassion hurry to us, for we have been brought very low.

Help us, God, our Saviour, for the glory of Your Name; forgive us for the sake of Your Name.

Listen to the groans of the prisoners; by the strength of Your arm, deliver those doomed to die.

Then we, Your people, the flock of Your pasture, will thank You forever. We will recount Your praise from generation to generation.

by

Monday, 26 February 2024 : 2nd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Daniel 9 : 4b-10

Lord God, great and to be feared, You keep Your covenant and love for those who love You and observe Your commandments. We have sinned, we have not been just, we have been rebels, and have turned away from Your commandments and laws. We have not listened to Your servants, the prophets, who spoke in Your Name to our kings, leaders, fathers and to all the people of the land.

Lord, justice is Yours, but ours is a face full of shame, as it is to this day – we, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the whole of Israel, near and far away, in all the lands where You have dispersed us because of the infidelity we have committed against You. Ours is the shame, o Lord for we, our kings, princes, fathers, have sinned against You.

We hope for pardon and mercy from the Lord, because we have rebelled against Him. We have not listened to the voice of YHVH, our God, or followed the laws which He has given us through His servants, the prophets.

by

Sunday, 25 February 2024 : Second Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday, the Second Sunday of Lent, all of us are presented with the story of the sacrifice and offering of Isaac by Abraham on Mount Moriah as asked by the Lord in our first reading, and then, we heard about how God offered and gave us all His own Beloved and only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, so that He could be the source of our salvation and hope, as elaborated by St. Paul in his Epistle in our second reading. Lastly, we also then heard of the account of the glorious Transfiguration which the Lord Jesus experienced at Mount Tabor, before three of His disciples, which revealed to them and all of us, of the true nature of the Lord, and of His mission henceforth.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis of the moment when God called on Abraham to bring his beloved son, Isaac, the promised one, to Mount Moriah to be offered and sacrificed to God. Isaac was the son whom God had promised to Abraham, which he and his wife, Sarah, would have even though they were unable to have any child beforehand. God had given Isaac miraculously and then suddenly, as we heard, He asked Abraham to offer and sacrifice this same precious son to Him. Yet, despite any sorrow or surprise that Abraham might have experienced, he obeyed the Lord and listened to Him.

We heard how Abraham brought Isaac to Mount Moriah to be offered and sacrificed to the Lord, and he faithfully obeyed the Lord as he has always done, not sparing even his precious son in doing so. The Lord saw all that Abraham had willingly done, and therefore told Abraham later on, that he had been truly faithful to Him, and to the Covenant which he had made with him, that he did not spare even his own son, and faithfully obeyed God in this matter. Thus, God sent an Angel to stop Abraham from sacrificing his son, and a ram to be offered and sacrificed instead of Isaac, on top of that Mount Moriah. Thus, Isaac was spared and protected from harm, while God blessed Abraham and his descendants for the faith which he had shown.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, this place of Mount Moriah would indeed be very important later on, as it would be the site where the great city of Jerusalem would be established and built later on. And it was in Jerusalem, at the same site of Mount Moriah, that the Lord Himself would send us His Son to be offered, sacrificed and broken up for our sake, in parallel to what Abraham and Isaac had experienced many centuries previously. There is a clear parallel between the occurrence in the case of Abraham’s offering of Isaac and the Lord offering His own Son, to be a worthy sacrifice for the sake of the atonement of our many sins. Not only that God had sent to us His Beloved Son, but He also spared us all from certain destruction through the same Son, Our Lord and Saviour.

In his Epistle to the Romans, which is our second reading today, St. Paul the Apostle spoke of how Christ, the Son of God, has redeemed us all by His suffering and death, as He offered Himself as the perfect and most worthy sacrifice for the atonement of our sins, through which all of us are forgiven and made whole once again, reunited and reconciled to God, our loving Father and Creator. God did not spare His own Beloved Son for our sake, in showing His ever strong and enduring love for us, and as the tangible and real example of how He is and has always been faithful to the Covenant that He had established with us all.

In our Gospel passage today, as mentioned, we then heard about the account of the moment when the Lord entioned earlier, we heard of the account of the moment when the Lord was revealed in His Divine Glory to His three disciples, St. Peter, St. James and St. John, at Mount Tabor. It was there that the Lord was Transfigured in glory, as His Divinity that has been hidden in His Humanity shone through, and made it clear that He is truly the Son of God, the Divine Word of God Incarnate, and not just merely the Son of Man or a Prophet. It is also through this revelation that the Lord Jesus has shown us the love of God made flesh, personified and becoming tangible and approachable to us all. He offered on our behalf the perfect offering of His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, on the Altar of His Cross, at Golgotha or Calvary, which was exactly at the same site of Mount Moriah.

Through this great action of selfless love and undying devotion to us, the Lord has brought us all a new hope and a new life, the reassurance of eternal life and glory, which He has promised us all, and which He has ushered through His sacrifice, by which He spared all of us from our fated destruction and damnation, offering us all the sure path to redemption and eternal life, if we adhere to Him, follow His path and obey Him. Through our baptism and initiation into the Church, we have been united to Christ’s death, and died to our past sins and wickedness, and thereafter, brought into the new life and sharing in Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead, representing our liberation from sin and death.

In that same account of the Transfiguration of the Lord, we also heard how the Lord appeared in all His Divine glory with two great figures of the Old Testament, namely Moses and Elijah. This appearance of Moses and Elijah further affirmed the Lord’s status and intentions, in what He was about to do for all of us mankind. Moses represented the Law of God, the Ten Commandments, and all the precepts which God had revealed and taught to us, while Elijah represented the Prophets, those whom the Lord had sent into the midst of His people in order to remind all of them of the need for each and every one of them to turn away from their wicked ways and to embrace once again the path of God, His Law and commandments.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of that shows us that Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, is truly the fulfilment of everything that God has promised to us all, in His ever enduring and wonderful love for us, and in His desire to be reconciled fully with us, and to bring us all back once again to His presence. What God truly wants from us in our faith and love, just as how He Himself has always loved us from the very beginning. Like Abraham, our father in faith, who has shown such great faith in God, all of us should also do the same as well in our own lives. We should always strive to follow the Lord’s path and obey His Law and commandments, resisting the temptations of sin and evil.

Let us all therefore make good use of this time and season of Lent which has been provided for us, so that we may reevaluate our path in life. Let us all remember the great love which God has shown us through His giving of His Son for us, to suffer and die for us on the Cross, so that by His death and glorious Resurrection, He has provided us all with the sure path out of the darkness and evil. Let us all turn away from the path of wickedness and evil, and embrace wholeheartedly from now on, the way of the Lord. May our every actions, words and deeds henceforth be truly filled with faith and commitment to God, and may we become good role models and inspirations for our fellow brethren all around us. Amen.

by

Sunday, 25 February 2024 : Second Sunday of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Mark 9 : 2-10

At that time, six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain. There, His appearance was changed before their eyes. Even His clothes shone, becoming as white as no bleach of this world could make them. Elijah and Moses appeared to them; the two were talking with Jesus.

Then Peter spoke and said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to say; they were overcome with awe. But a cloud formed, covering them in a shadow, and from the cloud came a voice, “This is My Son, the Beloved : listen to Him!”

And suddenly, as they looked around, they no longer saw anyone except Jesus with them. As they came down the mountain, He ordered them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept this to themselves, although they discussed with one another what ‘to rise from the dead’ could mean.

by

Sunday, 25 February 2024 : Second Sunday of Lent (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Romans 8 : 31b-34

If God is with us, who shall be against us? If He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not give us all things with Him? Who shall accuse those chosen by God : He takes away their guilt? Who will dare to condemn them?

Christ, Who died, and better still, rose, and is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us?

by

Sunday, 25 February 2024 : Second Sunday of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 115 : 10 and 15, 16-17, 18-19

I have kept faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted.” It is painful to YHVH to see the death of His faithful.

O YHVH, I am Your servant, truly Your servant, Your handmaid’s son. You have freed me from my bonds. I will offer You a thanksgiving sacrifice; I will call on the Name of YHVH.

I will carry out my vows to YHVH in the presence of His people, in the courts of the House of YHVH, in your midst, o Jerusalem.

by

Sunday, 25 February 2024 : Second Sunday of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Genesis 22 : 1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18

Some time later, God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.” Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I shall point out to you.”

They came to the place to which God had directed them. Abraham then stretched out his hand to seize the knife and slay his son. But the Angel of YHVH called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

And he said, “Here I am.” “Do not lay your hand on the boy; do not harm him, for now I know that you fear God, and you have not held back from Me your only son.” Abraham looked around and saw behind him a ram caught by its horns in a bush. He offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.

And the Angel of YHVH called from heaven a second time. “By Myself I have sworn, it is YHVH Who speaks, because you have done this and not held back your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the land of their enemies. All the nations of the earth will be blessed through your descendants because you have obeyed Me.”

by

Saturday, 11 March 2023 : 2nd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Scriptures reminding us that God’s love and mercy, His kindness and compassion for us are truly boundless and wonderful. God has never abandoned us and has always remembered us despite our frequent rebellion and disobedience against Him. He is still always ever patient despite the many troubles and wickedness that we have committed before Him. He has always been generous with His love and mercy, although at the same time, He still despises our sins and wickedness. He chastised His people, His children with love, and when He punished them, He did so with the intention to be reconciled with us, by helping us to be more disciplined and to be steady in our lives, in resisting the pull of temptations and worldly attachments.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Micah, we heard of the prophet Micah speaking of God’s great love and mercy, reminding the people of God of everything that He had done for them, all the kindness and mercy that He has shown them, in leading them out of their slavery in Egypt, in the care and love He has shown them in each step of the way, even when they had rebelled and disobeyed against Him time and again. God never ceased to love His people. In that passage, the prophet Micah also uttered the prayer on behalf of the people of God, those who sought to be reconciled with God, asking Him to be merciful upon them and to give them His forgiveness and kindness. They had sinned a lot against Him and they had wandered off far away from His path, but that should not have prevented them from coming back to God if they so decided for it.

The prophet Micah himself lived during the reigns of the last kings of the northern kings of Israel and the time of the kings Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of the southern kingdom of Judah according to Biblical and historical evidence. Hence, based on the era and time of his work, we surely can see the dire straits in which the people of God had found themselves in, as Micah lived through the tumultuous years of the final years of the larger, northern part of the Israelites, surrounded and destroyed by the warlike and rampaging Assyrians, who crushed their kingdom and cities, destroyed Samaria and brought of many of the people into exile in far-off lands. The land of Judah in the south did not fare that well either, facing a lot of hardships and struggles, and all these came about because of the repeated stubborn attitude of the people, in persisting upon their rebellious actions and refusal to obey the Lord and His Law.

But that does not mean that God desired or wanted the destruction of His people. On the contrary, just as He has sent the prophet Micah to help remind the people to find their way back to the Lord, and many other prophets to both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, and also afterwards during the years of the Babylonian exile and beyond, God has always patiently cared for them all, for their descendants and everyone that He had loved. He truly desired for all of them to return to Him, penitent and repentant, regretting their sinful ways and wickedness and with the desire to be reconciled with Him and to live once again in His grace and fullness of love. God has given us many avenues and means to reach out to Him and to find His mercy and forgiveness, and He has done so again and again, over all the time, until this very day.

In our Gospel passage today, we are then reminded yet again of this great love and mercy of God with the famous and well-known parable of the prodigal son, in which we heard the story of the prodigal and rebellious younger son of a rich father, who had two sons. That younger son chose to take the portion of his inheritance and leave his family behind, to enjoy a hedonistic and wicked lifestyle in distant, foreign lands, and eventually as we all know, that prodigal son ran out of money and possessions, and ended up as a penniless man in that distant and foreign country, with no one to care for him, and with all of his former friends and associates caring only about the wealth and possessions that he had, and not truly loving him, unlike his father back at home, whom the prodigal son had chosen to leave behind.

We heard how the prodigal son returned to the father with shame and humility, humbling himself and begging himself to be taken back to his house, even if he were to be like one of the servants, as he told his own father that he no longer deserved to call him as his father for everything that he had done. Yet, the father welcomed back the prodigal, rebellious and wicked younger son with great pomp, as he has found him once again, and he saw how this son had repented and regretted his past sins and faults, and hence, by coming back all the way to him, instead of staying on in that distant lands, that son had once again gained the favour of the father, and there was indeed a great joy as the prodigal son was once again part of the father’s family, and this represents just the way that all of us should act in reaching out to God, our most loving Father, Creator and Master.

First of all, just as the prodigal son had a choice of staying on in the distant lands instead of humbling himself and swallowing his pride to return to his home, thus, we also have the option to remain stubborn in our path and way of sin, instead of humbling ourselves to seek God’s forgiveness and compassionate mercy. Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why pride is such a dangerous thing for us, as pride often becomes a great obstacle in our path of seeking God’s forgiveness and grace. Pride has led so many people to their downfall, including Satan himself, and many other of our predecessors, as pride led us to separate ourselves from the love of God, and often prevented us to admit that we have been wrong and are in need of healing and forgiveness from God. Many people steadfastly continued to walk in their wrong paths because they rejected the fact that they were in need of help from God.

Then, if we heard and recalled the action of the elder son, who was angry at the father for welcoming the younger son back, it is also a reminder to all of us not to be judgmental on others just because we think that we are better than them. Like the actions of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law back then during the time of the Lord Jesus, who often thought of themselves as holier and better than everyone else, condemning and being judgmental on those whom they deemed as sinners, unworthy and hopeless in their path towards God, they had closed the door of God’s mercy and kindness to so many of these people whom they could have helped if not for their own pride and arrogance. Again, here we can see how pride can even be the downfall of the righteous, if we allow pride to take over our actions and judgments in life.

Hence, brothers and sisters in Christ, having been reminded of all these and of God’s ever enduring and persistent love for us in this season of Lent, let us all keep in mind what we have been given all these times, the many opportunities and chances for us to turn away from sinful paths and from all the things that had separated us from the fullness of God’s love and grace. During this time of Lent, let us all turn away from our sins and our disobedience from God, and once again discover the love that we all should have for our loving Father and Creator. Let us all humble ourselves before Him, realising just how sinful we have been, and how we are in need of God’s forgiveness and mercy, and resist the temptations of our pride and ego, our greed and ambition, and the many other things that separate us from God and His love. May God help us all in our journey especially during this Lent, that we may come ever closer to Him, now and always. Amen.