3rd Sunday of Lent

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Thursday, 19 March 2020 : Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

2 Samuel 7 : 4-5a, 12-14a, 16

But that very night, YHVH’s word came to Nathan, “Go and tell My servant David, this is what YHVH says : When the time comes for you to rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your son after you, the one born of you and I will make his reign secure. He shall build a house for My Name and I will firmly establish his kingship forever. I will be a Father to him and he shall be My son.”

“Your house and your reign shall last forever before Me, and your throne shall be forever firm.”

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Wednesday, 18 March 2020 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the Lord’s words in the Scriptures, we are reminded that as Christians all of us ought to obey the Lord, listen to Him and follow His ways, and not to be disobedient and sinful, as what we have often done in our lives. The Lord reminds us all that He has given us His laws and precepts, His guidances and directions for us to follow, that we may find our way to Him.

On this day all of us are reminded that all of us are still bound by whatever the Lord has taught and revealed to us, the laws and ways which He has entrusted to the care and stewardship of His Church, in the laws of the Church which have been presented to us, and which we ought to obey as part of our obedience to the divine laws and to the will of God. These laws and commandments are meant to guide our way to walk in the path of God faithfully.

But some people had misunderstood and misused the Law for their own purposes. Some like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law used the Law to advance their own agenda and aims, to be more famous and respected, praised and honoured because of their obedience to the numerous customs and traditions, rules and regulations that while were derived from the Law, but were not part of the original Law itself as revealed by God, or that they misunderstood God’s intentions.

Many also thought wrongly, thinking that the Law was a way for God to restrain us and punish us for our sins, as some thought that the Law was punitive in purpose and use. This is because they looked upon God and saw Him as a fearsome and menacing entity, as One to be feared and to be submitted to, as One Who we cannot disobey or we would end up enduring His wrath and anger. This is why many took the Law and the rules of the Lord wrongly, and obeyed for the wrong reasons in their hearts.

The Lord Jesus came into this world to reveal to us all the true meaning and intention of the Law by which God wants to lead us all to Himself. He revealed how the Law was not meant to make us and our lives difficult or to oppress us with harsh and tough regulations. Rather, what the Lord wants is for us to control ourselves and obey His laws so that we will not be easily overcome and tempted by our desires, ego, and all sorts of worldly concerns we have all around us and within us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why we should reconsider how we have lived our lives thus far, whether we have obeyed God’s laws and if we did obey His laws, whether we have obeyed those laws because we feared God and His anger and retribution, doing it out of fear rather than because we genuinely love God and desired to follow Him and His laws because we really love God and as a result we want to be righteous and good like Him? If we truly love God then surely we will want to make sure that our actions and all of our whole beings are thoroughly attuned to Him.

And that is exactly what we have all been called to do, that we turn ourselves wholeheartedly towards God, Who is in truth very loving and filled with lots of compassion and mercy towards us. But for us to be forgiven, then we need to be open to His mercy and be sincerely repentant of our sins and faults. And today, we should also be inspired to follow the good examples set by one of our holy predecessors, namely that of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, holy servant of God and great defender of the faith.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem was the Bishop of Jerusalem who was remembered for his great faith and dedication to God, giving his life to the service of God despite all the challenges and trials he had to endure from his opponents and rivals, especially from those who professed the heretical Arian beliefs, in opposition to the true and orthodox faith as promulgated in the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. To this extent, he was falsely accused by his enemies of misconduct and impropriety in several occasions. He was accused of selling Church property for his own personal benefits when in truth, he was helping people who were suffering from famine in Jerusalem at that time.

St. Cyril had to endure exile and persecution by those who supported the position of his enemies, particularly those who adhered to the Arian heresy. Nonetheless, St. Cyril remained faithful and committed to the mission entrusted to him, and he did his best to care for the faithful, and became a beacon of steady and unfailing faith for those who remained true to the faith even amidst the challenges from those who upheld erroneous teachings and ways, allowing God to work through him and his actions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to dedicate ourselves to the Lord in the manner that St. Cyril of Jerusalem had with his life? Are we willing to commit ourselves to the Lord anew, especially beginning in this season of Lent, a time of renewal and rejuvenation of our faith. Let us all from now on be obedient to God and follow His laws with renewed purpose and intention, obeying Him not out of fear but out of love, and out of sincere desire to be righteous and worthy of Him, that we distance ourselves from sin and strive to be good in every moments of our lives from now on.

May God be with us all in this journey, and may He strengthen us in the resolve to serve Him and to love Him through obedience, that we may be good examples in faith to our fellow brothers and sisters at all times. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Wednesday, 18 March 2020 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (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, 18 March 2020 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (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, 18 March 2020 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (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, 17 March 2020 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us as we go deeper through the season of Lent, we are called to reflect on God’s forgiveness and mercy, His compassionate love and the wonderful providence and care that He has shown us all, His people, all throughout history. We heard from our first reading today, the prayer of Azariah, one of the three friends of Daniel, the prophet of God at the time of the Babylonian exile, and from the Gospel we heard the Lord’s parable of the unforgiving servant. Through these, God wants us to learn about forgiveness ourselves, that we may forgive our brothers and sisters, despite of the pain and troubles they may have done to us.

In our first reading today, Azariah and his companions prayed to God asking for His help and protection, at the time when the exiles of Israel in Babylon were suffering as they had lost their homeland and their Temple, shamed and suffering the consequences of their disobedience and refusal to obey the Lord. Their ancestors had rejected the many prophets and messengers that were sent in order to remind them to turn away from their sins and embrace once again God’s righteousness and justice.

When the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar ordered all of his subjects to worship a great, golden statue made in the image of himself or to be executed, almost everyone obeyed out of fear for their lives except for the three young men of the exiled Israelites, the three friends, Azariah, Hananiah and Mishael. The three of them remained firm in their faith in God and refused to worship the golden idol which was a direct violation of their faith. They did not fear death and remained faithful as they knew that God would be with them no matter what might happen to them.

Azariah made his prayer to God, showing exactly that faith which he held firmly even when he and his two companions were thrown into a blazing furnace that was made much, much hotter on the orders of the king, who was very angry at the firm faith of the three young men. Azariah trusted in God and asked Him to remember His Covenant with His people, the descendants of His servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the love which He has shown to all of them. And by showing the remorse that all of the people had for their past sinfulness, Azariah hoped that God would spare His people and help them in their hour of need.

God saved the three men from harm, protected them and showed them that He has forgiven His people, as He later would help them and let them all go home to their ancestral lands. And that is what He expect of them all to do as well, to be merciful and forgiving just as He has been merciful and forgiving towards us. And this is reiterated very well in our Gospel passage today, as we heard the Lord speaking to us on the parabloe of the unforgiving servant. In that parable, using the example of a servant who did not follow his master’s good example, God wants to teach us to be merciful and good towards others.

In that parable, the master represents the Lord, our God, Who is the Lord and Master over all of us. Those servants of the master represent all of us mankind, who indeed have been indebted to the master, as those debts represent our sins, with some of us having more and some of us having less, but all of us are sinners nonetheless. And everyone ought to suffer punishments because of those debts, but the master generously forgave the servant who begged to be given more time to pay off his debts. This actually showed just how loving and merciful our God has been to us, that even when we have sinned so greatly against Him, He will still forgive us and love us if we truly mean to repent from our sins.

God has always been kind to us, but it is usually we ourselves who have not appreciated this kindness, and we have often been mean towards our felllow brethren. That was shown in the Gospel parable, as the servant who had been forgiven his relatively immense debt, refused to forgive his fellow servant who had owed him a much smaller sum of debt. This represent how we mankind often ask to be forgiven our sins, but we forget to forgive our fellow brothers and sisters the debts we have made to one another.

We are therefore called to reflect and discern how we can be more loving and forgiving to one another, as we progress through this season of Lent, this time of renewal and rejuvenation of our faith. We are called to be more Christ-like in all of our actions, interactions with each other and deeds. That means, we should learn to forgive each others’ faults, remembering that all of us after all have been forgiven our sins and debts by God, even though they were much more serious than what we have owed one another.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we should focus our attention on one of our holy predecessors, namely St. Patrick of Ireland, the famous patron saint of that island country and many people of Irish descent all around the world. St. Patrick, his faith, dedication and love for God can be a great source of inspiration for all of us in how we live our lives as Christians. For his courage and dedication as a great missionary in Ireland still inspire many of our modern day missionaries and also many among us Christians.

St. Patrick was abducted by Irish pirates at a young age, but he managed to escape slavery and returned to his family. After becoming a priest, his past bitter experiences in Ireland did not prevent him from returning to that same island to spread the Word of God and the message of the Gospels to the islanders who were then still mostly pagan. St. Patrick performed many wonderful miracles and also remembered for his precious teachings to the pagans, many of whom turned to the Christian faith because of him, and he was also appointed the first Bishop in Ireland.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to love the Lord and our fellow men like St. Patrick? He has definitely suffered at the hands of those Irish pirates who brought him to slavery for a good six years or so, and yet, his return to Ireland and his dedication to serve the people of that island showed that he must have forgiven all those who have wronged him earlier on in his life, and instead worked hard to convert them all to the faith in Christ, teaching them about the love, mercy and compassion of God.

Let us all therefore follow in the footsteps of St. Patrick, in how we live our lives with faith from now on. Let us dedicate ourselves to serve God with all of our hearts and our might, and love Him and all of our fellow brothers and sisters with sincere love and compassion, showing mercy and forgiveness to those who wronged us, asking for forgiveness for our own shortcomings and faults, and showing care and love for those who need them. May God bless us all, and may St. Patrick, holy servant of God, intercede for us sinners. Amen.

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Tuesday, 17 March 2020 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 18 : 21-35

At that time, Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times must I forgive the offences of my brother or sister? Seven times?” Jesus answered, “No, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. This story throws light on the kingdom of Heaven : A king decided to settle the accounts of his servants.”

“Among the first was one who owed him ten thousand pieces of gold. As the man could not repay the debt, the king commanded that he be sold as a slave with his wife, his children and all his goods, as repayment. The servant threw himself at the feet of the king and said, ‘Give me time, and I will pay you back everything.'”

“The king took pity on him, and not only set him free, but even cancelled his debt. When the servant left the king’s presence, he met one of his companions, who owed him a hundred pieces of silver. He grabbed him by the neck and almost choked him, shouting, ‘Pay me what you owe!'”

“His companion threw himself at his feet and begged him, ‘Give me time, and I will pay everything.’ The other did not agree, but sent him to prison until he had paid all his debt. Now his fellow servants saw what had happened. They were extremely upset, and so they went and reported everything to their lord.”

“Then the lord summoned his servant and said, ‘Wicked servant, I forgave you all that you owed when you begged me to do so. Were you not bound to have pity on your companion, as I had pity on you?’ The lord was now angry, so he handed his servant over to be punished, until he had paid his whole debt.”

Jesus added, “So will My heavenly Father do with you, unless you sincerely forgive your brothers and sisters.”

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Tuesday, 17 March 2020 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Psalm)

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.

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Tuesday, 17 March 2020 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (First Reading)

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.

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Monday, 16 March 2020 : 3rd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us about the need for us all to be humble and to accept God’s truth and words, to be open to Him pointing out our errors and weaknesses, our faults and imperfections that we do not end up falling further and further into the trap of sin and evil. For the devil certainly wants us to be kept away by our ego and pride, that we end up distancing ourselves from God.

The devil does not want us to be saved, and he would tempt us to be arrogant and prideful as what we heard today in the story of Naaman the Syrian, who went to the land of Israel seeking for healing from the leprosy he had been suffering from. Naaman sought the prophet Elisha, whose renown for healing and miracles were known far and wide even to the kingdom of Aram in today’s Syria where Naaman came from.

At that time, leprosy was a dreaded disease that was thought to be a curse and terrible ailment that not only disfigured a person’s appearance and made him appear terrible, but it also could spread in the community, leading to the people suffering from leprosy being ostracised and rejected, avoided and resented by the rest of the community. That was why Naaman was desperate to have his leprosy healed by Elisha.

But when Naaman sought the prophet Elisha, he was told to wash himself at the River Jordan seven times, and he would be healed. Immediately Naaman hesitated and was held back by his ego. He argued that Elisha should have come to welcome him personally and perform some wonderful actions and gestures, as most wonder or miracle workers were commonly known to do, and he wanted that to be the way he was healed, as it was easy and most importantly, put him in the superior position, and the prophet Elisha as the one acceding to his desire to be healed.

This was exactly where the devil tried to prevent Naaman from finding healing, not just from leprosy but also from his sinfulness and lack of faith, by placing pride, ego and stubbornness in his way. Naaman was proud and he was tempted by his ego to forgo and disobey the instructions given from God through His prophet Elisha. But thankfully, Naaman’s servant reminded him to be humble and to be open to accept the conditions that he had to fulfil in order for him to be healed. As the servant pointed out, it was a very easy thing for him to do, to bathe seven times in the River Jordan.

In the end, Naaman obeyed, humbling himself in obedience to God, by listening to the instructions of Elisha and followed what he had been instructed to do, to the letter. It was through his obedience and humility that he received healing and freedom from his earlier trouble of leprosy. Naaman became a believer and had faith in God from then on, abandoning his pagan beliefs and the pagan ways of his ancestors, in exchange for a new faith in the one and only True God, the same God Who healed him and made him whole once again.

Then now, let us all see the case presented in our Gospel passage today, which was about the time when the Lord Jesus was in His hometown of Nazareth, as He taught among them and performed miracles and healings in thier midst. However, many of the people doubted Him and wondered where Jesus got all of His power and wisdom from, and in fact, they were offended by the face that they knew Him as the Son of a mere village carpenter, St. Joseph, the Lord’s foster-father.

They refused to listen to the Lord or believe in Him because they stubbornly persisted in believing that what they had known earlier about Jesus as the Son of a mere carpenter meant that He could not have attained such power, authority and wisdom. Their prejudices and ego prevented them from having faith as they hardened hearts and minds against God. As such, the Lord could not do much in their midst, and in the end, He left His hometown lamenting for their lack of faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why in this season of Lent, we are all encouraged to remove from ourselves our ego and pride, and our excessive attachment to them. We are called to be more humble and be more open to receive chastisement, reminders and advice from God and His servants, through whom He wants us all to be changed and to follow His ways and not our own ways. We are called to have a deeper and better relationship with God, and the best way is for us to keep ourselves connected to Him through prayer, and to be more charitable and generous in giving and loving one another.

Let us all therefore be more vigilant to keep ourselves from the temptations of pride and desire, the obstacles that the devil has put in place to keep us away from God and His salvation. Let us all be humble and be more willing to walk in the path that the Lord has shown us, obeying Him and all that He has asked and taught us to do, as Christians who believe in God, and who ought to put our trust in Him. May God be with us always, and may He bless us in all of our good endeavours. Amen.