Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded both of God’s great love and providence, as well as the need for all of us as Christians to embrace, understand and be thankful for all the love, kindness and grace which God has always generously shown us all these times. As we continue to progress through this penitential time and season of Lent, we should not take it for granted that the Lord has constantly and repeatedly shown us His mercy, grace and kindness. We must always centre our lives on the Lord and focus our attention on Him and we must always heed everything which He has told us to do so that by our obedience to His Law and commandments, and by our exemplary way of life, we will be good role models and examples for everyone around us.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Daniel in which we listened to the prayer of Azariah, one of the three friends of Daniel mentioned in the Book of Daniel. At that time, the context was that Azariah together with the other two friends of Daniel, Hananiah and Mishael were persecuted by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, who had built a large golden statue in his own image, and ordered everyone to worship the golden statue, essentially making himself as a god. The three men refused to bow down and worship to that golden statue, remaining steadfast in their belief and faith in God, and hence, risking the anger and the persecution from the king. The king threw all of them into a great burning furnace and made it much hotter as he was angry when Azariah and his friends proclaimed that there is no one that should be worshipped except for the Lord, their God.

It was there, within that burning furnace that Azariah made this prayer of supplication to God, asking for His providence and help for His faithful ones. In that same prayer, Azariah also showed the remorse and repentance on behalf of the people of Israel, the people of God, who had disobeyed Him and His Law, and hence, ended up in the predicament of having to suffer being in exile as what happened to everyone there, scattered and led far away from their homeland, forced to endure exile and humiliation in the foreign lands. Azariah asked the Lord for His mercy and compassion, that He might remember all the love that He has shown to His people throughout time. Despite their many sins and wickedness, God still cared for them and showed them His love and forgiveness, and sent His prophets and messengers to help lead them down the right path.

And God did indeed answer Azariah’s prayer, and their faith in Him brought them protection and deliverance from the harm that should have befallen them. The flames would not harm them, and no matter what, they remained in perfectly safe condition, protected by the Angel that God had sent to them, witnessed by the same king Nebuchadnezzar and all who witnessed the event. God truly showed His love and mercy, His compassion and kindness to His faithful ones, remembering that each and every one of them are truly precious and beloved to Him, and hence He safeguarded and protected Azariah and his peers, showing everyone not just the wonders of His love, but also the mercy and forgiveness that He has shown them.

This is related closely to our Gospel passage today, which was taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew, which was about the parable of the ungrateful servant that the Lord told to His disciples and followers. In that parable, the Lord related the story of a servant who owed a huge sum of money to his master, ten thousand pieces of gold, which was truly an astronomical sum. He could not pay his due and there should have faced consequences and punishments for that. Yet, when he begged for his master to show him leniency and to give him time to settle his debts, not only that the master showed pity and mercy on him, but the master completely erased all of his huge sum of debts. This is a representation of how the Lord, our loving and merciful God, represented by the master, has forgiven us all our many sins and faults towards Him.

Yet, that ungrateful servant immediately went after one of his fellow servants as we heard in that parable, threatening him and refused to forgive or to give chance for the other poor servant to pay his due. Essentially, as the Lord elaborated further, the ungrateful servant did not take pity or show mercy upon his fellow men although he himself had been shown great mercy from the master. That was how he was punished eventually, even more than what he should have had to suffer earlier, because of his lack of gratitude for everything good that had been done for him, and for lacking compassion and mercy for others who were not as fortunate as he was. The master would have expected him to show the same kind of mercy and love for his fellow men, and not to take what graces and blessings he had received for granted.

This is thus a very important reminder for each and every one of us that we must show the same kind of love and mercy, compassion and forgiveness to one another just as the Lord Himself has loved us all first, and just as how He has willingly embraced us and reached out to us, calling upon us to return to Him and to walk in the path of His grace and love once again. Like the master who has forgiven the massive gift of the first, ungrateful servant, we all should be thankful to have been given the chance to repent and to be forgiven from our many and innumerable sins, wickedness and evils, and then, just as the Gospel parable has kindly reminded us to forgive others their sins and faults to us just in the same manner how God has been willing to forgive our far more serious sins and faults towards Him. When the Lord told St. Peter to forgive seventy times seven times, it is not meant to specify how many times we must forgive, but rather, it is a representation of how all of us must forgive always and generously.

Let us all therefore make the best use of this time and period of Lent, this penitential period where we are all called and reminded to return once again towards the Lord, our loving God and Creator. Let us all turn back towards the Lord with hearts and minds that are opened and renewed, with the strong faith and desire to love and serve God. Let us all be more loving and be kinder upon others around us, showing care and compassion to everyone in need around us. Let us all be there for them and let us all help and support each other so that in everything that we say and do, and in our every interactions, hopefully we may grow ever stronger in our faith and commitment, as a people whom God Himself has blessed and made holy. Amen.