Ash Wednesday Homily

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Monday, 15 February 2016 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the Scripture readings which told us about the Last Judgment, where Jesus told the people about what would happen at the end of time, when the Lord will come again to judge all creation and all mankind, both the living and the dead. And the fate of those who are to be judged, including all of us, will depend on what had been done and what had not been done.

In the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, we heard about how God through Moses His servant, reminded His people of the importance of obeying the Law in their actions and deeds, and not to do things that lead to sin and to disobedience against Him. They were reminded not to commit sinful things before the Lord, such as being oppressive and show injustice to one another.

What we heard about is the reminder God gave His people not to commit the sins of action, namely, the actions that show disobedience to God, such as stealing, murder, jealousy, hatred, adultery and many other forms of wicked things that mankind often do, in disregard of God’s commandments. And indeed, all of us should make sure that we keep ourselves free from such actions, and resist the temptation to do those abominable things and acts.

However, we also have to take note what our Lord Jesus Christ said to the people in the Gospel today. The Lord Himself, the Great Judge revealed to the separated people, the good and the wicked, what He looks for in finding righteousness and worthiness to receive the eternal inheritance and grace He promised to all those whom He deemed to be worthy.

We often forget of the fact and reality that sin is not just about what we have done and committed. And it was not just the bad things we committed that brought us to sin, such as murder, stealing, lust and all the other forms of sins, but also things that we have failed to do, especially if we are fully capable of doing them, and yet we consciously ignore them and choose not to do what we ought to do.

This is the sin of inaction, the sin of apathy and sloth, the sin caused by our refusal to take action and to do something, when it is clearly possible and available for us to do good deeds for the sake of others who are around us. And this is just as bad and wicked as doing something that is vile and detestable before God.

Just imagine how many people have been deprived of good things, or have suffered because of our refusal to act, because of our ignorance and apathy. Imagine that in this world itself, if there are just more people who would share their blessings with each other, and care for those who have little or none, then there would be so much fewer cases of hunger, sickness, death and all the things that inflict the poor and the destitute among us.

We mankind have been given the capacity by God, through the blessings He had granted us, through the gifts and talents He had given to us, and through the opportunities that He had laid on our path, to be light, shepherds, and guide to our brethren, helping one another in their earthly lives, and guiding one another on our path together to reach out to the Lord our God.

If we do not do what the Lord had commanded us to do, and which He reminded us all yet again in today’s readings, then we can have no part in His inheritance, and that is why those who have failed to do as the Lord had taught us to do, failing to love, to care, to give our love to the poor and to the less fortunate, shall suffer the fate of those whom God had rejected and cast out from His presence into the eternal damnation.

Let us all therefore, during this season of Lent, make use of the opportunities which have been given to us, so that we may become ever more committed to become faithful servants of God, not just in mere words alone, but also through real and concrete actions. May the Lord our God strengthen the faith in each one of us, and awaken in us the strong desire to be courageous in standing up to our faith through action and good works, especially in this time of Lent. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 14 February 2016 : First Sunday of Advent, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate our first Sunday in the season of Lent, we always hear about the temptation of Jesus Christ our Lord in the desert by the devil, who tried to tempt Him three times without avail, and who then retreated, trying to undermine the works of the Lord in another way. This temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ is tied closely to our own observation of this Lenten period, and also to the history of our faith.

Mankind, ever since the days of Adam and Eve, our forebears and ancestors, had been afflicted with the disease of sin, as Satan managed to tempt them to disobey the Lord and by making use of our human desires to subvert us and to turn us against God, by disobeying His commandments, and by selfishly giving in to our desires. Satan had many weapons, and his greatest one is our pride, our greed and our insatiable desire to fulfil ourselves and our wants.

In the Gospel, as we heard about Jesus being tempted three times, we are heeded to take note of our weaknesses, and our vulnerabilities, which Satan and his agents can easily take advantage of, in their attempt to destroy us and bring us into the eternal darkness with them. First of all, is the temptation of our stomach, the needs and wants of our body, our flesh, the temptation of food and greed.

We all know that all living things require food in order to continue living and to survive, and without food we will eventually die of starvation and hunger. But we should also be aware of the distinction and the growing gap between the rich and the poor in our world today. All of us are indeed aware, and we should have indeed heard about how many of the poor people in places and parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and even in the developed countries and regions, who had not enough food even to sustain themselves, less still for their children and for their families.

And yet, we also know that there are many excesses that people in our time today had committed, squandering much money and wealth in pursuit of good food and good lifestyle, a lifestyle of hedonism and excess, where a lot of waste and a lot of injustice are being done to those who have little or even none for themselves, even to keep themselves alive. And yet, there are those who rejoice, revel at themselves and feast on top of the suffering of others.

This Lent, we are fasting because we ought to resist the temptation of our flesh. Our human needs and wants is such that, hunger and starvation can lead men to hurt or even kill one another, in order to get what we need and want. If we do not restrain ourselves, then surely we shall fall into the deep trap of sin that Satan has prepared for us. Thus, let us heed what Jesus said, that we do not live on bread or food alone, as these give us just what we need in this earthly life, but we should put our trust in the word of God, our true sustenance, for it is through the Word that we can find our way to salvation.

But we have to be careful, lest the devil used our lack of understanding of God’s words in order to deceive us and tempt us further. We saw how the devil was trying to use the verses from the Scriptures to tempt Jesus to show Himself to the people, by jumping off from the pinnacle of the Temple. Indeed, the verse meant that God will protect His people, and He will send His Angels to protect us from harm, but if we test God and try to see if He really will protect us, that means we have no faith in Him.

And the second temptation was also the temptation of pride, for we mankind are all inherently vulnerable to this trait, the pride and haughtiness in each and everyone of us. We see in many people, the desire to be recognised and to be praised, so that someone will praise us and recognise us for what we have done. But at times, we can be so desperate or our desire for such things may be so great, in the end, we lose sight and focus on what we ought to do, and again, we bring harm to others.

We see how people fight and jostle with one another, either with cunning, or trickery, with words of mouth, or even through physical violence, just so that they can have an edge over another people, and gain what they desire, that is power, honour, glory, fame and many others. And this is what the devil tried to tempt Jesu with, in his third attempt, as he brought Him to the highest mountain, offering all the kingdoms of the earth if Jesus would only worship him as lord.

But Jesus was not swayed, and He was not tempted. He knew that power, human praise, fame and glory, all forms of other temptations in the world were superficial and illusory in nature. They do not give lasting satisfaction and happiness, which can only be truly found in God alone. Power in particular is very dangerous, as the saying goes, that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

This means that if we allow ourselves to be tempted, and to seek more things for ourselves, in power and all the goods the world is offering us, then we will only get ourselves dragged deeper and deeper into the darkness, and we will never be satisfied ourselves. We should already know that, it is our tendency that once we have something that we desire, we tend to desire even more.

And this is why we abstain, and do penitential works, during this season of Lent. It was not just a mere obligation or something we have to do as part of our observation of the laws of the Church and the faith. If we look at it as that, then our focus is wrong, and what we have done will avail little at helping us to strive for God’s salvation.

Instead, we have to do what we must do in this period of Lent with proper understanding and with good faith, so that whatever we do, we do it because of our love for the Lord, and the deep and burning desire in our hearts to be cleansed of our sins and wickedness, and the desire to reject Satan and all of his lies, and be freed from our enslavement to our pride, to our greed and all forms of the temptations of the flesh and the heart.

Let us all follow our Lord Jesus’ examples, resisting the devil and all of his temptations, and through our actions during this time of Lent, let us all grow stronger in faith, and spiritually, so that we will grow more capable of resisting the advances of evil and all of its forces in the time to come. Let us all love one another, giving alms and helping those who are less fortunate than us during this time, sharing whatever goods, food or care that we have, so that all of us will be able to live comfortably and harmoniously in this world.

May Almighty God bless us and forgive us our sins, and may this season of Lent be a fruitful one in the salvation of our souls. Amen.

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Saturday, 13 February 2016 : Saturday after Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all presented with God Who loves us all mankind, all sinners and unworthy before Him, and yet, He decided to pick us up, and bring us from the darkness where we were lost in, and bring us back into the light with Him. He went forth into this world, looking for sinners and all those who have been afflicted by the sickness of sin.

Yes, sin is a disease, as I have often mentioned, that it strikes at the depth of our soul, afflicting everything from our mind, our hearts and our bodies, ending up corrupting our beings, that in such a state, we are not worthy of the Lord, because we have been defiled by the sins that we committed, by the slander that we have uttered, and by the disobedience and betrayal which we have done against the Lord our God.

But lest all of us should be dismayed or lose our hope in despair, let us all know that despite all of our sins, and despite the fact that God despises all forms of sins, which are abominations and wicked things before Him, but His love for us is even greater than all that. And this is why He was willing to show mercy to us, even to the greatest of sinners, seeking them out and bringing them out of darkness.

We should heed how Jesus called Levi, the tax collector, whom He called from his tax office, and Levi indeed heeded the call, leaving everything behind, his occupation, his money, career, family and all that he had, and followed God from then on. And from then on, he served God faithfully, and became whom we know as St. Matthew, the Apostle and Evangelist, the writer of one of the four Holy Gospels through which we would come to know the truth of our Lord.

And in another occasion, I am sure that we would have heard about how Jesus our Lord also healed and cast out demons from the woman who had seven demons in her, who then left everything behind in order to follow Him. It was believed that St. Mary Magdalene, the faithful woman who followed Jesus, and to whom He first showed Himself after His resurrection, was this woman.

And there are many other occasions where Jesus healed people who were sick, possessed by demons and filled with sin, exhorting and reminding them not to sin again, and urged them to henceforth walk in the path of the Lord. And many of these people were to later on suffer persecution in the Name of the Lord, and dying in the defence of their faith.

We can see through all these, how even saints themselves were once sinners, just as we have sinned against God. No one was born perfect, and all of us, in one way or another, have committed errors, be it big or small, before the Lord our God. But what differentiates those who were condemned and those who received the glory of heaven in sainthood, is that the action of those who have received God’s glory have justified them.

And this action is that, they chose righteousness and justice over sin, over wickedness, and selflessness over selfishness. They have turned their backs to sin, and they abandoned all the past mistakes that they had done, and turned completely to the Lord their God, and from then on, doing only what was pleasing to God. Then, we too should indeed follow in their footsteps and be inspired by what they have done.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore today renew our commitment to God, and in all of our ways, let us all be ever closer to Him and obey Him in all of our dealings and actions. Let us in this period of Lent, turn ourselves away from evil and wickedness, and open the doors of our heart to the works of mercy and to the love of our God. May God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Friday, 12 February 2016 : Friday after Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the matter of fasting and abstinence, which are what we are required to do throughout this season of Lent. In the first reading and the Gospel we heard about the kind of fasting that the Lord does not want from us, and what He truly wanted from us, that is fast that comes from the heart, and fast and abstinence done with good faith and intention.

As we heard in the first reading today from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah spoke about how many people were hypocrites in their faith, and how these people did not understand their faith appropriately, and how they fulfilled the commandments of the Law on one hand, but then at the same time, also contradicted the same commandments with their actions, filled with sins and unworthiness.

This is to remind us that we cannot believe in the Lord with mere empty faith, or believing just on the surface, or doing things for the sake of appearances, as people have done in the past, just so that they could be praised for their supposed faith and receive worldly approval and acceptance for doing so. Those who fast and abstain, or fulfil God’s commands simply because they thought that they had to do them, were not doing what God wanted from them.

In the Gospel, we heard how the disciples of John the Baptist, and also the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law on another, separate occasion often harassed Jesus and His disciples, and ridiculed them for not having obeyed the commandments of the Law as they had, because they did not fast, and they did not wash their hands properly in accordance with the laws of Moses. And for these reasons, the disciples of John and the Pharisees looked down on Jesus and His disciples.

But did they themselves know what they are fasting for? Many of them fasted because they were told to do so, or that they were told that the laws of Moses told them to do so, and if they did not obey them, then punishment would await them, or that they would not be able to remain a disciple or a follower. But they did not understand what they are doing all that for.

Are we like that, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we doing things without proper understanding and faith? If we do so, then we are not doing ourselves a good service, and this great time and opportunity of Lent will be lost and wasted. Fasting and abstinence should not be done just for the sake of satisfying the Law of God or be seen as an obligation to be fulfilled. Rather, they should be the tools to help us on our way as we seek God’s salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all in this time of Lent, as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the glorious time of Easter and rejoice, let us all be properly attuned and aligned to God, understanding that our fasting is meant to restrain ourselves, and to rein in our greed and desire, so that these will not lead us into harm and into the wrong paths, and our abstinence will further strengthen our resolve to reject all that is evil and wicked, and seek what is good in God.

May we commit ourselves anew in this season of Lent, committing ourselves to a renewed faith in God, and to rediscover the love which we ought to have for the Lord our God, and may our fast and abstinence be fruitful, in helping us to persevere against the temptations of the evil one, that we may all reject his false promises. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 11 February 2016 : Thursday after Ash Wednesday, Memorial of our Lady of Lourdes (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of our Lady of Lourdes, based on the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord and God, in the grotto of Lourdes in southern France to the young woman, now St. Bernadette Soubirous about a century and a half ago. Our Lady appeared to her, stating on the need for mankind to repent from their sins and to be reconciled to the Lord their God.

On that blessed and glorious occasion, our Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord and Saviour appeared to St. Bernadette to deliver the reminder and the message to mankind, so that we the people who have long been immersed in the darkness of this world, and who have been tainted for long by the taint and corruption of sin, the sickness and disease of the flesh and the soul may be brought to healing in God through His blessed mother.

Our Lady of Lourdes appeared to St. Bernadette on one of her series of apparitions there to her, asking her to dig up a spot on the ground that she had pointed out to her, and from the ground sprang forth a spring of clear water that gushed out forth, and this water is now known by many as the water of the grotto and spring of Lourdes, which is held to have curative and healing properties, and year after year, month after month and day after day, many sick people and people seeking spiritual healing came flocking to Lourdes on pilgrimages.

But we have to be careful lest we think of these as amulets or idols through which we can gain healing or fulfilment, as all these are nothing more than means through which the Lord brought about healing on all of us mankind. And why do we need healing, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we sick or something has happened to us? Are we not healthy, those among us who have no afflictions at all?

Today we commemorate the day of prayer for all the sick, where we commit the petitions for the healing of our body, our mind, heart and soul from all the afflictions, diseases and disabilities that had assailed us. And what are these sickness? We may be thinking only in the terms of the health issues that afflict many of us, such as cancers, diabetes, asthma, allergies and all of these problems, but we cannot forget that each and every one of us, even the healthy ones in the body are afflicted.

And what is this affliction? It is the most dangerous of all of them, that is the affliction of sin. Ever since mankind disobeyed God, sin had entered their heart, and because of sin, our souls had been tainted and corrupted, and the corruption of sin prevented us from being truly reunited with God, for sin is evil and wicked, and there can be no evil or wickedness before God.

And sin if not checked or purified from us, will become a great hurdle, a great obstacle on our path to reach out to the Lord, as it is difficult to resist the temptation to sin, and if we continue to live in the state of sin, the more difficult it is for us to escape its grip. But we do not have to worry, since our Lord Himself had provided the path for us to get to Him and escape from the threat of sin and death.

In the Scripture readings today we are all reminded of the choice we have, the choice between righteousness and wickedness, the choice between good or evil, the choice between hope and despair, the choice between light and darkness, the choice between humility and pride, the choice between temperance and greed, and ultimately, between God and ourselves, and between God and the devil.

God has shown us His mercy and His ways, and He has revealed His path and truths, and taught them to us through His Apostles, who passed down the words and teachings of our Lord Jesus through His Church, and now we all who belong to God’s Church are called to recall His goodness and mercy, and even more importantly, to remember what He had said in the Gospel today.

What is it, brothers and sisters in Christ? Jesus said that all those who are faithful to Him must take up their crosses and follow Him. If we do not take up our crosses and follow Him, then we are not His true disciples, and we cannot have any part in Him. To follow the Lord and to be a faithful Christian requires effort and the understanding that our path will not be an easy one. The world has always been against Christ, and it will be against us too.

Therefore, on this day, let us all renew our commitment to the Lord, and through the help of His blessed mother Mary, our Lady of Lourdes, may all of us find healing in Him, and through our hard works and efforts in faith, carrying and bearing our crosses in life, and through righteousness may we be healed from our afflictions, of sin and wickedness, that God will find us worthy and bless us forevermore. God bless us, now and forever. Amen.

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Wednesday, 10 February 2016 : Ash Wedneday, Memorial of St. Scholastica, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we begin the season of Lent, the time of preparation before the great and glorious celebrations of Easter, a time for repentance, for forgiveness, and when the faithful and the whole Church unite together in fasting and abstinence, to remind ourselves that we are all sinners, unworthy and had been tainted by our disobedience against God.

The ashes today symbolised the nature of our sins, and how small we are before God, despite all of our greatness, our achievements, our talents and all the things we have accomplished and all the properties and goods we possess in this world. Remember the words of the priest, as he places the ashes on our foreheads or on our heads, that we are all man, mortal and sinners, and from dust we have come, and so to dust we shall return.

Ashes has been used since a long time ago, and also by the people of Israel as a sign of penitential intention, the desire of one to repent from one’s mistakes, as a symbol of humility and of unworthiness one feels because of one’s actions and misdeeds. And today the ashes we receive came from the palm branches used in the last year’s Palm Sunday celebration, which we also use for the same purpose, that is to remind us all that we are all penitents, all sinners seeking God’s ever loving mercy.

In the first reading today, we heard the prophet Joel who called the people of God to repent from their sins, casting aside their sinful ways and to repent before God, making a genuine change in their lives, and therefore receive the forgiveness from God, and a time of mercy when God would reunite all His people to Himself. Through the prophet Joel, we are reminded that God is compassionate and willing to forgive those who have sinned against Him.

And we must have heard about the prophet Jonah, who was sent to the city of Nineveh and its people, the capital of the mighty Assyrian Empire, to bring the words of the Lord that the city and all of its people would be destroyed because of their sins and their iniquities. And even though it was not mentioned what their sins were, but it was likely to be pagan gods, debauched lifestyle, and all the sins that the mighty Assyrians had done, in killing and causing harm to others.

And we heard how the people of Nineveh, all from the king to the lowest servants and people, all immediately stopped in their track, and they repented before God, regretting their wicked ways and asking for God to spare them the destruction and the punishment which He had intended for them. And God Who saw their sincere repentance, withheld His anger and showed His mercy to them, sparing them from the destruction which should have come their way.

In this, we see how God is loving and merciful to all of His people, even to the pagans and sinners. What is important however, is that this requires great effort and work in order for this to come into effect. Indeed, God offers His mercy generously and freely to all sinners and to all those who have wandered away from His path. But those to whom mercy had been shown, have they accepted God’s offer of mercy and have they done something to show their acceptance in sincerity?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in these days, as we often talk about mercy, and indeed, in this year, during this special Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, many of us often have a misconception about mercy and forgiveness. And there are even those who have espoused the thoughts that God’s mercy requires no effort from those to whom mercy have been shown, or that we should show mercy to others without requiring the other party to change their way or do something about their faults.

No, this kind of mercy is false mercy, and it is not what today’s Ash Wednesday celebration is about. For true mercy requires us indeed to show genuine mercy that is accompanied with the demand for sincere and genuine effort from the penitents to change their ways, sin no more and follow the Lord with all of their heart and might from now on.

Do we remember what Jesus did with the woman who was caught by the Pharisees and the elders having committed adultery with another man than her husband? In that, we heard how Jesus confronted those who desired to see her dead and those who wanted to stone her, by reminding them Himself, that as fellow sinners, for all of us have sinned be it in small or great degree, they have no right to judge others on their sins, and only God truly have the right for judgment.

But Jesus also said to the woman to sin no more and urged her to follow God’s path from then on. He did not let the woman go on with her old life and with her adulterous ways, but He showed her, and also all of us, that while we cannot be judgemental and condemning upon those who have sinned, but not doing anything to bring sinners back into the light of God is also something that is very wrong.

This is why, this season of Lent is the perfect time and opportunity for all of us, the reminder that we are all sinners who have committed sin before God, and how God wants to show us His mercy and love, but many of us remained adamant in our sinful ways, and how some can be obstinate and how they can turn a deaf ear against God’s loving mercy.

This is the time for us, to help one another to seek God’s mercy and to accept His offer of mercy with the sincerity from the heart. It is our duty and obligation, brothers and sisters in Christ, to bring one another closer to the throne of our Lord’s great mercy, and to inspire one another in seeking and having genuine repentance, turning away from all of our sins, abandoning all the sinful ways we have done, and beginning a new life blessed by God.

And the Church is helping us to do this, by providing us with this time and opportunity of Lent, to prepare ourselves, body, mind, heart and soul as we head towards Easter, the season of joy and renewal. And this is why we also fast and abstain during the time of Lent, to discipline ourselves, our bodies and minds, from the temptations of the evil one, and to genuinely seek the salvation of our God through our good works and efforts in faith.

We fast on this day, to remind our bodies, that desire and greed lead us to nowhere. And rather than seeking earthly and worldly pleasures, which is temporary and preventing us to find true joy, we should restrain ourselves and use the opportunity to find the way to reach out to God, to repent from our sins and change our ways. And this is why we also abstain from the bad things that we often do as well, to remind us that while sin and sinful things may seem to be good, but they lead us nowhere else but condemnation and hell.

And as Jesus said in the Gospel today, this day is not a day of gloom and sorrow, for we indeed do not fast or abstain to gain man’s approval. It is also not to show off our own abilities and greatness. Instead, this day should be a day of great joy, but tempered with the understanding and the desire for all of us to change our ways for the better, that indeed, God had been merciful to us, and because of that, we are saved.

Therefore, let us not be gloomy today, and let us not be shy to wear the ashes on our heads. Today is the day when our faith truly goes to the open, where everyone can see the sign of the ashes on our forehead or on our heads. Wear the ashes with joy, and with the understanding that the time of mercy has come. And let us not scandalise the Lord and our faith, that in our actions today and from now on should show our sincere efforts to be forgiven from our sins. Otherwise, we will be hypocrites, and there is no place for hypocrites save for hell.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us change our ways of old, our sinfulness and wickedness. Let us all change ourselves for the better and get rid of our past unworthiness, all the darkness that had covered the true light inside each and every one of us. Let us show the faith and love we have for God, and let us all go forth in being good disciples and followers of our Lord, preaching His Good News through our efforts and deeds wherever we are.

May God bless our observation of Lent, that it will be a great time of renewal for us all, and may He ever strengthen the desire in our heart to love Him and to be forgiven of our sinfulness. God be with us all, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 28 March 2015 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard in the Holy Scriptures about the arrogance and selfishness of men, and on the contrary, how God is ever loving and forgiving, showing His mercy and love ever upon us all. As we embark upon the celebrations of the Holy Week starting tomorrow, we have to come to realise that for many times in our life, it is our selfishness and stubbornness that have brought about our downfall.

The people of Israel were torn into two peoples, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, because of the selfishness that grew in the heart of Solomon, the great king of Israel, as he grew older and became enamoured and occupied by his great wealth and by his many wives. And therefore by his stubbornness and refusal to listen to the Lord, calamity befell the people of God.

And as had been proven many times throughout the Old Testament, and even into the New Testament, the people of God had displayed selfish attitudes so many times so as to suggest that it is in their nature to be selfish, and indeed we mankind are all by nature selfish. And it is this selfishness that led Israel to constantly rebel against the will of God and disobey His commandments.

The Israelites constantly complained against the Lord and refused to listen to Him, demanding for more and more during their journey towards the Promised Land from Egypt, because of their inability to look beyond themselves. Each of them were only concerned about themselves and not for others, and definitely for the Lord. And this is despite the fact that God had given them abundance of food, large birds and others, even manna, the bread from heaven itself, and abundance of clear and clean water to drink in the midst of the desert.

And for many times, the kings of Israel did not give glory to God, but seek for their own glory and honour. They did not care about the Lord and His precepts, and in their rule, they mistreated the people and abused their power, and at the same time they misled the people into sin, into treating the prophets and the messengers of God badly, rejecting them and murdering them for having spoken the truth about their wickedness.

This is exactly the same resistance which Jesus had encountered when He came into the world, being rejected by His own people, His own townspeople of Nazareth, and by the Pharisees, the elders and the chief priests. They refused to listen to Him and they viewed Him as a threat to their own authority, to their own sphere of influence, and most importantly, to their own way of life as they had it.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, those people rejected the Lord because they thought first of themselves, as made clear by the elders themselves in our Gospel today, when they spoke of how Jesus and His actions would bring calamity and disaster to them, and to all that they held dear in their livelihood, as the Romans would come and destroy the Holy Temple and the Jewish nation.

Thus, to them the Temple and earthly things such as power, influence and nationhood is more important than honouring the Lord? They were interested only in furthering their own interests and advancing their own cause. This is why in their heart the Lord did not have any place at all, which is filled with their hubris and their pride. This is what our Lord had warned against, so that we will not follow in their path towards doom and annihilation.

Let us all reevaluate our lives and seek to be better in terms of our attitudes and our approach in life. We have to realise our sinfulness and how we can change for the better. What is at stake is none other than our own souls, our own fate. Do we want to enjoy for a while the pleasures of this world and risk our souls into eternal suffering? Or do we want to endure difficulties a bit, and then receive our eternal reward in joy?

May Almighty God guide us on our path, so that we may find our way to Him and be saved from the darkness of this world and turned to the light. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 27 March 2015 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are drawing ever closer to the end of Lent and the celebrations of the Holy Week, when we will be commemorating the most important events of our faith. It is therefore important that we have made the best use out of this time of Lent to prepare ourselves in our body, heart and mind to celebrate together the great celebration of next week and that of Easter.

All of this boils down to one thing, that we have to know what our faith is about, and in what we believe that is our faith. We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, whom God begotten from Himself before all ages, and who is part of the Divine Lord, one of the Three Divine Persons of the singular God. That means, we believe in Jesus who is God, and who is also Man at the same time, having assumed the flesh of man, in order to bring about our salvation.

For indeed, there is only One God, and it is to Him that we dedicate all of our beings and all of our devotions. However, we know that by faith, that the Lord is working at all times in order to bring about good to this world and to all of His creations, especially for all of us mankind, His most beloved people. And thus, while the Father creates and governs all of creation, and the Holy Spirit is the driving force behind all things and the source of life, thus, the Son is the most intimate and direct manifestation of God, for He took the form of us all, and became visible to us, as God made Man.

God that was once beyond all things and beyond comprehension had made Himself visible to all, comprehensible and tangible, through Jesus Christ, who was sent into the world, so that all the world might be saved, including all of us today. By taking our own form, and by His showing of perfect obedience as the Son, who is obedient of the Father, He had shown us all mankind a new hope. Yes, a new hope that we have the chance and opportunity to free ourselves from the bonds of sin.

Jesus showed us all the way to reach out to the Lord and to find our way to our salvation, that is by following what Jesus had done, and by listening to what He had taught us and by acting according to what He had said. It is because of our rebelliousness that we have been estranged from receiving the fullness of God’s grace and promise, and so it is by the obedience of Christ that we have been brought to salvation.

St. Paul stated in one of his letters that just as the first Adam had fallen from grace by his disobedience, therefore, the New Adam, that is Christ had redeemed mankind by His own obedience to the Lord, to the will of His Father. On this day, as we reflect on the words of the Holy Scriptures, we all should also reflect on how Christ had lived His earthly life, so that we may also emulate what He had done.

He faced such a great challenge and suffering awaiting Him, and He knew all that would happen to Him. And yet, although He was tempted by His human nature, but He remained completely resolute in His desire to save all of us. Such great was His love for all of us indeed. He persevered through all of the evils and sufferings, all the humiliations and rejections so that we do not have to go through all of them if we indeed fall into hell. He gave us a new chance, a new opportunity in life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all not waste this perfect opportunity which had been given to us. We have to take this opportunity and make best use out of it, so that we may be changed and transformed, from a people controlled by our pride and our desires, to become faithful and obedient people of God, following the footsteps of our Lord Himself who had shown us the way.

Indeed, the path would not be easy, and just as Jesus Himself had suffered, we also would suffer as well. There will be plenty of challenges and difficulties awaiting us along the way, and we will be rejected by the world, but we can be assured that our reward will be great beyond compare. Let us therefore look up to the hope which our God had offered us, and let us be grateful for all that He had done for us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 26 March 2015 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the covenant which God had established with Abraham, the father of many nations and our father in faith. God made the promise which He fulfilled to Abraham, and God never did for once abandon the faithfulness which He had shown since the very first moment He interacted with us. It is always us who have always reneged on our promises and broken our relationship with our Lord.

And God made real, complete and perfect the covenant which He had established by sending His own Son, Jesus, into the world, so that through Him God may make a people who had been lost in the darkness to find their way once again to the Lord. This is what God had wanted to happen with us, and this is also what we all have been awaiting for.

But many of us became lost in our search for the Lord, and our purpose became corrupted, that we lost our sight on the Lord and instead we begin to give in to our human desires and emotions. They were too indignant in their ways and hardened their hearts such that no matter what the Lord had wanted to tell them, they refused to listen to reason.

And with regards to Abraham, who is the father and progenitor of many nations, the people of Israel, the Jews of Jesus’ time had grown to be exclusivist and elitist, in a sense that they thought of themselves as the only ones worthy of God’s grace and salvation, by the fact that they were the direct descendants of Abraham, and thus they thought of themselves as sole heirs of God’s covenant with Abraham.

But Jesus Himself mentioned in another related event to the one in today’s Gospel, that God could easily raise sons and children for Abraham from even rocks and stones. This means that being the children of Abraham alone did not mean anything for us as long as we do not do something to show that we truly deserve to be called the children of Abraham, our father in faith.

Ever since sin entered into the hearts of men, we have been estranged and separated from the love of our God, and from His presence. And as long as this is the case for us, there is no hope for us all. And that was why God sent us Jesus, as the fulfillment of His long awaited promise, and the proof of how God was faithful to His covenant with us. Through Jesus, our eyes and senses were opened, and we receive the fullness of God’s truth.

And that truth is that God loves us, and He wants us to be converted and changed from our sinful ways. He wants us to break free from the trap of our pride and arrogance, from the lures of our desires and greed, so that we may come to the realisation of our sinful nature, so that we would also not be like the people of Israel, who closed their hearts against the Lord’s call through Jesus our Lord, as they were deep in their pride and in their desires.

This Lent is a time for us, the perfect time for us to look deep into ourselves and reflect on our own actions. It is a time for us to take action and make a difference in our own lives. Let us all heed our Lord’s call and be genuine in our love and devotion to Him, and let us answer His call to mercy and forgiveness. Let us all influence one another and help each other that we may all draw ever closer to His forgiveness. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 25 March 2015 : Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate a very great feast day of the Church, commemorating nine months before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, the moment when our Lord Jesus was conceived, and when the Divine Word and Son of God was incarnate into flesh, and assumed the form of Man through the intermediary of His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who played a key role in today’s celebrations.

On this day, we commemorate also that day when the Archangel Gabriel came to the small, poor and humble village of Nazareth in Galilee, to break the news regarding the end of the long wait for the coming of the Lord’s Promised Messiah, the Good News announced to the world through Mary. And thus, the Feast is called the Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord, because on that day, His arrival and entry into the world was first announced.

And today, the theme of our Scripture readings is obedience, and obedience that entails true and genuine desire to obey the will of God and to listen to what the Lord wants from us. In the past, people used to observe the Law and obey all of its commandments in great detail, even to the details of what kind of animals should be sacrificed for a certain purpose, and that by doing so, the people thought that they were devout and pious in the eyes of the Lord.

Unfortunately, such devotions, while necessary and good, but if they are not based upon good and strong foundations, as well as upon good understanding of the will of God, then it is very easy for us to be misled and to lose the meaning of what we are doing for our faith. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law did exactly that, as were so many people even in the Church for many years.

They were focused on the wrong thing, and they thought that by doing all of the complicated and various rituals, they had fulfilled what God had wanted. They thought that by imposing strict discipline on the faith and by enforcing the punishment which the laws of Moses stated as should be done to certain kinds of sinners, they had brought joy the Lord. But the fact is, that they were sorely mistaken.

How does all these relate to the event of the Annunciation of our Lord? This is because we have been wayward and lost our way so many times that our Lord Himself had willingly decided to come down Himself in order to save us from destruction. He has promised this salvation ever since the beginning of time, at the time when our first ancestors fell into sin.

If we take note of what took place then, we would realise that God had promised mankind that He will make the Woman crush the head of the snake, even while the snake bites on the heels of the child. All these represent what has happened to us all mankind, and what God had done about that. The snake is the devil and all of his devices, sin and wickedness, all of which are threatening to destroy the children of God that is all of us.

But the Lord did not let Satan to have his way with us freely as he wanted it. He gave us all a hope, since that time, and which He constantly renewed through the prophets and His messengers, the hope for salvation which was to come. He never abandoned those whom He loved so dearly. It is often we are the ones who abandoned Him first. He is ever faithful and ever loving.

Thus after a long wait, today we heard about how made that promise to come to the perfect fulfillment through Jesus, who came into the world in order to save it. It is what the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord is all about, that is the announcing of the great Good News of our Lord’s salvation in Jesus to the whole world through the Archangel Gabriel, who revealed it to the world through Mary, the Mother of our Lord. She is the Woman through whom the Salvation of this world would come and thus crush the dominion of Satan.

Therefore, on this day, as we reflect on the nature of this feast day and celebration, let us all come to realise how great is the love which our Lord had shown us all, the mercy He wants to give us so that we will not suffer from our rebelliousness. Let us all realise that all that He wants from us is our love and devotion, that we give all our hearts to Him in sincere devotion.

That is more important for Him than all other forms of devotions. That does not mean that we do not need prayer or neglect our devotions in the Mass and others. On the other hand, these are truly very necessary. But if we do not comprehend their significance and how these can help us to be closer to our Lord, and if we do not have the love for God in our hearts in the first place, then all of those are meaningless.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all renew our devotion and commitment to the Lord today. Let us all show sincerity in our faith towards Him, and do not just pay lip service any longer to Him. Instead, let us all truly mean our faith, and practice it in our lives, in our every actions. Let us all make whatever remaining time we have in this season of Lent to be a meaningful one. May God bless us all. Amen.