baptism

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Tuesday, 2 April 2013 : Tuesday of the Easter Octave (First Reading)

Acts 2 : 36-41

Let Israel then know for sure that God has made Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified.

When they heard this, they were deeply troubled. And they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What shall we do, brothers?”

Peter answered, “Each of you must repent and be baptised in the Name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise of God was made to you and your children, and to all those from afar whom our God may call.”

With many other words Peter gave the message and appealed to them saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who accepted His word were baptised; some there thousand persons were added to their number that day.

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(Easter Sunday) Sunday, 31 March 2013 : Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Week, Easter Octave (Scripture Reflection)

Alleluia! The Lord is Risen! He had conquered death through His glorious Resurrection, and victory over death. He triumphed over Satan, who had tried to end His mission on this world by condemning Him to death through the people and crucifying Him, but all to no avail. Satan failed to realise that in crucifixion lay the very key to our redemption by Christ, who became our Paschal Lamb, through whom we are made whole and worthy of God.

Yes, just as the lamb was sacrificed and the blood marked the doorposts of the people of Israel in Egypt, Christ had shed His blood on the cross, and this blood marked all of us as His chosen people, whom He would protect against certain death, and bring into life in Him. For the blood marked the people of Israel apart from their Egyptian masters, so that the angel of the Lord passed over them when they killed the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, animals and humans alike.

Therefore, in Christ, lie our new Christian Passover, for all of us deserved death for our sins and our sinful ways, and through the rebellion of our forefathers, since the days of Adam and Eve, who disobeyed the Lord and ate the fruits of the tree of knowledge. But although we deserved death, God loves us so much that, He could not bear us to face death and separation from Him.

That is why, God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who became man like us, and was born in the flesh through Mary, His mother. He is the Lamb of God, that became the Paschal Lamb, that is the lamb of sacrifice for our sins, but not like any other lamb. Being divine, and yet lowering Himself as a human, He alone is worthy to redeem all mankind from their sins. His Precious Blood that flowed down from the cross washed down evil and sin in those who believed in Him, and who has faith in Him and believe in His Resurrection.

Let us firmly reject Satan and his lies, and reject his temptations on us with worldly goods and desires, just as our Lord rejected his approaches in the desert. Remain true to our mission just as Christ was obedient unto death on the cross. That through our faith we will be rewarded with resurrection into life just as Christ was resurrected. Let us renew our commitment to serve the people of God and make the Holy Spirit that God had given us through baptism and confirmation to bear much fruit in both ourselves and in our fellow men.

Let us strive to become truly the people of God in this blessed Easter season. Let us make full use of this season of Easter, both in our great joy in the resurrection of our Lord, and as well as to share this joy that we have, with others around us, that they too will learn of the great joy of all Christians, that is the Lord crucified had been risen from the dead, and through that resurrection, all of us are saved, and had our life restored to us.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us keep on praying that God will continue to bless us everyday of our lives, and may He guide us as we embark on the new year after this Easter season, that from today onwards till the next year when we celebrate Easter again, we can make this year a truly fruitful and blessed year. Also in the spirit of the Year of the Faith, let us also strive to strengthen our faith in the remaining half a year of the celebration of this Holy Year.

I wish everyone a happy and blessed Easter, and may the Risen Christ our Lord shine His face upon all of you, to share in the glory of His Resurrection. Amen!

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(Easter Sunday) Sunday, 31 March 2013 : Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Week, Easter Octave (First Reading)

Acts 10 : 34a, 37-43

Peter then spoke to them, “No doubt you have heard of the event that occured throughout the whole country of the Jews, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism John preached. You know how God anointed Jesus the Nazarean with Holy Spirit and power.

He went about doing good and healing all who were under the devil’s power, because God was with Him; we are witnesses of all that He did throughout the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem itself. Yet they put Him to death by hanging Him on a wooden cross.

But God raised Him to life on the third day and let Him manifest Himself, not to all the people, but to the witnesses that were chosen beforehand by God – to us who ate and drank with Him after His resurrection from death. And He commanded us to preach to the people and to bear witness that He is the One appointed by God to judge the living and the dead.

All the prophets say of Him, that everyone who believes in Him has forgiveness of sins through His Name.

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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 30 March 2013 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Scripture Reflection)

Today marks the greatest day in our entire year, and marks the greatest event that there ever was in the history of all mankind and the history of the world. For today, our Lord, who had died for us on the cross, did not stay dead, but was risen by the glory of God to Father in the most glorious Resurrection.

Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is Risen Lord, has harrowed hell in His descent there after His death,  He has liberated souls of sinners imprisoned and enchained by Satan, but having true faith in the Lord, freed from their bonds, and now join our Lord in His glorious Resurrection. Yes, glorious indeed is  His Resurrection. For in His Resurrection, our life are restored, in a new life in Him, just as our past is dead, when Christ died for us on that cross on Calvary.

Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord, had given His life that all of us who shared in His death through baptism, just as St. Paul said in his letter to the Romans, we can also be freed from eternal death in sin, and enter into eternal life and be Resurrected to true life just together with Christ’s resurrection. All of us who had been baptised in Christ, had been marked by Christ, our Lord as His, and His alone. The devil and his snares of sin no longer has any power over us.

Indeed, we who had been baptised, had received the gift of life through our faith in the living God, the resurrected Christ, who triumphed over Satan and death. But we must always stay vigilant, that Satan certainly will not stay silent while his dominions over sinful men are being assailed. He will fight back hard, and all of us must be ready, and must be strong.

As in what we had heard in all the readings we have today, today we hear the story of God’s love and His love for all of us, from the time when He created us and all the earth, through all the tribulations that His people encountered in Egypt, and through His salvation of them through Moses, His servant, and finally through the prophets, and ended in the greatest love and salvation of all that is, the salvation of all mankind through Christ, who died for us, and risen for us, that all of us join Him to once again return to the Father who loves us, and who created us out of His breath of life though we are dust.

So great is God’s love that He laid down His life for us, for His is the only worthy life that when surrendered in death, worth all of our iniquities and faults, that we who believe in Him can be rid of those, and becoming truly perfect in virtue, in our being and our soul, that we are worthy of being one with God, and be in His Presence again.

For when our forefathers rejected God through their rebellion, through Adam and Eve’s disobedience of eating the forbidden fruits of the tree of knowledge, we had been marred, and therefore, we could not stand before God in our imperfections, for God is perfect, and though He loves us so much indeed, no imperfections or iniquities can stand in His presence and survive.

A great chasm had appeared between us and God the Father, our creator. Ever since Adam and Eve were banished from the Gardens of Eden for their disobedience, we have ever since wonder around in this earth, separated from the fullness of God’s love, which Adam and Eve enjoyed in their early life of bliss in Eden before the fall of mankind to sin, and which we are to enjoy again, if we truly believe in Christ, and allow Him to transform us through His death and resurrection, to be purified, and therefore, worthy once again of the fullness of love of our God.

For, just like the slavery of the people of Israel, God’s people in Egypt shows to us, this separation from God is just temporary. For as God sent Moses, His servant to free the people of Israel from their bondage under Pharaoh, so He had sent His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver all of us, not just Israel, God’s first chosen people, but now through Christ, He delivers all of us, His new chosen people, from the bondage under sin and Satan, the evil one.

Just as He split open the Red Sea through Moses, to allow the people of Israel to walk dryshod through the sea, so He also opened the path to Himself, through Christ, to allow us to walk and return to He who loves us. For that great chasm between us and Him is insurmountable and infinite in span, but yet, Christ, our Lord, who gave His life for us, had become that great bridge through His Resurrection, that this bridge, like the dry land of the Red Sea’s seafloor, it allows us to pass through despite the chasm, to return back to our Father in heaven.

Yet, the path would not be easy, and we may fall along the way. Indeed, we had been chosen and marked by Christ through baptism, that we reflect His death and resurrection in ourselves, within our heart, but just as God’s chosen people, the people of Israel had shown, we can fall in our way. We knew it well that Israel often rebelled against the Lord, beginning from when they had been brought out of Egypt, when they often brought the Lord to the test, and made numerous complaints to the Lord, and even established rival gods like that of the golden calf, and the false gods of the people of Midian and Canaan.

We too can falter in our way, and can also fall into the same kind of trap that had befallen Israel. Therefore, we must always be vigilant, and keep at all times, our focus in Christ, our Lord, in His love and trust in His authority. Let us keep one another strong in faith, strong in God’s love, and strong in our hope for eternal life through Christ. Help out one another, especially those who are struggling with the faith.

Though the people of Israel, the chosen people, constantly rebelled against God and His commandments, and slaughtering many of His chosen prophets, and ultimately crucified His Son, God incarnate in Christ Jesus, He still readily forgave them, since in His own words that they do not know what they are doing, that in their ignorance, and in the blindness of their eyes and hearts, they failed to see God and His wonderful mission of redemption.

Therefore brothers and sisters in Christ. Today let us make true the mission that God has entrusted to all of us through His Apostles, that is to spread the Good News to all the nations, and to baptise them in the Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. As we commemorate the Resurrection of our Lord today, let this moment be a moment of renewal of our commitment to evangelise the Good News of the Lord to all the people.

That through evangelisation and knowledge of the Lord, the people will no longer rebel against the Lord who loves them, and will no longer dwell in sin and darkness, but will return to the light, just as all of us had been redeemed into light by our own baptism.

Let us pray fervently for our brethren who will be baptised in the ceremony today, either in the Easter Vigil or the Easter Sunday celebrations, that the love and fear of the Lord will continue to grow stronger in their hearts, that the call which they had received to become catechumens, will continue to resonate loudly within their beings and their hearts even after their baptism. May the Holy Spirit descend upon them and dwell in their hearts, and through them and their actions, and also in all of us gathered as one community of the faithful ones in Christ, bear much fruits of the Holy Spirit, most important of which is love.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I wish you all a most happy and blessed Easter, that in this holy season of Easter, may all of us rejoice in the glorious Resurrection of our Lord, and commit ourselves to further the evangelisation of our Lord’s Good News, that many more will be able to join our Lord too, in new life, born out of baptism, and be resurrected like Christ was resurrected, from our past lives and die to ourselves, so that we can be born into a new life in Christ. God bless us all. Amen.

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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 30 March 2013 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Epistle)

Romans 6 : 3-11

Do you not know that in baptism which unites us to Christ we are all baptised and plunged into His death? By this baptism in His death, we were buried with Christ and, as Christ was raised from among the dead by the Glory of the Father, so we begin walking in a new life.

If we have been joined to Him by dying a death like this so we shall be by a  resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Christ, so as to destroy what of us was sin, so that we may no longer serve sin – if we are dead, we are no longer in debt to sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe we will also live with Him.

We know that Christ, once risen from the dead, will not die again and death has no more dominion over Him. For by dying, He is dead to sin once and for all, and now the life that He lives is life with God.

So you, too, must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 30 March 2013 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Psalm after Seventh Reading)

Psalm 41 : 3, 5 and Psalm 42 : 3, 4

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I go and see the face of God?

Now as I pour out my soul, I remember all this – how I used to lead the faithful in procession to the house of God, amid shouts of joy and thanksgiving, among the feasting throng.

Send forth your light and your truth; let them be my guide, let them take me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You reside.

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my gladness and delight. I will praise You with the lyre and harp, o God, my God.

 

Alternative Psalm (If there is baptism)

 

Psalm 50 : 12-15, 18, 19

Create in me, o God, a pure heart; give me a new and steadfast spirit. Do not cast me out of Your presence nor take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Give me again the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will show wrongdoers Your ways and sinners will return to You.

You take no pleasure in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, You would not delight in it.

O God, my sacrifice is a broken spirit; a contrite heart You will not despise.

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(Chrism Mass) Thursday, 28 March 2013 : Chrism Mass, Holy Week (Scripture Reflection)

Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Christ, or the Anointed one of God, for He came from the Lord, and sent by the Lord God, He was anointed as the servant and the messenger of God’s wish and will in this world. Upon Him lay the works of salvation that would bring this world and all its people much closer to God.

He came to bring salvation, liberty to the captives, succour for the poor and the neglected ones. Love for the unloved and for the rejected ones. For through Him, God wanted to bring all mankind to Himself, especially these weak and little ones, whom He preferred over others. Since these little ones are more sincere in their love for God, being unfettered by chains of worldly temptations of power, greed, pride, avarice, and others.

He who is God and divine, is willing to give Himself up for our sake, to lower Himself such that He died a criminal’s death on the cross. A king crucified, a king humiliated, and a king despised, and yet, despite all this, He forgave all those who had shouted for His death, and prayed for them.

Despite His despair and suffering, He persevered through, all because of His love for all of us. Because of that infinite love, the huge amounts of our sins combined weighed heavily upon Him, but did not crush Him.

With every steps that Jesus took towards Calvary, He took with us all our afflictions and our corruptions by Satan and evil. He granted us salvation by the shedding of His Blood and His life, just as He had said, “No greater love than someone who lays down his life for his friend”. Yes, Jesus is our friend, He is our brother as all of us who believes in Him are the children of God, but even those who does not yet believe are also children of the same God, for did He not create all mankind?

Remember this, as we enter into the holiest season of the year in the Easter Triduum, the three most important days in our liturgical calendar, commemorating the institution of the Holy Eucharist, which became the basis of our salvation and the Mass that we have today, in the Eucharist we receive during Communion, and then also the Passion and death of our Lord, who died on the cross for us.

But again, all did not end there, for if our Lord Jesus Christ just died on the cross and was buried, it would have ended there, just like any other death, and just like any other man. But Jesus is the Son of God just as He is the Son of Man. Upon His death, He descended into hell, and in what is known as the harrowing of hell, He opened the prison and freed the innumerable faithful souls from the clutches of Satan and hell, and brought them with Him together in resurrection. This is why many dead ones were risen at the time of Christ’s resurrection, since through Christ’s death, He destroyed the power of death forever, and through His resurrection and life, He brought life back to the dead, that we all may live together with Him in paradise.

For remember that our God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who did not die anymore, but are living now together with Him in heaven. When it is also time for us to depart this world, He will welcome us, and we will live with Him, with all His saints and angels in perfect happiness and harmony, without any more taints of evil and sin that had all these while chained us and enslaved us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as today the holy oils used for baptism, chrism, and the anointment of the sick are blessed, let us pray that God who anointed us with these oils will strengthen in us the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. May the Spirit continue to guide our path and our life, that through us, the love of God will be made manifest into this world through our good works, and may our faith in Him continues to grow and grow. Amen.

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Holy Week 2013 Schedule for the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, Archdiocese of Singapore

Here is the schedule for 2013’s Holy Week (Sunday, 24 March 2013 – Sunday, 31 March 2013) at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, Archdiocese of Singapore :

 

1. Palm Sunday : Saturday, 23 March 2013 at 6.30 pm; Sunday, 24 March 2013 at 8 am, 10 am, and 6 pm

(Mass at 10 am will be celebrated by Archbishop Nicholas Chia, the Archbishop of Singapore)

 

2. Cena Domini (Mass of the Lord’s Supper) : Thursday, 28 March 2013 at 6.30 pm. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament after the Mass until midnight.

(To be celebrated by Archbishop Nicholas Chia of Singapore, Coadjutor Archbishop William Goh of Singapore, and Apostolic Nuncio to Singapore, Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli)

 

3. Good Friday : Friday, 29 March 2013 at 2.30 pm and 5.30 pm

(Service at 2.30 pm with Way of the Cross, Service begins at 3 pm and to be celebrated by Archbishop Nicholas Chia, the Archbishop of Singapore)

 

4. Easter Vigil : Saturday, 30 March 2013 at 9 pm

(Celebrant : Archbishop Nicholas Chia, the Archbishop of Singapore)

 

5. Easter Sunday : Sunday, 31 March 2013 at 8 am, 10 am, and 6 pm

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Holy Week Mass schedule (Live) with Pope Francis in Rome and the Vatican

Here is the schedule for Papal celebrations of Pope Francis for Holy Week in Rome :

 

(Live from Rome Reports : http://www.romereports.com/palio/modules.php?name=Content3&pa=showpage&newlang=english&pid=47#.UU4b91fTear)

(Live from Vatican Player : http://vatican.va/video/)

(Live from Vatican YouTube : http://youtube.com/vatican/)

 

1. Palm Sunday (Solemn Entry into Jerusalem) : Sunday, 24 March 2013 at 9.30 am Rome time / CET / UTC+1 (St. Peter’s Square)

2. Chrism Mass (Blessing of the Holy Oils) : Thursday, 28 March 2013 at 9.30 am Rome time / CET / UTC+1 (St. Peter’s Basilica)

3. Cena Domini (Mass of the Lord’s Supper) : Thursday, 28 March 2013 at 5.30 pm Rome time / CET / UTC+1 (Casa del Marmo prison)

4. Good Friday (Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ) : Friday, 29 March 2013 at 5 pm Rome time / CET / UTC+1 (St. Peter’s Basilica)

5. Way of the Cross at Colosseum : Friday, 29 March 2013 at 9 pm Rome time / CET / UTC+1 (Colosseum)

6. Easter Vigil (Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ) : Saturday, 30 March 2013 at 9 pm Rome time / CET / UTC+1 (St. Peter’s Basilica)

7. Easter Sunday (Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ) : Sunday, 31 March 2013 at 10 am Rome time / CET / UTC+1 (St. Peter’s Square)

8. Urbi et Orbi Blessing of Easter (Blessing to the city of Rome and the world) : Sunday, 31 March 2013 at 12 pm (noon) Rome time / CET / UTC+1 (St. Peter’s Square)

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Sunday, 17 March 2013 : 5th Sunday of Lent (Third Scrutiny for Baptism) (Scripture Reflection)

Love, faith, hope, and forgiveness. These are the virtues that the readings taught us today. Faith, hope, and love being the three most important virtues being taught by Christ to all of us, and forgiveness or mercy, being the extension of love into the faults and sins of others. These virtues make our faith in God alive and manifest, and through these virtues, our world can indeed be made better, despite the ever-presence of sin, darkness, and evil.

For in our world today, it is too easy for people to judge one another, to condemn one another, to have no love for one’s fellow men, and rather to destroy one another through endless litanies of curses, personal attacks, and condemnations. It is in our human nature to seek out the faults in others, and to condemn others when they fall. But yet, as the case of the condemned woman in adultery in our Gospel today showed, we are often blind to our own faults and predicaments in that case.

So focused we are in the faults of others that we forgot that we too, are sinners before the eyes of the Lord, equally if not more unworthy to stand in front of our God who hates sin, than even the one whom we are condemning and judging against. For sin had been in the hearts of men, and had always corrupted mankind’s actions and behaviour ever since the day of the first rebellion of our forefathers.

This is why God, our Father, sent His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, to be our redeemer, to redeem us from our certain death, that is our destiny for having sinned against God. It is through Him that God’s works became manifest in this world. Through healing of the blind, the deaf, the paralytic, the possessed, and even Lazarus, whom He resurrected from the dead. Nothing is impossible for God, only if we believe in Him, and have faith in Him.

Through the power of God too, we learn the value of forgiveness, for He forgave the woman who was accused of adultery from her sins, providing that she truly repented and that she led a virtuous life from then onwards. He did not accuse, for He, who will be the great Judge of all at the Last Judgment, sees into the hearts of all the people, and in this case, He looked into the hearts of all, the condemned woman, and those who condemned her.

Indeed, she had been sinful in His eyes, and her sin of adultery was plain for Him to see, but even more so were the sins of those who had brought her before Jesus, so that they could test Him, find a mistake in Him, and then arrested Him. These motives clearly did not escape the attention of our Lord, who found them to be wanting, even more than that of the women.

This is why we have to learn not to judge others and condemn others, especially without base, without proper reasoning, and with malice in our hearts, intent on the destruction and downfall of others. For hatred, jealousy, and vice can eventually bring our judgment to be corrupted, and we are no longer wise judges just as Christ was, when He judged both the woman, and the people who shouted for her death, but in fact was testing Jesus.

Christ has the power to forgive, just as the power to heal, as He is after all the Son of God. But those people in Israel at that time, particularly the chief priests and the teachers of the Law, blinded by jealousy and by their hatred of Him, as well as by their rigid and unreasonable attachment to their human laws, prevented them from approaching the Lord for healing and forgiveness, and instead, they persecuted Him, and eventually brought Him to His death on the cross.

Nevertheless, notice that Christ, despite all these oppositions, still wanted to save them, and forgave them for what they had done, even until the very end. We should imitate Christ’s example, and begin, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to forgive one another, no matter what pain and faults the other one has done for us. It is time to forgive, to let go of our anger, hatred, jealousy, and whatever negative and evil feelings we may have.

Instead, let us cultivate love and compassion in our hearts, that we can grow to love God further and more, and also to love all men as we have loved Him, who also loves us all. Let us set aside our differences, and embrace one another as brethren, and pray for those who persecutes us, for those who judges us unjustly. Do not judge them back, and do not despise them, but instead worry about the salvation of their souls. Pray for them.

We will therefore grow in our compassion and our love, and our hearts will no longer be hardened like that of the Pharisees. Instead we will have hearts like a contrite man and a humble tax collector, who came bowing low before God, fully aware of the extent of his sins. And also to be like Christ, to be moved by the plight of others, with a heart of compassion, to love others, to care for them, and to listen to their needs and cries.

Today, let us also pray for our brethren who has decided to join God’s Church, through the calling that each of them had received from the Lord, that God will strengthen them in their journey, that as they approach their baptism on Easter Vigil, they will grow ever stronger in faith, hope, and love, from now on, and forever.

May God guide us and bless us, to ever be loving children of His, to ever bring glory to His Name, through our loving and forgiving actions in this world, deprived of such love, mercy, hope, and compassion. Amen.