Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the message from the Sacred Scriptures telling us about the salvation of God which He has given to us through Jesus Christ His Son, the long awaited fulfilment of God’s promise to the world, that He would bring them into salvation and eternal life, freedom and liberation from the darkness of sin and death.

God has had mercy on His people, and He was willing to give them the succour and the liberation from the troubles which they have gained by their own disobedience. We have to always remember, brethren, that while we were often disobedient to God, but God is always forever faithful to us. We have suffered not because of Him, but rather due to our own waywardness and lack of faith which led us to commit sin.

In the first reading, taken from the Book of the prophet Zechariah, the Lord promised His people that He would return the joy and blessings to the house of David and to His people. This message was given to a people who have endured great difficulties, as their ancestors’ disobedience and their own sins had brought them much misery, at the mercy of their enemies, uprooted and exiled from their own homeland, and suffered tremendously without God’s grace.

But amidst all of that, God gave them hope that a new light, the spring of life shall arise among them, to save them and to bring them once again into His favour and into His presence. In the second reading, which we received from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians, we heard how through Jesus Christ, Who is the Light and the Spring of Life promised, all those who believe in Him has been made righteous and just.

And because of that, they received the grace of God and were made to be one people, as the members of the Church of God, where ancient divisions and distinctions no longer exists. There is now no more distinction between Jews or non-Jews, which were mostly the Greeks at that time. All are equal before God. God no longer limited His love and grace just to the people of Israel alone, but instead to the whole world. For the whole mankind are His most beloved creation and children, after all.

And the way through which He has endeavoured to help us all, has been revealed through the Gospel and from what we know of what He had done through Christ. For the Son of Man would be rejected by the elders and the chief priests, and would be handed over to the Romans to be sentenced to death by the cross. But it is through that act, through great suffering and enduring the sins which we have, that God had made us whole and justified once again through Him.

For such great love that God has shown us, He just require from us one thing. And that is that we should love Him back with the same love He has shown us, and if we love Him, we should also know that following God may mean that we may be rejected by the world as well, just as the world had rejected Him before. And we may endure the same sufferings and pains that He had once suffered from.

And that is our cross to bear, for each and every one of us has a cross to bear, the cross of our life. And these crosses we bear are united to the cross of Christ, as we share together in the suffering which He bore for our sake. And as we share in His suffering and death, so we have also shared in the same life which He has promised to all those who believe in Him.

And how do we as Christians bear our crosses each day? We do so by following what God had commanded us to do, that is to love Him with all our heart, devoting ourselves to Him with all of our effort. And if we think that this is easy, then we should remember again, that following God and His ways may mean that we have to do things which in the eyes of the world, in the sight of the community around us, we may be seen as weird, or even downright wicked.

Are we ready to face challenges or even persecution from the world for staying faithful to our God? Are we ready to defy the societal norms at times when we are called to choose between God and this world? That is our challenge in this world today, to stand up for our faith against the currents and forces of the world. And still, even so, we also have another challenge as well.

Why is that so? That is because the Lord also commanded us to show the same love to our brethren, to our neighbours, brothers and sisters. Are we able to show genuine love to all our brethren, that is, not just our beloved ones but even also those who resented and hated us, or those who have persecuted us? This is the cross that each of us have to bear as a Christian, as those whom God has made as one of His own.

Let us all reflect on these, and think about what else we can do if we have not done so, as a Christian, to show our love both to our God and to our brethren. Let us all devote ourselves all the more to God, and commit ourselves through faith and action, that through us we may find the salvation of God and be made blessed and righteous in our God. May God bless us and all of our endeavours and works. Amen.