Christmas time

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Saturday, 4 January 2014 : Weekday of Christmas Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear about the call that Jesus made to His first disciples, when St. John the Baptist announced to the people, the truth about Jesus, that is the Lamb of God. One may ask, why Lamb of God? To answer this, we have to look at the role of the lamb in the society of Israel and the faith that they had, that is following the laws of God as given through Moses.

The lamb is one of the few animals mentioned at the Book of Leviticus, used in the offerings to God, which in this book, were used for various purposes. The most important of these sacrifices were the sin and burnt offerings to God, in which the animals were slaughtered and their blood on the Altar of God represent the cleansing of the sins of God’s people, and the purification of their souls.

But these offering of lambs and other animals as sin offerings, were only temporary. They did not completely erase the sins of the people, nor did they justify the people in God. The people were only given a breather in their sinful daily lives, and they have to offer the sacrifices again and again to keep themselves worthy of the Lord.

That is because, even though unblemished lamb supposed to be used, they are not perfect, not in the way that the Lamb of God is perfect in all aspects. Then, to add to the point of the truth about the Lamb of God, we have to also remember about what happened when God saved His people Israel from their slavery in Egypt. God asked the people through Moses, to find unblemished lamb, and slaughter it so that its blood could be used to mark the houses of God’s people.

The blood let it known to the angels of death sent by God to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians, that the houses marked by the blood belong to God. Yes, death passed the houses of the faithful who obeyed the Lord, and the people of Israel were saved and liberated by the Lord who loved them. In this light therefore, we too, should see the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God.

For indeed we can define the role of Lord Jesus Christ in these two characteristics. First that Jesus is the Lamb of sacrifice, the most worthy of all, to be the offering for all of our sins. As Jesus is Himself God incarnate, He is perfect and indeed the only One perfect to redeem us from our sinfulness, and to make worthy again all the people of God.

Then secondly, Jesus is the Lamb whose Blood becomes the mark of all the faithful ones in God, that when the Day of Judgment comes, God will know those who belong to Him, and those who had remained faithful and true to His ways. Remember that Jesus in the Last Supper gave His own Body and Blood in the transformed bread and wine for His disciples to eat and drink.

This is very much in the same way as the lamb of the Passover, where the lamb was slaughtered, and it was eaten by the family of the people who slaughtered it, and the blood used to mark the houses of the faithful. Jesus is our Passover Lamb, or more precisely the Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, who brought with Him the joy and hope of Easter. In this perfect sacrifice of Christ, which He made on the cross, He reunited mankind to the Lord, and made the whole creation to be filled once again with hope.

Jesus did not come into this world for leisure or without a clear purpose. He had a clear aim, that is to liberate mankind from their slavery to sin and evil, ever since mankind were sundered from God after they had sinned. Jesus laid Himself freely for us, as a lamb led to the place of slaughter, just as He went through grievous scourging and suffering during His Passion and way towards the cross. All these, He did for our sake, that we may be free forever from the dominion of sin and evil.

Yet, as we all know, brethren, many of us still live in darkness and prefer to be in the darkness rather than to be in the light. We turn ourselves away from the Lamb. He offered us freely the graces He had poured onto us with His sacrifice, and yet we still prefer to rebel against Him and reject His offer of salvation and eternal life.

We prefer to live in our sinfulness and our current way of life, instead of seeking the Lord in the way that the disciples had done. Remember what happened when John the Baptist proclaimed to the disciples, that Jesus is the Lamb of God. The disciples straight away went and follow Him, without questioning and without doubting!

Can we too, brothers and sisters, profess our faith in Jesus in the same way? Jesus offered Himself to us, for our sake, and died for us on the cross, that we will be saved and received new life in Him. He went quietly and obediently to the slaughtering table, so that we ourselves will not have to endure death and its punishment for eternity. We are sinners yes, but we do have the capacity and ability to change ourselves for the better.

Therefore, let us today seek first to know more about our Lord, the Lamb of God, and then learn to love Him and seek Him more and more, that we will be more intimate in our relationship with Him. Let us not be ignorant of His love but instead seek to increase even more the love we have for Him. May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, free us from the hands of Satan, and bring us into new life eternal. Amen.

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Saturday, 4 January 2014 : Weekday of Christmas Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 1 : 35-42

On the following day John was standing there again with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, John looked at Him and said, “There is the Lamb of God.” On hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus.

He turned and saw them following, and He said to them, “What are you looking for?” They answered, “Rabbi (which means Master), where are You staying?” Jesus said, “Come and see.” So they went and saw where He stayed, and spent the rest of that day with Him. It was about four o’ clock in the afternoon.

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard what John had said, and followed Jesus. Early the next morning he found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means the Christ), and he brought Simon to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, son of John, but you shall be called Cephas (which means Rock).”

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Saturday, 4 January 2014 : Weekday of Christmas Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 97 : 1, 7-8, 9

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.

Let the sea resound and everything in it, the world and all its peoples. Let rivers clap their hands, hills and mountains sing with joy before the Lord,

For He comes to rule the earth. He will judge the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.

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Saturday, 4 January 2014 : Weekday of Christmas Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 3 : 7-10

My little children, do not be lead astray; those who do what is right are upright, just as Jesus Christ is upright. But those who sin belong to the devil, for the devil sins from the beginning.

This is why the Son of God was shown to us, He was to undo the works of the devil. Those born of God do not sin, for the seed of God remains in them; they cannot sin because they are born of God.

What is the way to recognise the children of God and those of the devil? The one who does not do what is right is not of God; so too, the one who does not love his brother or sister.

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Sunday, 22 December 2013 : Fourth Sunday of Advent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Brothers and sisters, today we enter into the last Sunday of Advent, the fourth one of all. We celebrate today the theme of love, after we had celebrated the themes of hope, peace, and joy. For indeed, these are all the things we rejoice and celebrate for in Christmas. And the most important of all, is love. That is because there will be no Christmas without love, and the greatest love is the love that God has for all of us.

For God so loved the world, that He gave us His only Son, that we who believe in Him shall not die nor suffer the effects of death, but receive life eternal in that Son. This well-known and well-read passage from the Gospel of John chapter three verse sixteen is that proof of the everlasting love and the ultimate form of love that God had shown us, and which was made manifest this Christmas.

Christmas is not just about Christmas lights, decorations, and about gifts. Christmas is not just about promotions, new goods, shopping opportunities, and something on the same line as those. Christmas is not the day preceding the Boxing Day if we think it in the terms of the gifts that we will receive and benefit from. Instead, indeed, it is all about love, about sharing the love that God had for all of us, and share it with one another in love.

Without love, our lives will not be perfect nor fulfilling. And without love, we will not have hope, peace, and joy. Love lies at the centre of our lives and is the centre of our faith. Our faith must always be based on love, because we believe in God, who is Love Himself. God is Love, and He cannot withhold His love for us, and that was why He wanted to be with us, and for us to be with Him.

Emmanuel, God is with us, is one of the many titles that Jesus Christ our Lord has. And His very presence in this world, as the Divine incarnate to the flesh of mortals, is a true example of this love. For as the omnipotent and all powerful God, eternal and limitless, God has no need for any worries or concerns because He has everything, and everything in creation belongs to Him. Yet, He concerned Himself with us, seeking our welfare and well-being.

Without this divine love, we would certainly have no hope whatsoever. Life will be meaningless and death will truly be fearsome. That is why the Lord came to us, to be with us, and to dwell with us, in Jesus Christ His Son. In Jesus lies all of our hope, and in Him we find true love, and this love is the joy of Christmas, the true joy that we should be celebrating.

So, brothers and sisters in Christ, do we come together to celebrate Christmas because we like to revel in the festivities and the partying, in all the merrymaking? Do we enjoy and look forward to Christmas because of the gifts we are to get from our friends and families? Do we look forward to Christmas because it is a time for us to travel around as it is the holiday period?

If our answers to these questions are yes, then we have missed the true intention of Christmas and the true joy of Christmas. That is precisely the problem with our modern world, where Christmas has been extensively and thoroughly transformed into a commercial property. Christmas is no longer about Christ, after which it was named for. Christmas which was about the birth of Christ, had become the fascination on Santa Claus, gift elves and all the pagan fantasies that mankind had indulged themselves in, submitting to the temptations of the world.

Every time we celebrate Christmas, we should always remember that it is about Christ, about the wondrous birth of Christ our Lord and Saviour, and about the perfect manifestation of love that God our Father showed us. He showed us all His favour, by choosing to be born of the Virgin Mary, to become one of us, and to be the lowest among us, born in a poor and dirty stable even though He was destined to be a King.

So are we ready now to celebrate the coming of Christ this Christmas? We have to bring Christ into Christmas, or otherwise our celebrations will be meaningless. Invoke Christ as we rejoice with one another, and use this opportunity to share our blessings and graces with those who have less. As people often said, that Christmas is a season of giving, but we must not limit this giving just to among ourselves and our own circle of friends.

Share the love of God this Christmas, and proclaim the joy of His coming to everyone. As we welcome Christ into our world, let us also welcome Him into our hearts, and share this Love incarnate, Christ Himself, with everyone we encountered, especially those who lack the sweetness of love.

May the Lord our God continue to bless us with love, that we will grow to love one another, and love Him more and more. May our Christmas be bountiful, peaceful, and be filled with love and joy, not for ourselves, but for the glory of God and the glory of all of God’s people! Amen.