commitment to God

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Thursday, 19 February 2015 : Thursday after Ash Wednesday (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Blessed is the one who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the Law of the Lord, and meditates day and night on His commandments.

He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruits in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.

But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.

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Wednesday, 18 February 2015 : Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple or Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the beginning of the holy and solemn season of Lent, the forty days period that begins today and ends on the beginning of the Holy Week, as a season of preparation for the approaching celebration of the most important aspects of our faith, that is the celebration of our Lord’s death and resurrection from the dead.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the beginning of that penitential season, a time for us to reflect on ourselves and on our own lives, in terms of what we had done in this life and in what we have failed to do as the Lord commanded us. This is a time for us to seek God’s forgiveness and mercy, taking advantage of the rich mercy and love which He had shown us through our Lord, Jesus Christ.

In today’s readings, first taken from the Book of the prophet Joel, the content is one of humble lamentation and begging for supplication, by the people of God who had longed for a long period of time, the salvation in God. They have longed for the rescue and the help which only our Lord could give, the true joy and happiness which only He can give us and nothing else of this world could.

And in that same reading, we can see how our Lord Himself also desired for the salvation of His beloved people, no matter how sinful or wicked they were. It is only one thing that the Lord wants out of them, that is for them to abandon their sins, and from then on to love Him with all of their hearts and with the full and complete strength of their beings.

Sin is a great bane for mankind, that is the one which has separated us from the love of God, and it has caused us much great sufferings in this world. Before sin entered into the world and into the hearts of men, everything were good and perfect, and mankind were destined for a life in eternal joy and happiness as the Lord intended it, to live with Him and reign with Him forever.

Yet, our pride, our desire and greed, our emotions and our prejudice had prevented us from accomplishing such a wondrous life. Our ancestors were tempted and they failed. They gave in to the temptation of Satan, that is the temptation of knowledge. And ever since then, mankind had been in rebellion against God, and without God, mankind cannot stand up and preserve themselves, for truly we need God in our daily life.

Yes, our Lord and God provided us with everything that we need and He knows all that we will ever need. There is absolutely no need to worry for anything, as if we trust in Him, we shall never be disappointed. But, many of us continue to worry about the things of this world, and we are often swayed to follow our peers and be corrupted by the many concerns and pleasures of this world, the pleasures of the flesh.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, ever since sin entered into the hearts of men, we have been made dirty and unworthy, as desire and greed became a part of us. We are not easy to be satisfied, and we also easily becoming jealous and hateful towards others, all because of desire and vanity, pride and arrogance, thinking that the world is all about us and everything revolves around us.

And today in the Gospel, God made it clear to us that He meant business. He showed the depth of our wickedness as even in fasting we can commit sin, by fasting for the sake of doing it, or even worse, as the Pharisees had done it, by showing off their supposed piety by fasting very publicly and openly to gain human praise and earthly prestige, but in their hearts there was no place for God.

In their pride and arrogance, they showed the worst human qualities and capacities for sin and wickedness. They were so caught up in their pride, for being supposedly the elites of the society and the role models in faith, that they forgot to give glory to God, the One whom they ought to serve and welcome into the world. Instead, they rejected Him and piled troubles and obstacles upon obstacles in God’s work of salvation, and as a result, they were accursed and rejected as well by God.

What is the best attitude, brothers and sisters? What is the attitude we should adopt then? It is through humility and understanding of our own sinfulness, and in knowing the corruptions and wickedness that had separated us from the Lord, then we can be led on the right path towards salvation and life in the Lord our God. And on this day, this Ash Wednesday is a reminder of our own frailty, of our own sinfulness and wickedness, and of how much we need the Lord our God to be in our lives.

When the priest imposes the ashes upon our forehead, and with the words that accompany it, these are a reminder for all of us to know that as we are created from dust, from the earth, then to the earth too our bodies will return. Our bodies may perish when we die and turn back to the dust, but our soul is eternal and will live forever, either in eternal joy with God, or in eternal suffering in hell. And on the day of the resurrection, on the last day, God will raise us up all body and spirit, and we will rejoice forever in His glory, with a renewed body of glory, if we remain faithful to Him.

We are all reminded through this, that whatever achievements we have in this life, and whatever glory and praises we have accumulated in this life. And whatever honour and fame we have received from men, in the end all these will not benefit us. Jesus our Lord had repeated this many times, with the example of the parable telling us how a rich man piled up his great wealth and thinking he had it all secure for his future happiness and indulgence, when the Lord was in fact about to end his life there and then.

An important lesson for us all is that we should not build for ourselves a treasure that will not last. Build instead the eternal treasure and riches which we can only build through our obedience to our Lord, and not through greed and hoarding of the resources and the goods of this world. Our earthly life is just temporary, and is a precursor to the eternal life which we will all receive from God Himself at the end of time, if we remain faithful to His laws and precepts.

It is imperative therefore for us to reflect on this imposition of the ashes, and as we begin our Lenten journey, the forty days of retreat and recollection of our own lives, which is designed to help us to find our way again to the Lord and to rediscover the focus and purpose of our lives, that is to bring glory to God by our actions and deeds. We have to indeed recall the forty days of suffering and difficulties which our Lord Jesus went through as He walked in the desert for forty days and nights without food.

The devil tried to dissuade Him and pull Him away from His works of salvation by telling all sorts of lies about humanity, and taking advantage of the human emotions, needs and wants in order to prevent the salvation of many souls to be done. But the Lord Jesus remained completely obedient to the wishes of His Father in heaven, and despite the temptations, Jesus continued on without qualms and with firm conviction in the faith of the Lord.

In the same way therefore too, we will all eventually encounter difficult times in life. There will be temptations that threaten to cause us to sin and do even more wicked things. If we are unable to resist, then the lures of Satan will get to us eventually. What is at stake is nothing else than the fate we are to face, whether it be eternal suffering for our disobedience or eternal life and happiness for our obedience.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we enter into this season of Lent and begin our preparation for Easter earnestly, let us all take a step back in our lives, take the time out from our busy daily schedules, and learn to find some time to be with the Lord our God. This is a season of prayer, of sincere atonement and seeking for God’s mercy and forgiveness. Fasting and abstinence are meant to help us to achieve this, and when we fast and abstain, we must have a clear goal in mind, that is to help us overcome the distraction and temptation on our way to God, and not to show it off to others.

May this season of Lent help us to become ever more faithful children and servants of our God, and may He continue to watch over us and guide us so that we will not be overcome by the forces of evil arrayed against us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 17 February 2015 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the story of Noah and how he and his family escaped the destruction of all the living together with the animals and creatures chosen to go with them on the ark they had created with the instruction from God. And in the Gospel today we heard about how Jesus chastised and rebuked His disciples for failing to see what He had done, which was essentially the manifestation of God’s love for mankind, by feeding those who were hungry with food and leaving them with satisfied stomachs.

Today’s readings talked about the mercy and love which God shows to all those who are faithful to Him and walk righteously along His path without diversion and corruption, those like Noah and his family, who feared God and loved Him, following His ways even though the rest of the world were following their own wicked and corrupted human ways and desires.

God regretted having created mankind, who was to be the greatest and most loved out of all His creations and yet, they failed when Satan tempted them and brought them to disobey the will of God. And as mankind carried on, tainted by sin, they continued to commit all sorts of wickedness that were born out of another sin which men had committed, that is the murder of Abel by his brother, Cain.

All the sins of mankind added up and indeed God’s patience has its limits. It is also a reminder for us all that God does not wait forever for us to continue to live in sin and ignore His love. Eventually all of us will die, brothers and sisters in Christ, at a time unknown to us. God alone knows the time and place where we are to die, and if we continue to sin before the Lord and refuse to change our ways until it is too late, then when the time comes, the share of the people who were destroyed by the Great Flood will be ours as well.

But God will show His mercy and love on those who listened to Him and who are righteous in their way of life, just as Noah and his family were. This is what God can promise us, and indeed if we are faithful, God will not disappoint us. His love will forever be with us and our descendants. He reminded us of these in the Gospel today as He spoke of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod, that is the corruption in these people which led mankind astray, the sins of pride and jealousy, of hatred and lust, and many others.

God will provide for all those who have put their trust in Him, and He will give them what they need, just as He gave the five thousand men and even more women and children, the food of bread until they are completely satisfied and even with spare to be collected. But more often that not, mankind trusts in their own devices and abilities, refusing to obey the Lord and walking down their own paths towards disobedience, rebellion and eventually destruction.

It is a lesson and reminder for us today, that we have to conform to the way of the Lord and discard all forms of our pride and haughtiness. There is still time for us, and while there is still time, it is crucial for us to find our way to the Lord as soon as possible before it is too late. And today we also celebrate the feast of the seven holy founders of the Servites, a religious order founded by the seven men who were once noblemen and merchants of the city of Florence.

The seven men left their family, wealth and possessions to retire in a religious and dedicated life to God in a mountainside. They left behind everything to give themselves in total commitment to the Lord, abandoning all forms of greed and human desire, and to bury all their pride and hubris, their prejudice and wickedness. And their example had become an example and inspiration for many others who followed in their footsteps.

It does not mean that we have to replicate what they had done and abandon everything we have in this life in order to dedicate ourselves completely to the Lord. Indeed, what they have done can be an option for us to follow on and what they have done set the example for many others to also lead a holy and devoted life free from sin. But what we all should do is truly to be true disciples of our Lord, and not believing just for the sake of believing or only pay lip service to Him, but with all of our heart and being let us love Him and follow His ways with all of our hearts.

May Almighty God be with us all and may He guide us in this life, so that we may free ourselves from the wickedness and sinfulness of this world, heeding His call and offer for mercy, that we may no longer be stubborn and hardened in heart, but become instead loving and caring towards one another. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 16 February 2015 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 49 : 1 and 8, 16bc-17, 20-21

The God of gods, the Lord has spoken, He summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Not for your sacrifices do I reprove you, for your burnt offerings are ever before Me.

What right have you to mouth My laws, or to talk about My covenant? You hate My commands and cast My words behind you.

You speak ill of your brother, and slander your own mother’s son. Because I was silent while you did these things, you thought I was like you. But now I rebuke you and make this charge against you.

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(Special – Singapore) Saturday, 14 February 2015 : Solemnity of the Anniversary of the Dedication of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 84 : 9-14

Would that I hear God’s proclamation, that He promise peace to His people, His saints – lest they come back to their folly. Yet His salvation is near to those who fear Him, and His Glory will dwell in our land.

Love and faithfulness have met; righteousness and peace have embraced. Faithfulness will reach up from the earth while justice bends down from heaven.

The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its fruit. Justice will go before Him, and peace will follow along His path.

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Saturday, 14 February 2015 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 89 : 2, 3-4, 5-6, 12-13

Before the mountains were formed, before You made the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity – You are God.

You turn humans back to dust, saying, “Return, o mortals!” A thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has passed, or like a watch in the night.

You sow them in their time, at dawn they peep out. In the morning they blossom, but the flower fades and withers in the evening.

So make us know the shortness of our life, that we may gain wisdom of heart. How long will You be angry, o Lord? Have mercy on Your servant.

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Friday, 13 February 2015 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the theme of the readings that we hear is sin and forgiveness of that sin, which had been the bane for all of us men. Sin came about because of the disobedience which we had shown to the Lord, when we chose to listen to the words and sweet temptations of Satan rather than listening to the will of God.

In the first reading, taken from the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we heard the account of how mankind fell into sin for the first time, the sin of our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, who listened to the wicked serpent, that is Satan, eating the fruits of the forbidden tree which God had forbid them to eat from. That tree of knowledge of good and evil is the reason why we mankind have ever since been exposed to evil and to sin, which is because of our inability to distinguish between the two due to the limitation of our intelligence, wisdom and abilities.

We were too greedy, brothers and sisters in Christ, and since the days of our ancestors, we have desired to seek many things that we ought not to have with us. As a result, we fall into a state of disgrace and separation from the love of our God. Sin entered into us, and we are rendered sick, blinded, deafened and made mute by the taints of that sin.

And yet, someone did not give up on us, no matter how fallen and wicked we have become, and no matter how hopeless we appear to have become. And that One is our Lord Himself, who loved us so much beyond everything else. He loves us all and He is concerned about us, worried about the fate which will be ours if we continue to walk on this path towards disaster, that is the path of sin.

That is why in the Gospel today we heard the story of when Jesus our Lord healed the deaf and dumb man, whom the Lord healed by the outpouring of His mercy and love, to open the ears and the mouth of the man and enable him to finally speak and listen again. Indeed, to listen to the wonders of the nature, all of God’s creation, and to speak of the Lord’s glory and everlasting life for all of us.

Too long we have dwelled in the darkness, and too long we have been corrupted by the snares of Satan. We have been blinded, made deaf and mute by the sins which Satan had tempted us with, and with our desires and greed piling up and growing, it is increasingly becoming more and more difficult for us to escape from the snares and the chains that kept us in this world of darkness. But, our salvation comes from the Lord, and He personally came to ensure that all of us be saved from the dangers of death and annihilation because of our sins.

In baptism according to the traditional and reverent rite, the same ritual is performed, following what Jesus did to the man, by touching the ears and the tongue with spittle, and saying the words ‘Ephphata!’ which means, ‘be opened!’. This is to symbolise that through baptism, our Lord had lifted us up from the darkness of sin, and by cleansing us with the holy water of baptism, He had unveiled from us, the true light that exists within us, dispelling all the veils and the falsehoods that Satan had planted all around us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all recall our own baptism, the time when we have the waters of baptism being poured onto us. Baptism is the important moment in time when we are freed from the shackles of sin that hold onto us, and brought by the Lord to enter into His eternal light. Thus, as we remember our own baptism, let us all renew our commitment of faith to God, and awaken in us all the passion and desire to love Him more and more.

Let us all shun all forms of sin, repent and be glad once again, for our Lord had come to liberate us, and all of us who believe in Him, will not be disappointed, but will forever enjoy the grace and love of our Lord. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 12 February 2015 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 7 : 24-30

At that time, when Jesus left the place where He condemned the Pharisees, He went to the border of the Tyrian country. There He entered a house, and did not want anyone to know He was there, but He could not remain hidden. A woman, whose small daughter had an evil spirit, heard of Him, and came and fell at His feet. Now this woman was a pagan, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she begged Him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

Jesus told her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to puppies.” But she replied, “Sir, even the puppies under the table eat the crumbs from the children’s bread.”

Then Jesus said to her, “You may go your way; because of such a response, the demon has gone out of your daughter.” And when the woman went home, she found her child lying in bed, and the demon gone.

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Tuesday, 10 February 2015 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Scholastica, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we continue the theme of the readings as we heard yesterday, of the Lord creating the whole world and the entire material universe as we know it now. He made all things good and perfect, all free from the taints of imperfections and evil in the beginning. Then indeed, we may be asking, how come then is it that there is so much evil things in the world now? How come is it that there is so much hatred, violence, jealousy and greed around us?

The answer lies in what mankind had committed in disobedience against the Lord, the sins which they have done in the presence of the Lord and men alike. Sin is a sickness of the soul, a blemish in the otherwise perfect and immaculate creations of God, especially for mankind, the greatest of all God’s creations. That is why there is so much evil in the world, so much sadness, sorrow and conflict that strike us all on daily basis.

And that was why God sent His Son Jesus into the world, in order to bring about the true purification of all mankind from the taints of sin. And today’s readings indeed share the same theme, that is cleansing and purification. However, we can see clearly in the Gospel today, the conflict that existed between Jesus our Lord and the Pharisees in how they approach this.

As I have often mentioned, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law are notorious for having adopted an excessively strict and unforgiving stance on the interpretation and application of the Law. As a result, they gave a great burden for the people of God to bear. There are many laws, rules and regulations which the people to obey, from things that are truly important to trivial matters and things such as the cleansing of the hands before meals, just as the one mentioned in the Gospel today.

The hereditary laws and customs of the Jewish people stipulated that each person should undergo ritual cleansing, washing and purification regularly, and this includes the ritual washing before meals, where each person are supposed to wash up to and including their elbows. Indeed, such is the complicated nature of the laws, to the point that obeying them and following them required a great deal of effort, and it is likely also that many would lose the true and real intention behind why they even observed those laws in the first place.

And that was why Jesus criticised the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law so much, because they are focused so much on the external cleansing and the purity of their exteriors, that they completely forgot about their insides, that is their heart and soul. It is useless if we are concerned only about the cleansing of our bodies and the exterior, ignoring the correct alignment of our heart, that is our interior.

Why is this so, brothers and sisters in Christ? Christ had mentioned in another passage that to be concerned about which food that is worthy or unworthy, clean or unclean does not make sense, for that which brings about sin and corruption comes not from the outside but rather from the inside. External dirt and filth while unappealing do not bring about the corruption of our beings, but the corruption that is within us will eventually corrupt our bodies and externals as well.

Already this can be seen in how the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law reacted to the teachings of Jesus. They professed to be faithful to the Lord and liked to show off their piety by public display through prayers and other actions in the public places, and yet they were so judgmental to sinners and all those who genuinely needed God’s help that you truly would not believe at all that they belonged to the Lord in the first place.

They also rejected Jesus and His teachings and they spat upon His actions, which were clearly the actions of God made real in this world, the manifestation of God’s love and mercy. Instead, they were so blinded by their pride and their hubris, that these eventually led to their eventual downfall. Just as they have rejected the Lord, so will the Lord reject them.

Today, we also celebrate the feast day of St. Scholastica, a holy virgin and saint of God. St. Scholastica by tradition was the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia, another great and renowned saint well known for his holiness and dedication to the Lord. Both St. Scholastica and St. Benedict were devoted servants of the Lord who made monastic lifestyle an appealing way of life to the people of God.

Monastic lifestyle is for those who have decided to give all of their lives in complete and total dedication to the Lord. They withdrew from the world and from all forms of worldliness and instead, dedicate themselves in a life of prayer. As such, they commit themselves to a life of contemplation, of looking into themselves and the emptying of oneself of personal ego, but seeking the cultivation of individuals filled with the love of God.

In that way, rather than seeking the purification of the externals first, we focus on the purification of our interiors first, that is to shun all forms of temptations of sin, the lies and sweet words of Satan designed to bring about our downfall. That is what the Lord wants from us, that we all genuinely reject sin and all forms of wickedness and instead follow Him with all of our heart.

May all of us be awakened and see in Christ and all He had done, the abundance of love and mercy which God wants to shower us with, if only that we can listen to Him and learn to practice the faith we have by action and real dedication from the heart. Let us not lose our focus as the Pharisees had lost theirs and let us all be truly faithful, not just in external appearances, but truly love God from the deepest depth of our hearts. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 8 February 2015 : Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sexagesima Sunday and Memorial of St. Jerome Emiliani and St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we continue to progress on towards the celebration of the most important parts of our Faith, that is the suffering, Passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today is Sexagesima Sunday, or literally meaning ‘sixty’ as a reminder for us that we are within about sixty days from the coming of Easter.

And on this day we heard about the nature of our lives, of our dwelling in this world, and the answer to all of our difficulties, plight and sorrows. As the first reading, taken from the Book of Job had mentioned, the suffering of this world, the pain and sorrow we all experienced, are like what Job had once experienced when Satan tested and tempted him against the Lord.

If we read the entirety of the Book of Job from the beginning to the end, we would realise that the suffering of mankind was never, ever the intention of our Lord. Suffering is in fact the result of the works of Satan and all of his allies, the forces of darkness in this world, and also more importantly, because of our disobedience against the will of God, that is sin.

Job’s friends accused Job of having sinned and committed wickedness before God. But meanwhile Job continued to complain and lamented for his sufferings, part of which we heard in our readings today, he continued to remain faithful to the Lord and never did once he cursed the Lord or blamed Him for what had happened to him. God showed Job that there are much that he did not understand, and He gave His answer to all of Job’s complaints, and for his continued faith despite his ramblings, he received great rewards surpassing what he had lost and what he had suffered from.

Thus, God wants to succour us and help us, and that was what God intends with us. The psalm today speaks of the healing which we can find in God, and it is this healing which our Lord Jesus Christ had brought with Him as He entered into our world to save it and to save all of us, His beloved people and children. The Gospel today reinforced this, by showing how Christ is concerned with all of His people, from the greatest to the least, and was concerned about spreading the truth He brought into the world to all the peoples.

He worked to heal the people of their afflictions, of the diseases that scourged their bodies, just as Job once was covered with boils and scabs that itched, and far above all these, was the healing which our Lord wrought upon our souls. What is this sickness of our souls? It is none other than sin. Sin is the scourge upon all of us, and it is a great barrier that prevents us from reuniting and being in complete unity and reconciliation with our Lord.

But we truly have no need for fear, as the Lord Himself had spared nothing else but Himself, and incarnate through His own Son, He made Himself the salvation and deliverance for us all mankind. For He is the Word of God, the Divine Word who is God and always is with God since before the beginning of time, and who was incarnate in the flesh to become like one of us, born a Man.

And through Jesus therefore, the word of God became real and concrete in this world, and instead of speaking through messengers and prophets, by the coming of Jesus into the world, God Himself speaks directly to us all, by what Jesus had taught us, and which His Apostles and disciples, and through them the Church, had preserved and passed down upon us.

In the readings for the Sexagesima Sunday, we hear of the parable of Jesus, that is the teaching of Jesus using stories and real experiences to make it easier for people to understand, the translation of the word of God into the words of men. Through what Jesus taught the people, what we know as the parable of the sower, the word of God has the power to bring us from the darkness of this world and from the suffering of the world into eternal happiness and joy with God.

However, as the parable shows us, that the word of God is like seeds planted by the Lord, who is the Sower, and the fate of those seeds depend on what kind of treatment or soil that they land on. This means that from our side, we must put in effort and work to ensure that the word of God can fall on fertile soil, and hence grow to bear rich fruits, that will lead us to our eternal reward, just as God once rewarded Job for his faith.

There will be many obstacles, brothers and sisters in Christ, as the parable shows us, and surely as our own experiences should have told us, that to be truly faithful and devoted to the Lord, and to follow Him in all of our ways is not going to be easy. Temptations of the world, the pressure from our peers and friends, and from the world itself to conform to the ways of the world or be rejected will be great, and it is on our part that we need to put in our effort to resist those challenges and temptations.

Today we celebrate the feast of two saints, St. Jerome Emiliani and St. Josephine Bakhita, two people who had very different life stories, and yet their experiences and examples will show us that what God had done unto us, by His coming into the world to offer us His generous mercy and love, is truly unmatched and unprecedented in the history of this world.

St. Jerome Emiliani was once a civil servant who worked in the government sector a few hundred years ago in what is today Italy. He eventually left behind everything to join the sacred priesthood and dedicated himself completely to the Lord and to his fellow men. St. Jerome Emiliani was renowned especially for his great love and care for orphans and all the children who were destitute and filled with problems in their lives.

St. Jerome Emiliani therefore helped to establish institutions and places where orphans and many other people who had been ostracised and rejected could stay as their new homes, and he himself with other priests and servants of God ministered to them and cared for them. He also established houses to accommodate former prostitutes who had repented from their sins.

Meanwhile, St. Josephine Bakhita was born in what is now Sudan just a century and half ago, and when she was young, she had to taste the bitter pill of war and violence, as well as the experience of slavery and subjugation by others, forced to accept the religion of heathens by her captors. She was sold as a slave and she was treated very badly, often tortured and not given proper food and place to live in.

By the grace of God, she was freed from her slavery when she was purchased from her previous owners by a Christian diplomat who came into the region and then entrusted St. Josephine Bakhita with the care of his family and children. A court thereafter ruled that St. Josephine Bakhita had not been legally a slave as where she was at, the state had ruled out slavery since before her birth, and thus she was then a freedman.

She was then baptised as a Christian and accepted into the Church by the future Pope St. Pius X, who was then the Patriarch of Venice, as she lived in the region where he had jurisdiction in. St. Josephine Bakhita thereafter joined the Canossian sisters, where she had lived for a while prior to her freedom, and from then on she lived a life of holy contemplation and filled with prayers and dedication to God. Great is her reward at the end of her earthly life.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to prepare for the celebration of Holy Week and Easter, as well as we prepare for the season of Lent that precedes the former, which is soon to come, let us all take all these lessons and words into our hearts. St. Jerome Emiliani cared for the least of the people, the orphans and the rejected, just as Christ Himself gave Himself to the service of all those who have not been loved and those persecuted by others.

Let us all allow God to come into our lives, and through the planting of His words in our hearts, let us all be changed and transformed to become true and faithful children of our Lord, in all our words and deeds. Like St. Josephine Bakhita, the slaves turned freedman and then into a faithful servant and devoted woman, by allowing God to come into our lives, we allow ourselves to be freed from the slavery of sin and detaching ourselves from the things of this world.

May Almighty God bless us all, guide us all back to Him and in Him may we find satisfaction, succour and enlightenment, that we may all rejoice in Him in His everlasting glory, as we receive the great rewards for our faith, and may all of us be healed from the earthly and worldly afflictions. Amen.