Easter Homily

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Sunday, 19 April 2020 : Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, the Second Sunday in the season of Easter we celebrate what is known as the Divine Mercy Sunday as instituted by Pope St. John Paul II in the Jubilee Year of 2000 AD. This Divine Mercy Sunday was instituted according to the visions of St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun who saw the vision of the Lord in His aspect of the Divine Mercy a few times and wrote about her experiences, which took a few decades before they were officially approved and accepted by the Church.

In those visions of the Divine Mercy, St. Faustina Kowalska saw the Lord appearing to her and showing her His infinite and great mercy, His love and compassion for all of us mankind. The Divine Mercy of God manifested to her in His divinity, pouring forth from His heart two bright rays of red and white shining forth showing the outpouring of the love of God to us mankind, His divinity and humanity mingled into one, and by His Most Precious Blood we have received, we have been healed from our sins.

The Lord called for this devotion to this Divine Mercy to be made popular and spread among His people, dedicating the second Sunday in the season of Easter to be the Divine Mercy Sunday, as a kind reminder that this joyful and wonderful Easter season is a time for us to appreciate just how fortunate we have been that the Lord had gone through the worst of sufferings and humiliations that He bore in His Passion and death, that through Him and His Resurrection, we now receive the assurance of life eternal.

The Divine Mercy devotion calls on us all mankind to focus our attention once again on the Lord, to ask Him for His mercy on us and the whole world through His wondrous saving work, in the shedding of His Body and Blood, as a perfect offering for the redemption of our sins. That is why the Divine Mercy devotion has in particular become very popular and widespread as the world and many people seek healing from the Lord for their many ailments, the sickness of sin and the corruption of evil in our lives.

Through the Divine Mercy of God, all of us are brought to remember that Christ our Lord is our Eternal High Priest Who has offered Himself for the atonement for our sins, as we recall this whenever we recite the Divine Mercy chaplet and prayers with the words, ‘Eternal Father, I offer You, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world,’ and the other one ‘For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and the whole world.’

Through all of these, and linking with what we have just heard in our Scripture passages today, we will realise that we have to have faith in the Lord and believe that through Him there is a hope for us and for our salvation. That is why we heard of the story of the doubt which St. Thomas the Apostle had in our Gospel today, when he, usually the most doubtful and cynical of the Apostles, refused to believe that the Lord had risen from the dead, and wanted tangible proof before he was to believe that the Lord had indeed been resurrected.

It was only when the Lord Himself had appeared before him and the other disciples that St. Thomas came to believe in the Lord and in His Resurrection. St. Thomas from then on became a firm believer, and since then he laboured hard for the sake of God and His people, ministering to the various communities and proclaiming the truth of the Gospel to many others, founding the community of Christians in the southern parts of India, known as St. Thomas Christians who endured for many centuries and beyond after until this very day. St. Thomas himself was martyred in the defence of his faith in God.

What we have heard thus far is a reminder for each and every one of us to have more faith in God, to believe in His ever generous and wonderful mercy. God has always been merciful to us, loving and ready to forgive us, and He extends this rich offer of mercy without any hesitation at all. But it is us mankind who have hesitated, took our time, being stubborn and resisted the efforts of the Lord Who has tried to be reconciled with us. We are like St. Thomas who doubted the Lord, who refused to believe fully and unconditionally, or worse still, like many of the Pharisees who hardened their hearts and minds, refusing to believe in God’s truth.

Many of us carry on living in the state of sin, living our lives as we have lived them so far, indulging in all sorts of evils and wickedness. But we must realise that sin is truly dangerous and unless we get rid of ourselves these sins and wickedness, we are in great danger of falling into eternal damnation because of those sins. This is because death and hell are the consequences for our sins, and unless we repent from them and are forgiven and reconciled with God, we may end up in an eternity of regret and despair.

It is God alone Who is capable of healing us from our sins, making us good and whole again. No one else has the power to forgive our sins, and that is why we need to have this forgiveness and healing by the Divine Mercy of God. In this Sunday, we are all called to focus our attention on the Divine Mercy, His loving face and countenance directed towards us, His ever present care and compassion towards our fallen state and our wretched situation. This is why we need to focus our attention to the Lord and embrace His mercy.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are all called to be the disciples of the Lord in all things, to be His followers and to bring forth His mercy, His light and love to all the people of God. We are all called to share this faith which we have, to embrace this love and mercy and show them in the same manner to our brethren out there who are still living in the darkness, to those who are still ignorant of the truth of God, those who have yet to know of God’s infinite love and mercy.

The Lord wants us all to bring forth this light of hope, the hope for the Divine Mercy to our fellow brethren, just as how St. Faustina Kowalska tried for many years to bring forth the attention to the devotion to the Divine Mercy according to the visions that she had received. And this is important especially in our troubled and darkened times, during this particularly difficult year when the whole world is facing so many challenges, from the pandemic that occupied the minds of most people and made many suffer, to the other forms of natural disasters and also political instabilities suffered by several communities.

During this time, many people do not know where they ought to turn to for help, and many people has lost their path. They sought consolation in other things, either to distract themselves from the sorrow, or to find temporary happiness or pleasures, which would not last. This is why we should be the witnesses of Christ our Lord, the Divine Mercy in our communities and in our families, among every brothers and sisters whom we encounter in our daily lives and whom we interact with, and even with the strangers and other people we encounter as well.

Let us all, through our words and actions bring forth the exemplary Christian faith and life that shine brightly as beacons for others to follow, to inspire others and to guide many in their path of life, that they may find true consolation, happiness, joy and peace in God, the Divine Mercy, Who is ever ready to forgive us and to be reconciled with us, and Who is always ever filled with love, in each and every moments of our lives. May God continue to guide us all in life, and may He grant us the courage and strength to be ever more faithful, now and always. O Divine Mercy, we trust in You. Amen.

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Saturday, 18 April 2020 : Saturday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us as Christians are called to get rid of faithlessness and unbelief from our hearts and minds. We are all called to reflect on what we have heard in our first reading on the faithlessness of the Pharisees and many other members of the Sanhedrin or the Jewish High Council, as well as the lack of faith of the disciples of the Lord Jesus as mentioned in our Gospel passage today, which spoke of how the Lord appeared to His disciples right after His resurrection from the dead.

In our first reading today, we heard of the culmination of the story of the healing of a crippled man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Apostles St. Peter and St. John. The two Apostles made many people to believe in the Lord by their miraculous works and by their courageous testimony of faith. They were feared by the Sanhedrin because they apparently invoked the Name of the very same Jesus Whom they thought they had successfully gotten rid of through the crucifixion.

But many of those who were opposed to the Lord and His works remained adamant in their refusal to believe in Him and His teachings despite what they had themselves witnessed and heard, and despite having heard how the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead as He Himself proclaimed and predicted it, something that could not have happened had Jesus not been the real and true Messiah. Yet, those who were opposed to Him refused to open their hearts and minds to believe in the truth and in their hardened state of heart and mind, they were astounded by the miraculous healing.

They even tried to prevent the teachings and efforts of the Lord and His disciples to spread any further, by attempting to contain them through fear and pressure. But the Apostles, encouraged and strengthened by the Lord through the Holy Spirit were no longer the same people who cowered and hid in the fear of the repercussions from the authorities. Instead they openly defied the orders from the Sanhedrin and continued to carry out the missions which God had called them to do and entrusted to them.

In our Gospel passage today then we heard of the disciples of the Lord who did not believe at first that the Lord had risen from the dead, and even when some of them had seen the Lord and shared the news to the other disciples, many among them still refused to believe. It was only when the Lord Himself suddenly appeared before them all that they came to believe in Him and in His resurrection. The Lord reproached His own disciples for their lack of faith in Him and told them to trust Him more.

Now, we may be quick then to criticise those people for having little faith, but before we do so, perhaps we may want to think and reflect of our own lives and actions. Have we not, in our own lives, been doing the same as what they had done? Have we not been disobedient and unfaithful at times, just like those doubters among the Sanhedrin and those disciples of the Lord who refused to believe in His resurrection at first? Certainly we have encountered those moments or times when our faith is being tested and wavered.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the significance of these Scripture passages for us today is that all of us ought to put greater emphasis in our faith in God. As Christians, we are God’s chosen people, all those who have believed in Him and chosen to dedicate ourselves through our Creed in Him. Therefore, we should know what it is that we should have, and essentially, it is faith in God that we need to have, trusting in Him and putting our lives in His hands. We are truly fortunate to have God by our side, and we really need embrace God and His love for each and every one of us.

Being reminded today of the unfaithfulness of men, let us all strive to get rid from ourselves all taints of unfaithfulness, disobedience and sin, and instead begin a renewed life without the corruption of sin. Are we able to do that, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we able to lead a truly Christ-like existence and life from now on going forward in our respective lives?

May the Lord Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord and Saviour be with us always, and may He strengthen us all in faith and help us to be ever more committed in all and every moments of our daily lives. May the Lord be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 17 April 2020 : Friday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we continue celebrating the Easter joy, we are brought to reflect on what we have been called to do as Christians, all who believed in Christ and His truth, His resurrection and glory, and the salvation which He has promised to all of us. In our first reading today we heard how the Apostles faced stiff opposition from the members of the Sanhedrin or the Jewish High Council. Then in the Gospel we heard of the appearance of the Lord Jesus before His disciples in Galilee.

In the first reading, we heard how the Apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin after they healed a crippled man by the gate of the Temple of Jerusalem, and made many people to believe in Jesus and His truth and teachings. This, coupled with the baptism of over three thousand people at Pentecost were seen as a great threat by many of the members of the Sanhedrin, many of whom were the members of the Pharisees and the elders who viewed the Lord Jesus as a fraud and a threat to their authority and power.

That was why the Sanhedrin interrogated the Apostles and were hostile against them as many of the Sanhedrin tried to prevent the teachings and works of Christ from spreading any further among the people. But the Apostles could not be silenced and they spoke with such great wisdom and courage that they stunned the members of the Sanhedrin who knew that the Apostles were merely uneducated fishermen of Galilee following Jesus. What they did not know is that the Lord had given His disciples the strength and wisdom through the Holy Spirit.

And it was with great courage therefore the Apostles spoke of the Lord’s resurrection and their faith in Him as they have themselves seen the Lord risen from the dead with their very own eyes on several occasions, one of which was described in our Gospel today. In that passage, we heard of the Lord appearing by the shore of the lake of Galilee, initially not recognised by His disciples who were in the boats looking for the fishes. The disciples initially could not find any fishes, but when they followed the Lord’s instructions, immediately they caught plenty of fishes and then they recognised the Lord.

Through what we have heard in our Scripture passages today, therefore we are reminded of what the Lord had called us to do, to go forth to the nations and gather the people of God in His Church. What we heard in the Gospel is the symbolic representation and revelation of what the Lord had called His Church and all of His faithful ones to do, namely to be witnesses to their faith and to the salvation in Christ, by being ‘fishers of men’, alluding to the disciples catching the large number of fishes in the lake by the Lord’s instruction.

The Church is often represented with a boat, and in that occasion, the boat the disciples were in represented the Church of God, with the disciples as the leaders of the Church at the helm. Those multitudes of fishes were those that God had gathered through His Church, with the number one hundred and thirty-three representing the traditional belief of the number of nations and peoples that God had created in this world, from the descendants of men.

Therefore, essentially the message that we have received is that all of us are part of this Church, and as we are members of this Church, we also share the responsibility and the calling to reach out to our fellow men, to all those who have not yet heard of the Lord’s salvation and truth. And the readings also remind us that we are bound to encounter challenges and difficulties, obstacles and even persecutions as how the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord were persecuted for their steadfastness in faith and their refusal to back down from ministering to the people of God amidst the threats from the Sanhedrin and other authorities.

But we do not need to worry since ultimately, God is and will always be with us in our journey. As He was always with His Apostles and disciples throughout their ministry and journeys, and with His guidance, all of us and His Church will be in good hands, as He guided His followers in standing up courageously for their faith and proclaim the truth of God to every ends of the earth. The Lord gave them the strength and wisdom to do so, and in the same way we too will be provided for.

Are we able to devote ourselves in the same way as the Apostles had done? They had brought God’s light and hope to a darkened world, and they had restored the hope of many and brought many closer to the path of salvation. Are we able to do the same in our own respective communities as well, in bringing hope to our world especially since so many people suffered through numerous challenges this year alone. Are we able to bring consolation and happiness once again to those who are sorrowful and despairing?

Let us all spend some time to reflect on our calling as Christians in life, and discern how we can best give our lives in the service of God and His people alike. Let us all be the bearers of God’s Good News and also His fishers of men, encouraging more people to believe in God through our own faith and commitment from now on. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 16 April 2020 : Thursday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scripture on this Thursday of the Easter Octave, all of us are reminded of the mission which the Lord Jesus has entrusted to us, for us all to continue His works and the works of the Apostles, in bearing witness to His truth and to proclaim the salvation of God and the Good News to all peoples of all the nations, through our works and deeds, words and actions.

In our first reading today we heard the continuation of the story of the moment when St. Peter, leading the Apostles and disciples of the Lord, spoke to the multitudes of people gathered in Jerusalem for the festival of the Pentecost. He spoke bravely and passionately of the Lord and the salvation which He has brought to the world through Christ, His Son, and the sacrifice which He has offered on the Cross at Calvary.

By the wisdom given to him through the Holy Spirit, the Apostle St. Peter spoke convincingly to the people by explaining the Scriptures and showing how the Lord Jesus was indeed the Saviour of Whom the prophets and the leaders of Israel had been preaching and prophesying about from the time of Moses to the days of the kings, the prophets and beyond. And by the healing of the crippled man by the Temple Gate, this served to prove that the Lord Jesus is indeed the one and true Messiah.

For the Apostle healed the man by the power of the Lord invoking His Holy Name, by Whom the man was therefore healed. Had the Lord Jesus not been the Messiah of God, or a fraud or false leader as many of the Pharisees and the members of the Jewish High Council always argued, then the crippled man could not have been healed from his ailment. Therefore, many people believed in God that day and gave themselves to be baptised, beginning the first community of Christians.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the time when the Lord Jesus appeared to His disciples for the first time after His Resurrection right after He appeared to the two disciples who were on their way to the town of Emmaus. The Lord appeared before His surprised and frightened disciples, telling all of them not to be worried of what they had seen and witnessed, as it was indeed happening as all that He had been telling them about His upcoming suffering, death and resurrection.

The Lord reassured them all and showed them that it was indeed Him Who appeared to them in the flesh, alive and well, and not as a ghost or as a dead being. That was why He asked them for food to eat, as it was known then that spirits and ghosts do not eat or consume any food. He showed them His wounds to show that He indeed suffered and died, and the crucifixion was all real. And yet, before them, the same One Who suffered on the Cross, was all alive and triumphant, having won the ultimate victory against evil, sin and death.

Having seen and witnessed all of these on a few occasions, it is no wonder that the Lord’s disciples were willing to give it all to the Lord and to the mission that they had been entrusted with, persevering through persecutions and challenges, oppositions and obstacles along their way. And although we ourselves have not seen or witnessed the Risen Lord in person, but surely we believe, inspired by the sacrifices of the numerous faithful and dedicated servants of God who had given their all in the service of the Gospel of truth.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are therefore reminded and even challenged yet again to follow in the footsteps of the Apostles of the Lord, all those who have dedicated their whole lives to serve God and to commit themselves to speak up for the truth even amidst opposition, persecution and suffering. Are we able to accept our part in the greater works of the Church, embracing our calling as Christians to be witnesses of our Lord in our respective communities?

Let us all listen to the Lord’s call and give our very best, and let us be more attentive to Him, give Him more of our focus and attention from now on. May the Lord strengthen us all and give us the courage and resolve to be faithful in each and every moments of our lives. May God, our Lord and Saviour bless us all, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 15 April 2020 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day through the passages of the Scriptures in our readings today we are called to recall that hope which we have in God, as we have received the healing from God and have our lives renewed and rejuvenated through our faith. In our first reading we heard of the miraculous healing of a paralytic by the Apostles, while in the Gospel today we heard of the testimony of the two disciples of Jesus who saw the Lord on their way to Emmaus.

In that first reading passage, we heard how St. Peter and St. John performed one of their first miracles as the Apostles of the Lord, after the Lord had ascended into heaven and entrusted to them to continue the works which He had begun on earth. The crippled and paralytic man sat at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple of Jerusalem, and used to beg for money and for mercy from the passersby. When the two Apostles passed by, the crippled man also asked them for money, but St. Peter told him that he had nothing on him except what had been given to him, the power and authority to heal him in the Name of Jesus.

St. Peter showed the crippled man that the Lord has the power to heal him and make him whole, and by His power, the man was restored to health to the amazement of everyone who had seen the miracle, as everyone knew that the man had been a cripple for many years. And this was a great proof to all that the works of Christ had not ended with His crucifixion and death, but in fact was just beginning as He sent forth His disciples to all the ends of the earth to proclaim His truth.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the passage about the two disciples who were on their way to Emmaus, and they had been disheartened and made uncertain by the loss of their Master, Jesus Who was sentenced to death, crucified and died on the Cross. They found it hard to believe when the other disciples said that the Lord had risen from the dead and how others had seen Him appearing before them in His Risen glory.

That was exactly when the Lord Himself appeared before them to strengthen their faith and to make them into even better witnesses of His resurrection and truth. They did not recognise Him at first, and He used the opportunity to strengthen their faith by explaining the Scriptures and reassuring them how everything had taken place just as the prophets had foretold it, and how the Lord Jesus was indeed the Messiah Whom they had been long waiting for.

The moment their eyes were opened and they realised how it was Jesus Who had been with them all those while, they immediately ran back to Jerusalem in joy to share the good news to all the other disciples, testifying yet again how the Lord had indeed risen and how He has appeared before all as proof that He had indeed been triumphant and conquered sin and death. All of these were why the Apostles and the disciples were so passionate about serving the Lord and proclaiming His truth to the nations, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, that many of them suffered and died in martyrdom.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us must have this same passion and excitement inside us to be the bearers of God’s truth and the witnesses of His resurrection. This same truth and revelation had been passed down to us through the Church, through the hands and works of many throughout the centuries and millennia who had suffered and endured persecutions to stand up for their faith and for what they believed in, that is the faith in the Risen Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are called and reminded of our duties as Christians to bring the light of Christ into this world. At this time when the world is facing so many problems and when it is engulfed in so much darkness and despair, we are all here to bring light into this world, to bring and deliver the light of Christ and the hope in Him, to brighten the lives of many and to restore many more people to hope and to happiness through our faith and devotion to the Lord.

Are we able and willing to be that bearer of light and hope in our communities? This is why we are called to turn our gaze to God and be full of trust in Him, so that everyone who see us and witness our words and actions may also find hope through us. Let us all behave and act in ways that restore hope to those who are suffering, the downtrodden and those who are despairing. Let us tell them all that we still have hope in God, and if we put our trust in Him, we will definitely not be disappointed.

May the Lord give us the courage and the strength to carry on living with more hope and with greater faith and devotion from now on. May God be with us always and may He guide us through our lives that we may bring forth this joy of Easter of our Lord’s glorious resurrection to our fellow brothers and sisters in need. Amen.

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Tuesday, 14 April 2020 : Tuesday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Lord speaking to us about the courage that St. Peter had in speaking up on the truth about the Lord’s resurrection before the multitudes of people gathered then in Jerusalem for the festival of the Pentecost. St. Peter called on all the people gathered to believe in the Lord and in His truth, the resurrection that He has gone through and the glory with which He had appeared in His triumph over sin and death.

Many people became believers on that day, and they all believed in the Lord and asked to be baptised in the Lord. Over three thousand people responded to God’s call and became the first of the Christian communities, which from then on began to spread beyond Jerusalem and Judea, as the Apostles and many other disciples of the Lord went to various places proclaiming the Good News of salvation and the Risen Lord to the people in those far-off places.

They all proclaimed what they had themselves witnessed, heard and believed, from what Mary Magdalene had seen at the tomb of the Lord when on Easter Sunday, the Lord appeared before her near His empty tomb, showing first to her before to the other disciples how He has risen from the dead as He Himself had said and predicted. It was this faith in the Risen Lord that allowed the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord, together with the strength and the courage of the Holy Spirit that enabled them to persevere in faith and in accomplishing their mission.

There would have otherwise been no reason at all to believe why these group of people would be so willing to suffer and even die in defending what they believed in, and had they believed in something that is a mere lie or untrue, then everything would have quickly fizzled out and the disciples would have been scattered and the movement died out within just short few years. On the contrary, since they believed in the truth, and truth of God no less, they persevered and passed on their faith all the way down to us today.

On this day we are reminded yet again what this joyful and glorious Easter season is all about. It is more than just celebrations and merrymaking just after we have done all of our Lenten observations and all the penances we have done during that period. Rather, just as we recall on Easter day, that we renew our Baptismal promises there and then, and for all those who have just been baptised all the same, each and every one of us as Christians are charged with this responsibility and calling to be God’s true and faithful disciples.

God has called on us all to be His witnesses and to be His bearers of the Good News just as the Apostles had done with their own lives. He has called on us all to bear His Good News and His light and hope to this world darkened with fear and evil that we may truly brighten the lives of many of our fellow brethren and help make their lives to be better. And we now live through these particularly difficult and challenging moments which have caused many to lose their faith and to be filled with despair and fear.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we willing and able to dedicate ourselves to this calling, our Christian calling for us all to live as the disciples of the Lord with all sincerity and devotion? Are we willing and able to dedicate our time, effort and attention to bring God’s light into our respective communities, both in our outreach to our fellow Christian brothers and sisters, as well as to all those who have yet to know God? Are we able to spend the time and effort to reach out to our fellow brethren who are suffering now?

Let us all be the light and hope of the world, reflecting upon ourselves the true light and hope of the Lord, which can dispel much of the darkness that are currently surrounding many of us in this world, from all the troubles, uncertainties and problems we are encountering in the first few months of this year alone. Let us all be good examples of virtue and faith that all who see us and witness our works may truly come to believe in God through us and come to be saved as well together with us.

May God, our Risen Lord and Saviour be with us always, and may He strengthen us in our resolve and give us the courage and strength to live ever more courageously and carry out our missions in life with greater zeal and devotion from now on. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 13 April 2020 : Monday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard of the great courage of the Apostle St. Peter as he addressed the whole community of the Israelites gathered in Jerusalem filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom of God. He testified before all of them gathered on the truth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, Who then was just crucified not long before and then according to the testimony of the disciples, had risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven.

According to the accounts and stories spread by the elders and the chief priests, the disciples had gone to steal the Body of the Lord from the tomb and hid Him, and claimed that He had risen from the dead. This was their attempt in trying to prevent the teachings of the Lord and His works from being spread much further. Yet, because the Lord was with His faithful ones and because He had sent to them His Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they were all filled with the joy and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, praising God and spoke openly about the truth.

Led by St. Peter, who courageously and openly proclaimed the truth of God’s salvation, the Apostles and the other disciples of the Lord spoke of God’s love and wonders, and called them all to accept the salvation which the Lord had brought into this world through His Son, Jesus Christ. That was truly a difficult undertaking, and also a risky one, considering that before the Holy Spirit descended unto them, the disciples hid in fear being afraid of the tough reprisal from the Jewish High Council.

But they all received courage and strength from God, and faithfully they carried out the will of God, as they ventured forth, beginning from Jerusalem and going beyond to many places proclaiming the Good News and the Gospel to various people and communities who wanted to listen to the revelation of the salvation in God, His love and His compassionate mercy. God has given them this strength, and He has then given us all the same strength as well through His Holy Spirit.

This is where we need to realise that all of us as Christians have been entrusted by God with the mission and the responsibility to propagate the truth and the message of salvation to all. We have been called to be the bearers of Easter joy and hope to our fellow men, in our respective communities and places, to bring hope and strength to all those who are downtrodden and living in fear and darkness, that they too may come to see the light of God.

In our world today, we have many people who are now suffering and in trouble because of the various troubles we are now facing. Besides the terrible pandemic that are still claiming many people’s lives each day and making many more dying at the same time, there had also been many other societal problems and issues, unemployment and socio-economic, racial tensions within various countries and communities around the whole world. That is why it is important that as Christians we become the beacons of God’s hope and light in these difficult times.

This means that we should bring hope to the hearts of others through our words and actions. We should also encourage others who are down, journey with those who are lonely and in despair, and show them that in God, there is still hope and light going forward, no matter how difficult and dark the times and situations may seem to be. Let us all bring strength and courage to our fellow brethren, like what St. Peter and the other Apostles had done, in delivering God’s truth to the people.

May the Risen Lord be with us always, and may He guide us all that we may truly become genuine Christians, all the followers of Christ, our faith and trust in God shown as good examples for all others. May all of us be fruitful in our daily actions and lives that we may bring more and more souls of God’s people, our fellow brothers and sisters to salvation and to rejuvenate hope and light in the hearts of many people now currently suffering and in despair. May God bless us all in our many good endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 12 April 2020 : Easter Sunday of the Lord’s Resurrection (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we finally enter into the glorious season of Easter after all the preparations we have gone through during the season of Lent, the forty days of penitential and sorrowful preparation of our minds, hearts and souls to welcome the Lord, to be with Him and to glorify Him this Easter. On this Sunday we celebrate the great moment of our Lord’s resurrection, when He rose gloriously from the tomb, showing us all that death and therefore sin has no more power and hold over us.

As we enter into this great season of Easter, we are all called to get rid of ourselves all sorts of earthly worries and concerns, and yearn for the things that are above and beyond, which God has promised to us. In our second reading today, this is exactly what St. Paul wrote to the Church and the faithful in Colossae, as he exhorted all of them to seek heavenly things through Christ and set their sights on these, as we have shared in His death and will also share in His glorious resurrection.

It is this very important core tenet of our faith that St. Peter spoke about in his words to the family of the Roman centurion Cornelius, who desired to know the truth of the Lord Jesus, the Risen Lord and Saviour. St. Peter spoke with the zeal of faith and with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit revealing before them all the Risen Lord, Who had suffered and died, and yet rose in glory and brought the same hope of salvation and liberation to all of us mankind who are still ensnared and enslaved by the power of sin.

That is why today we are all called to focus our attention on the Risen Lord, and to put our complete faith and trust in Him. We should no longer be fearful or be filled with despair, as it is exactly the devil’s plan that he made us to fear and to be filled with despair and uncertainty that we end up being unable to comprehend, realise and appreciate God’s wonderful mercy and love towards us. He wants us to be irrational and to fall deeper into our sinful ways, and therefore fail to achieve redemption from God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, at the Evening Mass of the Easter Sunday today we also heard the account of the Lord with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, a village near Jerusalem. Those two disciples went to Emmaus debating and being unsure of what to make of the events they had just witnessed in Jerusalem, with their Lord and Master Jesus having been condemned to death by the chief priests and the elders, and was crucified to death. But they have also heard about the Resurrection and they were still not sure and could not believe of such a thing.

The Lord appeared before them but they did not recognise Him for they still did not have faith in the Resurrection and they still had their doubts, and the Lord walked with them, revealing and teaching to them His truth. He encouraged them and gave them strength by explaining to them the truth of the Scriptures, telling them all that everything has happened as how the prophets had revealed it in the years past, and that Jesus indeed was the Saviour that they all had waited for, and they must have faith in Him.

Subsequently, when those two disciples eventually recognised Jesus they became courageous witnesses of the Lord’s Resurrection, telling everyone passionately about how they had seen the Risen Lord, and how He had not died but risen from the dead, and they made everyone who heard them convinced that the Lord had indeed triumphed and conquered death. That was what St. Peter had also done in our first reading as we discussed it earlier on.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, more importantly for us all as we enter into this season of Easter, all of us must be ready to accept what the Lord had called us to do, and that is to follow Him and to trust in Him, and to carry out the mission which He has entrusted to us, to go forth into the world and to proclaim the salvation of God, by being witnesses of His Resurrection like what St. Peter the Apostle and what the two disciples whom the Lord met on the way to Emmaus had done.

It is also very important that all of us take this seriously and embark on what we have been called to do, especially because we know just how dark and dire the situation had been this year, and how many of us had had a particularly difficult year this time round. We have definitely been preoccupied much by the current pandemic and many other troubles all around us, all the economic instabilities, socio-economic problems and other challenges and difficulties we may be encountering.

However, we must not give in to fear, and we must still strive and do our best because we ought to have faith in God. As we celebrate His Resurrection and triumph over sin and death today, we have to bring forth this joy and optimism, faith and trust in the Lord’s providence with us in our own lives and within our own communities. That is why all of us have to be the bearers of God’s hope and light within our own communities, that we bring this Easter joy to all those who are despairing and in darkness.

Are we able to commit ourselves to this great work of evangelisation and also to witness to our faith through our actions towards our fellow brothers and sisters? Let us bring hope to this world when there is despair and hopelessness, and let us bring love and kindness when there is hatred and animosity among us. Let us show compassion towards those who are suffering, caring for those who are in need of love and attention. Let us brighten the days of those who have lost their way and hope amidst these dark and terrible times.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all truly be filled with Easter joy and commit ourselves to be better Christians in all things. Let us live through this season of Easter and do our very best to make it truly a most meaningful time, growing in faith and become ever deeper in our own devotion towards God. May the Risen Lord Jesus bless us with the strength and courage to live our faith as good and most faithful Christians. Amen.

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Sunday, 12 April 2020 : Easter Vigil Mass, Easter Sunday of the Lord’s Resurrection (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia! After the forty days of Lent and a long time of preparation and expectation, on this very night of the Easter Vigil, we finally enter into the glorious season of Easter. On this night of the Vigil of Easter, also known as the Mother of All the Holy Vigils, we commemorate that great moment of triumph and victory, of light over darkness, of God’s grace and love over evil and sin, and Christ of His victory over death, for He has conquered death itself by His glorious Resurrection from the dead.

Darkness that has reigned over this world because of sin and death have been defeated by our Lord’s Sacrifice on the Cross, and also through His triumphant victory by rising from the realm of the dead, showing us that God’s Light and power are supreme over all things. Not even death has the final say anymore, and death is not the end of all things, unlike what we may have thought. Death is no longer the absolute end, but rather, for the faithful, marking the end of our current despicable state and the beginning of a new, eternal and blessed life and existence in God.

This Easter Vigil tonight is indeed the holiest of all nights and moments in the entire liturgical year, for our very faith and our existence, the whole Church are all centred on this very moment. On that night almost two millennia ago at the tomb just outside of Jerusalem, just before the dawn was to break, the Lord showed us all this new hope and revealed His triumph, as He gloriously rose up from death and broke free from the hold of the tomb. At that moment, the salvation that had been long awaited for came to be, as all those who have patiently waited for the Lord’s coming received the assurance of salvation.

That is why the whole Church and the entire world, all the faithful people of God rejoice this day because we remember how God’s salvation has brought us this new hope that dispelled our fears and the darkness all around us. God has brought us this hope and light by showing us that there is life and existence beyond death, one that is filled with God’s grace and love. Through His suffering and death on the Cross, Christ has shared with us in dying to our sins, and by His resurrection, He brought us all into this assurance of new life.

Without this Resurrection, our entire faith would have been rendered meaningless and false, as then the Lord Jesus would have just been a Man, condemned to die on false, trumped-up charges against Him, dying a humiliating death on the Cross and laid in the tomb. Had the resurrection of the Lord had not happened, then the works and ministry of the Lord would have ended right there and then, and His disciples would have eventually scattered, like the other false Messiahs that rose up during approximately that same time.

But because Christ has risen from the dead, His truth and works remain and has been passed on through His disciples and His Church to all of us. The Lord’s glorious Resurrection has opened for us all a new path. This new path is the way which the Lord has led us into, the way of His truth. All those who believe in Him and walk in His path will be blessed forever and will rise together with Christ, and will be freed from the tyranny of sin and death forever. Death has no more say or power over us because we share in the deathlessness of Christ.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, this year we know how it has been a particularly difficult year for many if not most of us all around the world. Various communities and peoples from different countries have suffered because of the many disasters and unfortunate events that happened just within the past few months this year alone. Certainly we know of the terrible coronavirus pandemic that has claimed many lives and made many others suffer so far, but there are also many other diseases that claimed lives this year.

On top of this, there had been the terrible bushfires in Australia this year, the eruption of Mount Taal in the Philippines and some other volcanoes around the world, instabilities and tensions in some areas like the Middle East earlier in the year that had also caused much concern, fears and sufferings for many people. Truly, many may call this year a year of misfortune, a terrible year, a year of terror among many others. But we must not lose hope, for it is exactly why tonight’s celebration is so important.

This Easter celebration is a celebration of the Christian Passover, modelled after the original Jewish Passover, when the Israelites in Egypt, enslaved by the Egyptians and their Pharaoh, were saved by the Lord their God. At the original Jewish Passover as described in our third reading today we heard of how the Israelites were protected by God, Who sent a total of ten great plagues to the whole of Egypt, causing all the Egyptians to suffer for their refusal to let the Israelites go free. And last of all, the final plague was the worst of all.

The last plague was the death of all the firstborn children of the Egyptians, from the Pharaoh to the lowest slaves, to the lowest of all animals. But the Israelites were spared from all these, as when the Angel of God went about Egypt exercising the judgment of the plague, they were ‘passed-over’ as they had marked their houses with the blood of the Passover lamb as instructed by Moses. They all ate of the Passover lamb that night and were led free out of Egypt to the Land of Promise.

And on this new, Christian Passover, that we celebrate in full throughout this Easter or Paschal Triduum beginning from the evening of Holy Thursday with the Last Supper, we have another moment of God’s great salvation of His people, and this time this salvation is extended to all of us mankind who have been enslaved by the tyranny of sin and death, and put on hold by the evil one, Satan and all of his wicked fellow demons and fallen angels. Through this Easter, the Christian Passover, God leads us all into a new life and a wonderful blessed existence.

On this night, we heard of how God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and from the hands of the Pharaoh and his army by opening the Red Sea before them all, allowing His people to cross safely through the dry seabed. In the same way, all of us have been brought to cross through the water of baptism, as we also celebrate the Sacraments of Initiation tonight on the Easter Vigil beginning with the Sacrament of Baptism where those who are to be received into the Church receive the baptism of the Lord, symbolising this passage through the water into new life of freedom in God.

We all partake in the same Eucharist, the same Most Precious Body and Blood of Our Lord, the Paschal Lamb that has been sacrificed. Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus Christ our Lord is the Paschal Lamb, offered to God His heavenly Father as the perfect offering for the absolution of our sins, and He offered Himself as the High Priest, on the Altar of the Cross at Calvary. He has redeemed us and marked us all the faithful ones by the shedding of His Blood, the Blood of the Paschal Lamb.

We can clearly see that there is a lot of parallel between our Easter joy, the Christian Passover with the original Jewish Passover. And that is why, having went through this Easter Triduum, which is not just a series of separate celebrations but instead a great and united celebration of our salvation by God, on this very night, we join the whole Church in praising God for His great love and wonders, for saving us from certain destruction.

As mentioned earlier, this year has been particularly dark and difficult for many of us, but we must not lose hope just as the Israelites had also then suffered under the Pharaoh and the Egyptians for many years in slavery. And we have suffered for even much longer under the power and tyranny of sin. We must not forget that while the pandemic and all the other troubles we faced this year caused many to suffer and die, but even worse is the death caused by our sins, for the death caused by unrepented sin leads to everlasting death and suffering.

That is why today, as the glory of God’s light is shown to all of us, let us all direct all of our hope towards Him, and dedicate ourselves anew to Him, with a new faith and devotion. Let us all be a renewed people of faith, filled with the spirit and joy of Easter, and may the light of God shine forth through our lives from now on. Let us all bring forth the light and hope of God to all around us living in despair, fear and darkness, and bring that hope to warm their hearts and return hope to them.

May this upcoming season of Easter be a most wonderful one for us, that our joy will be true joy, not because of all of our worldly celebrations, but rather because we have found once again the source of our true joy and our hope, in Christ Jesus, Our Lord and Saviour, the Paschal Lamb of God by Whose Blood and by Whose Sacrifice all of us have been saved and be assured of eternal life in God, forever and ever. May God bless us always, and may He give us all the strength to live with this wonderful Easter joy always. Amen! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

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Sunday, 9 June 2019 : Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we celebrate the great occasion of the Pentecost Sunday, marking the end of the fifty glorious days of Easter. On this day we mark the time when the Holy Spirit came down on the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord just as He has promised to them, giving them the courage and the strength to be witnesses to their faith in God. They received the gift of the Holy Spirit strengthening their heart and mind, body and soul.

The great celebration of Pentecost therefore also marks the beginning of the Church, as the tangible Body of Christ in this world that He Himself had established and founded upon the secure foundation and support of the Apostles. That was because the moment the Holy Spirit entered into their hearts, the Holy Spirit strengthened them and they spoke up freely of their faith and convinced many to become believers.

Three thousand people were baptised on that day alone, and that became the beginning of the Church community, which from then on began to grow and spread throughout all over Judea, and not just Judea but gradually throughout the entire Roman Empire itself and beyond. That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is very important that all of us to know that Easter does not truly end with Pentecost, but in fact continues further beyond Pentecost.

The Pentecost marks a new beginning for the faithful, the continuation of the Easter joy of the Lord’s Resurrection which now becomes the expectation and the joy of looking forward to our own glorious Resurrection to come. And what is known as the Ordinary Time after this celebration of the Pentecost is in fact nothing ordinary at all, for it is the time for the work of the Church to be carried out, continuing the joy of Easter as the Lord has commanded us all.

And in the Gospel passage today, the Lord gave us all clearly His commandments through His disciples. He has once revealed His laws and commandments through Moses, in what was known as the Ten Commandments. And then, He explained and revealed more completely and fully the true meaning of the commandments by what the Lord Jesus stated to His disciples, that is the commandments of love.

It was love that the Lord showed to His people, all of us when He gave us His own Son to be our Saviour and Deliverance from our sins and death. It was love that allowed Him to bear the full weight of the Cross, the incomparably heavy and massive burden of all of our sins, enduring immense pain and suffering for the sake of our salvation. It was love that allowed Him to go through all of that, and through His love, our salvation was made whole and complete.

Yet, He continued to love us even more, sending us the Holy Spirit to be our source of strength and power, amidst the difficulties and challenges we may have to face in this world, the opposition from all those who refused to believe in God, from those who oppressed the Church and persecuted the Lord’s faithful ones. The Holy Spirit brought with Him the power of God’s own love into our midst, into our hearts, allowing the seeds of faith, hope and love in us to grow and germinate.

Yes, to all of us God has given His gifts of faith, hope and love, and the most important of these three is love. For there can be no true faith without love, and there can be no true hope without love. We believe in the love which God has for each and every one of us, and we love Him that we have faith in Him, and we hope in Him because of the love which He has evidently shown us, we can be confident that He is always by our side and will never abandon us.

And for us to grow in God’s grace and favour, we need to have love in each and every one of us. It is love for God, first and foremost before all else, which is the essence of the Commandments of God. If God has loved us all so much and gave us everything we need, life being the foremost of all gifts He has given, then how can we not love God in the same way? God ought to be at the very centre of our very lives and in everything we do.

If we love God then naturally we should also show the same love to our fellow brethren. If we do not love our fellow brothers and sisters then we cannot truly call ourselves as people who love God, because God loves each and every single one of us without exception, from the least to the greatest amongst us, from the most wicked and greatest sinners to the most pious and holy persons. Everyone is equally loved by God.

It is only through love that the gifts of the Holy Spirit will bear fruits in us, the good fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If our every words, actions and deeds, our interactions with one another and indeed, our every breaths and moments are filled with love, not selfish love for ourselves but genuine love for God and for others, then naturally all those fruits of the Holy Spirit will flourish in us.

That was what the Apostles themselves had done. Their love and dedication for God, inflamed into a strong fire by the Holy Spirit has allowed them to do what was seemingly impossible and unlikely just before the moment the Holy Spirit came to them. Where there was fear and doubt in the hearts and minds of the Apostles before, so much so that they hid fearfully from the Jewish authorities, they went forth courageously afterwards filled with love for both God and for their fellow men.

That was the love which inflamed them and helped them to endure many bitter sufferings and persecutions which they and the faithful people of God had to endure, the many martyrs and saints of the Church. The same Holy Spirit was also given to the faithful by the laying of the hands, and as a result, the Holy Spirit of God has always been in the midst of the wonderful works of the Church from the very beginning until this very day.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, now, it is our turn to continue the good works which God has begun in the Apostles, and we are called to follow in their footsteps, for the same Holy Spirit has been given to us at Baptism, and strengthened in us through the Sacrament of Confirmation for all of us who have received that Sacrament. And having received the Holy Spirit and God’s presence in us, are we able and willing to commit ourselves to love God and our fellow men as the Apostles had done?

Let us all contribute our effort, our time and our abilities to be part of the good works of the Church that is still ongoing in fulfilling the mission which God has entrusted to His Church, the conversion and of all of His beloved people, all of us sons and daughters of man. Let us all by our own faith, love and devotion to God become inspiration and examples for each other, and become shining models of God’s love through us, that all who see us and what we say and do, will believe in God as well.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your people, that we will be filled with courage and strength to carry out our mission with faith and conviction. Come, Holy Spirit, inflame us all with Your love and strength. Let us all go forth and continue to proclaim the joy of Easter, of Christ’s Resurrection and salvation to all the peoples, from now on and forevermore. Amen.