Friday

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Friday, 11 March 2022 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures we are all reminded to be righteous and good in all of our actions and deeds, and to be truly faithful to God. Otherwise, we will be judged by whatever wicked and evil things we have committed, by whatever sins we have done, just as our good deeds will also be weighed in our judgment. In the end, those who are truly faithful to God will flourish while those who are lacking in faith will fall into damnation and eternal suffering. The Lord has reminded us of this as we enter into this season of Lent for our own benefit.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel in which the Lord told His people through Ezekiel that He did not desire the death and destruction of any one of His beloved children, that is all of us. The Lord has expressed the truth that His love for us is enduring even despite all the disobedience and rebelliousness that we have often displayed all these while, and He has always been willing to be reconciled with us, calling us to return to Him with contrite hearts and repentant attitudes, desiring to reject our sins and evils.

He also reminded all of us that all of us will be judged by our deeds and all that we have done in this world, whether by words or real deeds and actions. And no one is truly beyond God’s salvation and grace, as He mentioned how even the sinners will be saved should they repent and turn away from their sins, just as much as the righteous will perish and be judged against by their evil deeds, if they persist in doing so. What the Lord wanted to point out is that there is truly no limit to His love, mercy and compassion, and each one of us are called to share in this love.

At the same time, we are reminded not to be complacent in living our faith and lives so that we do not end up falling into the temptations of sin or thinking that we are better than others and holier in any way. Even if this is true, we are called not to compete about this or attempt to discredit and undermine each others’ journey towards salvation, but rather, to help each other in our journey and way towards God. The Lord wants us all to show love for our fellow brothers and sisters, and not be selfish, thinking only about ourselves.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the words of the Lord saying to His disciples of how they ought to be faithful to God, in all the things they do in life. They are all called to be truly faithful and not just being hypocritical or self-serving in their attitudes. In order to follow the Lord wholeheartedly, we have to be ready to forgive each other, to be reconciled with our fellow brethren, for if we cannot even forgive our brothers and sisters for their smaller faults and mistakes to us, then how can we expect to be forgiven for our comparatively much greater sins?

That is why, during this season of Lent, all of us are called to reach out to one another, to show love to our fellow men, and to be merciful and forgiving, letting go of our pride, our ego and stubbornness, opening our hearts and minds, our entire beings to God’s love and grace. We should allow God to work His wonders and love through us. That is why we are all called to turn back towards the Lord and to repent from our sinful ways, and help each other in this respective journeys of faith we have. It is not a competition, for in the end, what awaits us in God is the same result and outcome.

In this season of Lent, let us all spend more time in prayer and contemplation, deepening our relationship with God and building a genuine connection with Him. Too many of us do not even have a superficial connection and relationship with God, less still a good and vibrant one. We are often too busy to even recognise God’s presence in our lives, ignoring His love and attention to us. He has always watched over us and patiently guided us towards Himself, but it is we who often neglected our responsibilities and abandoned our faith in God.

Let us all therefore strive to do our best to be better Christians in each and every moments of our lives, and this Lent is the best time for us to begin charting our path forward in being faithful to God and in living our lives to the best we can as Christians in our respective communities and places. May the Lord be with us all, and may He empower each and every one of us to walk with Him faithfully each day, living virtuously, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 11 March 2022 : 1st Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 5 : 20-26

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you then, if you are not righteous in a much broader way than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to our people in the past : Do not commit murder; anyone who does kill will have to face trial. But now I tell you : whoever gets angry with a brother or sister will have to face trial.”

“Whoever insults a brother or sister deserves to be brought before the council. Whoever calls a brother or a sister, ‘Fool!’ deserves to be thrown into the fire of hell. So, if you are about to offer your gift at the altar, and you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with him, and then come back and offer your gift to God.”

“Do not forget this : be reconciled with your opponent quickly when you are together on the way to court. Otherwise he will turn you over to the judge, who will hand you over to the police, who will put you in jail. There you will stay, until you have paid the last penny.”

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Friday, 11 March 2022 : 1st Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 129 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-7a, 7bc-8

Out of the depths I cry to You, o Lord, o Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears pay attention to the voice of my supplication.

If You should mark our evil, o Lord, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness.

For that You are revered. I waited for the Lord, my soul waits, and I put my hope in His word. My soul expects the Lord more than watchmen the dawn.

O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with Him is unfailing love and with Him full deliverance. He will deliver Israel from all its sins.

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Friday, 11 March 2022 : 1st Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Ezekiel 18 : 21-28

If the sinner turns from his sin, observes My decrees and practices what is right and just, he will live, he will not die. None of the sins he committed will be charged against him, he will live as a consequence of his righteous deeds. Do I want the death of the sinner? – word of YHVH. Do I not rather want him to turn from his ways and live?

But if the righteous man turns away from what is good and commits sins as the wicked do, will he live? His righteous deeds will no longer be credited to him, but he will die because of his infidelity and his sins. But you say : YHVH’s way is not just! Why, Israel! Is My position wrong? Is it not rather that yours is wrong?”

“If the righteous man dies after turning from his righteous deeds and sinning, he dies because of his sins. And if the wicked man does what is good and right, after turning from the sins he committed, he will save his life. He will live and not die, because he has opened his eyes and turned from the sins he had committed.”

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Friday, 4 March 2022 : Friday after Ash Wednesday, Memorial of St. Casimir (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures and as we embark on this journey of the Lenten season, all of us are called to remember why we observe this season of Lent, with plenty of fasting, abstinence and almsgiving. We are reminded that all that we have done, we did them not for ourselves or for our own satisfaction and convenience. All of these we have done because we desire to seek the Lord and to be forgiven from our many sins and faults, to be reconciled fully with our most loving and compassionate God.

In our first reading today, we heard from the prophet Isaiah, the words of the Lord chastising His people in the kingdom of Judah, where Isaiah was ministering in. The Lord chastised His people because they had not truly been faithful to Him, and those who professed to be faithful, did not truly follow Him in the way that they should have, as they merely paid lip service through their actions. It was mentioned how they fasted and yet at the same time, they oppressed the weak and the poor, bringing sorrow and hardships to others, all for their own personal benefits and glory.

This was what the Lord chastised His people for, which was their attitude that did not reflect true faith and commitment in the Lord and His path. He told them that they could not profess to believe in Him and yet, acted in ways contrary to what they have believed in. Otherwise, they would be hypocrites and lacking in true faith. They have to be truly faithful and not just doing things and obeying the rules and laws just for the sake of obeying them. If they fasted and yet, they bickered and oppressed others who were less fortunate, then whatever virtues and good things they have gained would have been nulled by the wickedness they committed.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord speaking to the disciples of St. John the Baptist who came to Him asking why His disciples did not fast the same way that they and the Pharisees had fasted. Contextually, we have to understand that the disciples of St. John and especially the Pharisees had followed a very strict interpretation of the Jewish laws and customs, and which particularly for the Pharisees, they took great emphasis and care in enforcing that fast and how the fast were to be done, and criticised all others who did not fast the way that they had done it.

This was where the Pharisees had ended up losing sight on the true intention and meaning of fasting, of why fasting was done in the first place. For as the Lord Himself had said in our first reading today, if we fasted and then yet, we oppressed, persecuted and made others’ life difficult, through how the Pharisees had criticised and persecuted the Lord, His disciples and the other people, then what they had done were not in accordance with God, His teachings and truth. They did not fast as how the Lord wanted them to fast.

For their fasting ended up serving their own desires, in wanting to be recognised and praised for their own piety, in their faith and virtues. They sought that glory and worldly fame, attention, influence and other things, that they ended up forgetting why they ought to have fasted, which was in fact contrary to what they had done. Fasting was meant to curb all those desires instead of embracing them, and fasting was meant to bring one closer to God and help one to focus on God rather than to end up focusing more on oneself and their own’s selfish desires.

That is why, today as we remember these words from the Scriptures, all of us are yet again reminded that in our Lenten practices and observances, we must not do them blindly and without understanding their true significance and importance. It means that we should not just fasted and abstained from meat like for example on this day, being a Friday, on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and any other Fridays, but we have to have an interior conversion and change of heart and mind. For fasting and abstinence must not just be an end on themselves, but they must lead to a genuine conversion and change of heart.

It means that we have to grow ever more in our faith in the Lord, and be sincere in our desire to follow the Lord. We must not merely pay lip service in our faith, and this Lent should be a great opportunity for us to embrace the Lord and His mercy and love. This Lenten season should be a time for us to grow more in humility and in our relationship with God rather than for us to show off our faith with pride or worse still, for us to compare with one another who is being more worthy and holier in our ways before the Lord.

Today we should be inspired instead by the good examples set by our predecessors, especially that of St. Casimir, whose feast we are celebrating today. St. Casimir was a prince of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania in the late Middle Ages, the second son of the King of Poland-Lithuania. Even in his youth, he was renowned for his great piety and faith in God, in his many charitable and generous actions for the poor and the sick, as he dedicated himself to the care of the less privileged. He also dedicated himself to a life of virtue and holiness, not indulging in the excesses of worldly living as what many of the royalty and nobles at that time often enjoyed.

Through his faith, life and dedication, St. Casimir, faithful servant of God has shown us all how we can also be faithful to the Lord in our own actions. Are we then willing and able to commit ourselves to the Lord in the same way, brothers and sisters in Christ? Can we be more humble in life, recognising our sinfulness and our vulnerabilities and weaknesses, and at the same time also growing ever more generous in loving and giving to others, in the manner that St. Casimir and many others of our holy predecessors had done?

Let us all make great use of this blessed time of Lent for us to reorientate our lives back towards the Lord, to return to Him and to embrace Him with genuine love once again. Let us all turn towards Him with faith, and commit ourselves to a new life of virtue and faith, renewed with zeal and courage, to take up our crosses in life and following the Lord, walking in the path that He has shown us all. May the Lord continue to guide us and strengthen us, and may He empower us all to be able to serve Him at all times, through our lives and examples. Amen.

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Friday, 4 March 2022 : Friday after Ash Wednesday, Memorial of St. Casimir (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 9 : 14-15

At that time, the disciples of John came to Jesus with the question, “How is it, that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not Your disciples?”

Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The time will come, when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then, they will fast.”

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Friday, 4 March 2022 : Friday after Ash Wednesday, Memorial of St. Casimir (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 50 : 3-4, 5-6a, 18-19

Have mercy on me, o God, in Your love. In Your great compassion blot out my sin. Wash me thoroughly of my guilt; cleanse me of evil.

For I acknowledge my wrongdoings and have my sins ever in mind. Against You alone, have I sinned.

You take no pleasure in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, You would not delight in it. O God, my sacrifice is a broken spirit; a contrite heart, You will not despise.

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Friday, 4 March 2022 : Friday after Ash Wednesday, Memorial of St. Casimir (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Isaiah 58 : 1-9a

Cry out aloud for all you are worth; raise your voice like a trumpet blast; tell My people of their offences, Jacob’s family of their sins. Is it true that they seek Me day after day, longing to know My ways, as a people that does what is right and has not forsaken the word of its God?

They want to know the just laws and not to drift away from their God. “Why are we fasting?,” they complain, “and You do not even see it? We are doing penance and You never notice it.” Look, on your fast days you push your trade and you oppress your labourers. Yes, you fast but end up quarrelling, striking each other with wicked blows. Fasting as you do will not make your voice heard on high.

Is that the kind of fast that pleases Me, just a day to humble oneself? Is fasting merely bowing down one’s head, and making use of sackcloth and ashes? Would you call that fasting, a day acceptable to YHVH? See the fast that pleases Me : breaking the fetters of injustice and unfastening the thongs of the yoke, setting the oppressed free and breaking every yoke.

Fast by sharing your food with the hungry, bring to your house the homeless, clothe the one you see naked and do not turn away from your own kin. Then will your light break forth as the dawn and your healing come in a flash. Your righteousness will be your vanguard, the glory of YHVH your rearguard. Then you will call and YHVH will answer, you will cry and He will say, I am here.

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Friday, 25 February 2022 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded yet again as we have been for the past few days by the Apostle St. James to be righteous and good in our way of life, so that by the path that God has shown us we may always remain true in our path and do not end up falling deeper and deeper into sin. This is important because it is very easy to us to succumb to the temptations of worldly desires and the many other temptations and pressures that can lead us down the wrong path in life.

In our first reading today, we heard from St. James the Apostle again reminding all of us the faithful to be patient and faithful, to be dedicated and to be true to the Lord in our faith and devotion to Him, as how St. James mentioned the patriarch Job, one of the well-known figures of the Old Testament. Job was faithful and obedient to God, and even when later on he was tested by Satan who wanted to see if Job would remain faithful after he took away everything that he loved and held precious, Job remained faithful to the end, and did not forsake the Lord or abandoned Him for the pursuit of worldly satisfaction and pleasures.

Job humbled himself before the Lord and he accepted all of his sufferings and afflictions as his own, not blaming God or others for them. He humbly submitted to the Lord and although he did anguish and agonise over the sufferings, but he remained faithful, and grew to love the Lord all the more, and coming to know what God had truly intended, Job eventually was blessed so much more than what he had lost earlier on, and the Lord blessed him for the remainders of his days, and he became a great inspiration and example of faith for the later generations.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord spoke to us all through His disciples regarding the question that the Pharisees posted to Him regarding the matter of marriage and divorce. In the Law of Moses, according to the interpretation of the Mosaic Law and the Jewish traditions upheld by the Pharisees and the elders, divorcing someone’s spouse was allowed under the Law. This was allowed as long as a certain procedure was followed and a letter of dismissal was made, which in practice made it relatively easy for one to get a divorce and then later on remarry again as they wished.

However, the Lord reminded His people and therefore all of us that this is not what the Lord intended for us. In the matter of marriage, the Lord had decreed from the very beginning that such a union is a union blessed by God and made firm by Him, and hence, they must not be separated. The Church has upheld this sanctity of marriage as it became one of the seven Sacraments, the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. Marriage is not just merely a process or a transaction, but rather a Covenant between a man and a woman, united and blessed by God.

This is again a reminder from the Lord and His Apostles for us that each and every one of us ought to be truly faithful to the Lord. We should not allow our desires and all the temptations of the world to distract us and mislead us down the wrong path. For among the many of the reasons why a person would end up divorcing his or her spouse were the desires they had for worldly pleasures and satisfaction, and the inability of the couple to obtain this within their respective marriages, and hence, adultery and adulterous behaviours became commonplace.

All these were due to the lack of genuine and strong faith in the Lord. This lack of faith, the lukewarmness of many Christians ended up leading many down the path of temptation and eventually destruction. If only many more of them followed the examples of Job, his perseverance and faith in the Lord, there would have been so much lesser wicked deeds by mankind, and many more people would not have committed sins against God. The Lord wants us to be reconciled with Him, and has always patiently sought us out, only for many of us to reject Him or ignore Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore spend our time today and henceforth to reflect on our relationship with God and our actions in life thus far. Are we able and willing to dedicate ourselves more and more to the Lord? Are we willing to lead a more blessed and holy life, one that is deeply attuned to the Lord, obeying His will, His Law and commandments? Are we able to be good role models and inspirations to one another in life? Let us discern all these and think in what way we can be ever better disciples of the Lord from now on. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 25 February 2022 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 10 : 1-12

At that time, Jesus then left that place and went to the province of Judea, beyond the Jordan River. Once more crowds gathered around Him and once more He taught them as He always did. Some (Pharisees came and) put Him to the test with this question, “Is it right for a husband to divorce his wife?”

He replied, “What law did Moses give you?” They answered, “Moses allowed us to write a certificate of dismissal in order to divorce.” Then Jesus said to them, “Moses wrote this law for you, because you are stubborn. But in the beginning of creation God made them male and female, and because of this, man has to leave father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one body. So they are no longer two but one body. Therefore let no one separate what God has joined.”

When they were indoors at home, the disciples again asked Him about this, and He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against his wife, and the woman who divorces her husband and marries another also commits adultery.”