Friday

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Friday, 8 January 2021 : Friday after Epiphany (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded that through Christ, all of us have been saved and rescued from our great predicament of sin, that we all have been healed and made whole once again through His loving sacrifice on the Cross. He did all of these by the outpouring of His own Blood, the Most Precious Blood by which He has absolved all of us from our sins.

In our Gospel passage today we heard of the Lord Jesus and His action in healing a leper who sought healing from Him. The man asked the Lord to make him clean from his leprosy, a terrible condition that had sundered and separated him from the community for according to the Law, those who had been afflicted by leprosy had to leave the community and wander off in the wilderness in order to prevent its spread.

Then the Lord reached out to the leper and said that He wanted to heal him. He healed him immediately from his leprosy and he was whole once again. By this He has restored the link that the leper had once had with his community and returned him to a new life free from the terror of the leprosy. And this is in fact symbolic of what the Lord Himself had done to us.

What I mean is that, all of us, while we were still in the state of sin, corrupted and darkened by all the terrible evils in this world, then the Lord has also reached out to us and touched us by His generous love. He has healed us from our sins, which have no other cure besides the forgiveness from God. Through those sins, we have been separated from God just as how the leper had been separated and cast out from the society. But thanks to God, that is not our end fate.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are all called to remember this amazing love that God has shown us, His mercy, compassion and forgiveness. All of us have received healing from the Lord and if we are faithful, we shall receive the fullness of His eternal glory, grace and love. This is what St. John in our first reading today has emphasised, reminding us of the love of God.

The Lord has shown us His love, by the testimonies of water, Spirit and Blood. In two days’ time, we are going to celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, marking the end of the liturgical season of Christmas, and reminding us that through the Lord Jesus and His Baptism at the Jordan, and the Holy Spirit descending on Him, God revealed to all that this was truly His Son, the Beloved One sent into the world in order to save it.

And as I mentioned earlier, by the outpouring of His Blood from the Cross, the love of God has been bared to us in its fullness. By His Precious Blood we have been cleansed and we have received the assurance of grace and salvation. However, many of us are still ignorant and in denial of God’s generous love, compassion and kindness. The Lord has called us and is reaching out to us, but many of us have not yet responded to Him or even shut Him out of our lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us reflect on our lives and consider carefully how we are to proceed in life. Let us all turn towards the Lord and remind ourselves of just how great the love that He has shown us, and how He had suffered grievously, endured the worst punishments and humiliations, and died on the Cross for our sake. Let us all therefore seek Him and entrust ourselves to Him and His love with ever greater devotion from now on.

May the Lord be with us always and may He bless us all in all of our efforts and good endeavours from now on. May God be our Guide and strength in this journey of life. May the Lord’s love be with us and within us always. Amen.

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Friday, 8 January 2021 : Friday after Epiphany (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 5 : 12-16

At that time, one day, in another town, a man came to Jesus covered with leprosy. On seeing Jesus, the man bowed down to the ground, and said, “Lord, if You want to, You can make me clean.”

Stretching out His hand, Jesus touched the man and said, “Yes, I want to. Be clean.” In an instant, the leprosy left him. Then Jesus instructed him, “Tell this to no one. But go, and show yourself to the priest. Make an offering for your healing, as Moses prescribed; that will serve as evidence for them.”

But the news about Jesus spread all the more; and large crowds came to Him, to listen and to be healed of their sickness. As for Jesus, He would often withdraw to solitary places and pray.

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Friday, 8 January 2021 : Friday after Epiphany (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 147 : 12-13, 14-15, 19-20

Exalt YHVH, o Jerusalem; praise your God, o Zion! For He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your children within you.

He grants peace on your borders and feeds you with the finest grain. He sends His command to the earth and swiftly runs His word.

It is He, Who tells Jacob His words; His laws and decrees, to Israel. This, He has not done for other nations, so His laws remain unknown to them. Alleluia!

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Friday, 8 January 2021 : Friday after Epiphany (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 5 : 5-13

Who has overcome the world? The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus Christ was acknowledged through water, but also through Blood. Not only water but water and Blood. And the Spirit, too, witnesses to Him for the Spirit is truth.

There are then three testimonies : the Spirit, the water and the Blood, and these three witnesses agree. If we accept human testimony, with greater reason must we accept that of God, given in favour of His Son. If you believe in the Son of God, you have God’s testimony in you.

But those who do not believe make God a liar, since they do not believe His words when He witnesses to His Son. What has God said? That He has granted us eternal life and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has life, the one who do not have the Son of God do not have life.

I write you, then, all these things that you may know that you have eternal life, all you who believe in the Name of the Son of God.

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Friday, 1 January 2021 : Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, World Day of Prayer for Peace (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this first day of the New Year, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Mother of God, or Theotokos, commemorating the Mary’s special role, privilege and honour as the Mother of God, and not just an ordinary mother like any other mothers. Mary is truly the Mother of God just as much as Jesus Christ, her Son, is God Himself. If anyone were to deny that Mary is the Mother of God, then they are in fact also denying the divinity of Jesus.

This title and honour of Mary as the Theotokos, or ‘God-bearer’ in Greek, was already an ancient one by the time of the first Ecumenical Council of the Church at Nicaea, as is the belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Our Lord and Saviour. The Church through the Apostles and their successors, guided by the truth and wisdom shown by the Holy Spirit had preserved this truth carefully against all the false ideas and heresies that denied the divinity of the Lord and the divine motherhood of Mary.

At that time, there were those who refused to believe in the divinity of Christ and that Jesus is the Son of God, or those who ascribed that the Son was a created Being, less than equal than the Father, the latter viewpoint as believed by the Arian heretics. In opposition against all these false teachings and ideas were the faithful bishops and all those who remained committed to the true, orthodox Christian faith.

Thus, first of all the bishops gathered and with the support of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great who was very favourable to the Christian faith, they commenced the first ever Ecumenical Council of the Universal Church at Nicaea, where the Faith itself was formalised and codified into a firm Creed, which we now know as the Nicene Creed, modified at the later Ecumenical Council in Constantinople into the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed that we still use to this day.

The divinity and equality of Jesus Christ with the Father was affirmed and codified into the Canon of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, and all the false and heretical teachings such as that of Arius, the founder of the Arian heresy and many others were rejected and condemned as false and heretical. However, with regards to the status of Mary as the Mother of God, it would take yet another century before the issue was definitively settled at another Ecumenical Council.

At the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus, another great matter dividing the faithful was the heresy of Nestorianism, which was the belief that the Lord Jesus was distinct in His human and divine nature, just as we believe it to this day, but with an important difference, as they believed that the humanity of Christ was totally distinct and separate, with two wills and two existences.

And this was related to the matter of Mary as the Mother of God because those who sided with Nestorius and his heretical views deemed that Mary could not be the Mother of God as she was just a human being, and that she was just merely the mother of the human Jesus Christ, the person born and distinct from the Son of God, thus, they preferred terms such as Christotokos, or the bearer of Christ, the human Jesus.

This was firmly rejected by all those who held strongly to the true faith, in holding to the view that the Lord Jesus was both Divine and Man, and although distinct in their respective natures, but these two natures are inseparably united in the perfect bond of love in the one person, Jesus Christ. Therefore, this is the core of our belief in the Lord Who exists in two natures, Divine and Man, but united perfectly in one Person, and thus, His mother is also the Mother of God and not just the Mother of Man.

At the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus therefore, the belief in Mary as the Mother of God or Theotokos was finalised and affirmed as a true teaching of the Christian faith, and all the other, dissenting teachings and falsehoods were considered as heresies and were condemned. Today on this Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, we celebrate that great victory of the truth, upholding that Mary truly is God’s own Mother by His incarnation into this world.

It is also very significant that this celebration is held on the eighth or Octave Day of Christmas, the very last day of the Christmas Octave, as the culmination of the peak of our celebrations of Christmas that will still nonetheless continue on with the upcoming Solemnity of the Epiphany. The celebration of the Divine Motherhood of Mary is an affirmation of the significance of Our Lord’s birth into this world, that through Mary, He has assumed our very own human nature, and became Man, that in time to come, He might save us all through His sacrifice on the Cross.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we honour Mary this day in memory of her faith and obedience to God’s will just as we honour her as the Mother of God. If we love our Lord and Saviour, then naturally we should also love His mother as well. How can we not love her when we say that we love her Son? But even more importantly, we should follow the example and the faith that Mary has shown us, in how she lived and in how she dedicate herself to the Lord.

She committed herself so thoroughly to God and obeyed Him, and dedicated herself to the care of her Son, following Him all the way to the foot of the Cross. And from the Cross, the Lord Himself entrusted her to us by symbolically entrusting her to His disciple St. John, while also entrusting all of us to her to be her beloved children in the same way. Hence, we look upon Mary not just as a distant and unknown woman, but as the loving Mother of Our God, Our Lord and Saviour, and also as our own Mother.

Let us all look at Mary’s way of life and her faith, and spend more time with her, by means of prayers and contemplation, and remind ourselves always to follow her examples in every moments of our lives. As we embark on this new year, let us all start it right by living our lives more and more in accordance with our Christian faith and way of life. And as we continue to celebrate this joyful season of Christmas, let us all focus our efforts and attentions to bring joy to the world, and not just any joy but the true joy of Christ.

May all of us as Christians be the bearers of Christ’s Light and joy, His peace, hope and love into our respective communities, families and to all those whose lives we touch. May Mary, the Blessed Mother of God, our loving Mother, continue to pray for us all sinners and guide us in our journey of faith so that one day, all of us may glorify God together with her, reconciled with her Son and forgiven from our many sins. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 1 January 2021 : Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, World Day of Prayer for Peace (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 2 : 16-21

So the shepherds came hurriedly, and found Mary and Joseph, and the Baby lying in the manger. On seeing Him, they related what they had been told about the Child, and all were astonished on hearing the shepherds.

As for Mary, she treasured all these words, and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds then returned, giving glory and praise to God for all they had heard and seen, just as the Angels had told them.

On the eighth day the circumcision of the Baby had to be performed; He was named Jesus, the Name the Angel had given Him before He was conceived.

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Friday, 1 January 2021 : Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, World Day of Prayer for Peace (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Galatians 4 : 4-7

But when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son. He came born of woman and subject to the Law, in order to redeem the subjects of the Law, that we might receive adoption as children of God.

And because you are children, God has sent into your hearts the Spirit of His Son which cries out : Abba! That is, Father! You yourself are no longer a slave but a son or daughter, and yours is the inheritance by God’s grace.

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Friday, 1 January 2021 : Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, World Day of Prayer for Peace (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 66 : 2-3, 5, 6 and 8

May God be gracious and bless us; may He let His face shine upon us, that Your way be known on earth and Your salvation among the nations.

May the countries be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples with justice and guide the nations of the world.

May the peoples praise You, o God, may all the peoples praise You! May God bless us and be revered, to the very ends of the earth.

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Friday, 1 January 2021 : Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, World Day of Prayer for Peace (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Numbers 6 : 22-27

Then YHVH spoke to Moses saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons and say to them : This is how you shall bless the people of Israel; you shall say : May YHVH bless you and keep you! May YHVH let His face shine on you, and be gracious to you! May YHVH look kindly on you, and give you His peace!”

“In that way they put My Name on the people of Israel and I will bless them.”

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Friday, 25 December 2020 : Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we have come together to celebrate the great Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is better known as Christmas. Christmas is one of the two most important celebrations of our Christian faith together with Easter. After approximately four weeks of preparation throughout the season of Advent, we finally begin this most joyful season and celebration of Christmas beginning today.

As mentioned earlier, the celebration and season of Christmas are very important together with that of Easter, and the celebration of the birth of Our Lord and Saviour at Christmas cannot indeed be separated from the Passion, death and resurrection of the Lord at Holy Week and Easter. Without Christmas, there can be no Easter and without Easter, then Christmas would have been a meaningless celebration and event.

For without Christmas, then there can be no salvation for all of us mankind, as it was through Christmas that each and every one of us see the salvation of God in Jesus Christ, the salvation of God in the Baby born in Bethlehem in Judea two millennia ago, the Son of Mary born in the city of David. Through Him, God was no longer intangible and unreachable by mankind, for in Jesus, the Lord has bridged the gap between us and Him.

Through this very important event of the Nativity that is the birth of Our Lord into this world, the Lord Himself has chosen to adopt our humanity, and uniting our humanity to Himself, He became the personification of God’s love, the Divine Word Incarnate. The Word of God and only Begotten Son of God has assumed our human nature to become the Son of Man. In Jesus Christ therefore, we have the One God incarnate, two natures, divine and human, distinct but inseparably united in Him.

Then, when I said earlier that Christmas cannot be separated and meaningless without Easter, it means that if the One born at Christmas was just a mere man, the son of a woman and not of divine origin, then Christ could not have saved the world, for the suffering and the sacrifice He would undergo on the Cross at Calvary would have been meaningless, as the blood of a man would not have been sufficient to redeem us from our multitudes of sins.

On the contrary, if the One Who was at the Cross and died on the Cross at Good Friday was just a divine being that was not also a man, then first of all, it would have been impossible for God to die as a divine and immortal being, and then, secondly, without the significance of His incarnation, He could not have saved us, as it was by sharing in our humanity that He gathered us all and redeemed us, that we may share in His death and die to our sinful past selves, and be led into the new and eternal existence and life filled with grace through His Resurrection.

That is why, when we look at Christmas and rejoice today, ultimately it is because of the Resurrection of the Lord, for we know that this same Child born in Bethlehem celebrated today, is the same One Who was crucified for us, suffered and died for us, and Who eventually rose in glory and was triumphant against sin and death. Through Him, His Passion, suffering, death and Resurrection, we have received a new life and a new hope, and we can truly rejoice because once we have been lost in the darkness, doomed to destruction and annihilation, and now we are the beloved children of our Lord and King once again!

That is the true essence of Christmas that many of us have often forgotten, especially amidst the increasingly commercialised and materialistic nature of the secular Christmas celebrations and events. As many companies, parties and peoples wanted to make profit out of our celebrations and rejoicing, and adapting to the culture of joy of Christmas, they ended up in making us forget what Christmas truly is all about, and for all the excesses that we saw all around us, all these distract us from our true joy and what we should truly celebrate.

Instead of being preoccupied and being distracted by the many glamorous celebrations and events, the parties, revelries and merrymaking this Christmas day and the rest of the season of Christmas, we must look beyond the material and the surface appearances, and go deep into the true essence of Christmas. And this is why we should rediscover the true reason for our joy in Christmas, that is Christ. For if we sideline Christ or worse still, leaving Him out of Christmas entirely, then what is Christmas then?

There is truly great joy among all of us today, but we need to ask ourselves, are we celebrating Christmas in the right way? It is good to celebrate and to be happy, and we should rejoice and be merry, but are we too focused on the exterior celebrations and superficial appearances, materialistic considerations and the excess of secular Christmas culture? Shouldn’t we be more focused on that interior joy and true spiritual joy that we should have this Christmas?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as I have mentioned earlier on, Christmas is about the joy that all of us experience thanks to the Lord Who has willingly embraced us and reached out to us, and Who has humbled Himself and lowered Himself to our state, the wretched state of humanity that He might share the burden with us and took up upon Himself all the struggles, pains and sufferings that we have suffered. He emptied Himself of His glory and divinity in His Passion, and lovingly embraced us through His Cross, by which our salvation has come to us.

Christmas is truly about the Lord Who has humbled Himself, made Himself small and lowered Himself that He may touch us and be with us, that He may reconcile us to Himself. It is about the hope that He has brought us through His salvation, the peace that He has restored to us through His coming, the joy that He has revealed to us and returned to us after all the darkness and sorrows we experienced, and ultimately, the true and genuine love that He has for each and every one of us, all manifested and shown to us through Christ, His Son, the Child born and celebrated this Christmas.

We can see just how throughout history, man had always aspired for greater things, and many had even wanted to be like God, to have power and dominion over others and all things. That was why our history had been filled with so many bitterness and struggles, with so many conflicts and destruction as we walked down the path of conflict and war due to the clashing of our ego and pride, our desires and greed.

Yet, here we see the Almighty and all glorious God, willingly embraced our humanity and humbled Himself, to be born as a Child in a stable barely fit for any humans, less still to be the palace of a King. This is our Lord and King, the One Whom we celebrate about this Christmas, not our pride and ego, our desire and all of worldly things, but rather, the joy we have because God is on our side, and has shown His love for us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this year has been an incredibly difficult one for so many of us. So many had perished from the pandemic and many others had died, suffered and are still suffering from many trials and challenges, directly or indirectly related to the pandemic, and other unrelated issues that had always bogged us down and troubled us all these while.

Indeed, it may seem to be an ill-time for us to celebrate during this Christmas, given the still terrible situation all over the whole world. However, this is exactly what we need to do, as we ought to reevaluate our Christmas celebration and joy. We are all called, as Christians, to be the bearers of God’s Hope and Light into the world, to be the faithful and genuine witnesses of His love and desire to be reconciled with us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect and discern carefully on this most joyful occasion of Christmas, our way of celebrating it with true joy and with real purpose. Let us all realise that unless our Christmas is hope-giving, peace-giving, joy-giving, and most important of all love-giving and life-giving, then we have missed out the true essence and meaning of Christmas.

Instead of grumbling that we cannot have a ‘normal’ Christmas celebration this year due to various restrictions, let us all remember all those who had none to celebrate it with, all of our healthcare and frontline workers who had to work through even the Christmas season, risking their lives and pouring out their love for others. Let us all remember also all those who had not been able to celebrate Christmas due to various difficulties and challenges, and all those who have had to hide their Christmas joy and even their Christian faith.

Instead of worrying that we have received less Christmas gifts and lesser things in our parties and celebrations, lesser guests and lesser festivities, let us all think of how we can give from the bounty and blessings we have to all those who have not been fortunate and who has even less than what we have. If we are still able to worry about such things, then we must not forget about those who are struggling daily to make ends meet, and all those who have lost their jobs and their hopes especially during this dark year.

And last of all, instead of trying to pamper ourselves and love ourselves more, in this Christmas season we are called to imitate and follow the examples of Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. He selflessly reached out to us and showered us with love, and He came into this world and did all that He had done so that we may be saved and be released from all that we ought to have suffered.

Let us all be grateful this Christmas, for the gift of life, for all of God’s blessings, no matter how small they may be, that we may indeed find our true joy of Christmas, and celebrate together as a community, as a loving family centred on God and His love. Let us all truly rejoice as God’s beloved people, and share this joy that we have to the whole world, that even though this year may have been dark, but the Light of Christ in us will dispel even the greatest darkness, and in the end, He Who has conquered death, will lead us all into true joy and eternal glory, forevermore. Amen.