Friday

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Friday, 19 April 2024 : 3rd Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 9 : 1-20

Meanwhile Saul considered nothing but violence and death for the disciples of the Lord. He went to the High Priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus that would authorise him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem anyone he might find, man or woman, belonging to the Way.

As he travelled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?” And he asked, “Who are You, Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus Whom you persecute. Now get up and go into the city; there you will be told what you are to do.”

The men who were travelling with him stood there speechless : they had heard the sound, but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground and, opening his eyes, he could not see. They took him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. He was blind and he did not eat or drink for three days.

There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, to whom the Lord called in a vision, “Ananias!” He answered, “Here I am, Lord!” Then the Lord said to him, “Go at once to Straight Street and ask, at the house of Judas, for a man of Tarsus named Saul. You will find him praying, for he has just seen in a vision that a man named Ananias has come in and placed his hands upon him, to restore his sight.”

Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem, and now he is here with authority from the High Priest to arrest all who call upon Your Name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go! This man is My chosen instrument to bring My Name to the pagan nations and their kings, and the people of Israel as well. I Myself will show him how much he will have to suffer for My Name.”

So Ananias left and went to the house. He laid his hands upon Saul and said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord Jesus, Who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me to you so that you may receive your sight and be filled with Holy Spirit.” Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see; he got up and was baptised. Then he took food and was strengthened.

For several days Saul stayed with the disciples at Damascus, and he soon began to proclaim in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God.

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Friday, 12 April 2024 : 2nd Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard and listened to from our Scripture readings today, all of us are reminded that everything that we do in fulfilling our calling and respective ministry in our lives as faithful Christians, all of these are supposed to be anchored on God and not on our own personal ambitions, desire for worldly glory or attainments, or any other attachments to the world. Unless we allow God to lead and guide us in all things, in our every actions, words and deeds, then we may find that it is easy for us to be swayed into the wrong paths in life, losing our way and focus on the true path to salvation and eternal life. Many of our predecessors had allowed this to happen to them, and they did not end well, just as we heard in our first reading today.

In that passage, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard from the continuation of the heated occasion when the Apostles were brought before the members of the Sanhedrin, or the Jewish High Council, the authority ruling over the Jewish community at the time, as the former kept on proclaiming about the Risen Christ despite having been firmly told many times by the latter not to do so. The many members of the Sanhedrin, that belonged to the group of the Pharisees and the Sadducees both had their disagreements and disapproval of the teachings of Christ and the works of the Lord’s disciples, either because of their different view and interpretation of the Law of God, or in the case of the Sadducees, because they refused to believe in the Resurrection or any concept of spiritual matter.

It was so heated that many among the Sanhedrin was seeking the punishment and even death of the Apostles, but as we heard in today’s reading, a well-respected member of the Sanhedrin, the renowned Rabbi Gamaliel spoke to the whole assembly and told them all that they should not do what they wanted to do out of anger, because if the disciples of the Lord was truly on the right side, and the teachings and works of Jesus were really the truth of God, and that He was truly the Saviour, then as Gamaliel himself said, then the whole Sanhedrin could find themselves going against the will of God, and no matter what they do, then God’s will and providence will still prevail in the end. He also highlighted a number of examples of the False Messiahs that had frequently sprung up at that time, and how each one of them fizzled quickly after the death of their so called ‘Messiah’ in their failed uprisings and rebellions.

At that time, it was common for some people to claim themselves as the Messiah, as after all, many prophets had spoken about the coming of God’s salvation through a Saviour, Who would be born into the House of David, as David’s Heir, and many assumed that this Saviour or Messiah would restore the Kingdom of Israel, reminding themselves of the glorious days of the old united Kingdom of Israel under David and Solomon. That time, the Jewish people were under the dominion and overlordship of the Roman Empire, which imposed its rule on the people, who had also been suffering under the rule of the Herodians, the client kings that the Romans put in place to reinforce their rule over the land. The taxes and other difficulties they faced let those so-called ‘False Messiahs’ to rise up in rebellion against the Romans, all of whom failed, killed, and their followers scattered, and their movement fizzled as mentioned.

Now, compare that to our Christian faith and the Church which God had established in this world. The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church had endured for about two millennia, and is still going strong and stronger. Throughout the history of the Church, there were many forces and plots against the Church, and those who professed Christian faith, and yet, every time, we managed to persevere through all those challenges, growing ever stronger step by step, showing exactly what Gamaliel had spoken to the assembly of the Sanhedrin, that if God is truly behind us, then there is no power in this world that can totally destroy us. Instead, God will lead us all towards the ultimate triumph and victory in Him.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the great miracle which we all are certainly familiar with, that is the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand and more by the Lord, Who blessed and shared five loaves of bread and two fish, to feed the whole multitude of five thousand men and many thousands more of their wives and children, all those who had come from various places to listen to the Lord teaching them and working His miracles and wonders. This miracle is one among many of the miracles through which the Lord showed that He is truly the One Whom God had promised to send into this world in order to save it, as the true and one only Messiah, the Saviour of the world.

At the same time, the Lord also showed that His purpose of coming into this world was not as what many of the people thought He would do, as it was mentioned in that same Gospel passage that after they had all eaten and had their fill from the Lord’s miracle, they all wanted to make Him to be their King, but the Lord quickly went away into hiding, so that they could not force Him to be their King and rose up against the Romans just like so many other of those so-called False Messiahs had done and failed. Instead, the Lord’s mission was in fact far greater than any earthly plans or considerations, as through His actions, and ultimately by His suffering and death on the Cross, He would lead everyone to salvation and eternal life in God.

The disciples of the Lord witnessed everything that He had done, and heard everything that He had taught to them and to the people, and they had seen many other wonders, miracles and signs that He had performed, and when the Holy Spirit was sent to them, and the Lord Himself blessed and strengthened them all, they hence went forth courageously and fearlessly, just as they had done before the Jewish authorities, in continuing to proclaim the Risen Lord despite the trials, challenges, persecutions and hardships that they had to face at the time. They did not let those persecutions, oppressions, coercions or any of their fears to prevent them from doing what they had been entrusted to do, to be God’s most faithful disciples and missionaries in the world.

This is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians, all of us have received this same truth and revelation of what the Lord had taught us through His Church, passed down to us through many generations from the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord themselves, who had witnessed Him and all of His works, and the Holy Spirit Who had guided the Church and all the actions of faithful Christians throughout history. This is where we need to realise that we have the very important mission to be good and faithful missionaries of our faith, in proclaiming the truth of the Lord, His Good News to everyone, through our own exemplary lives and in our every actions, words and deeds.

May the Risen Lord continue to guide us in our journey throughout life, and may He empower and strengthen us all so that we may continue to be faithful and committed to serve Him as best as we can, despite the many challenges and trials that we may have to endure in our path. May God bless us all and be with us in our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 12 April 2024 : 2nd Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 6 : 1-15

At that time, Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, near Tiberias, and large crowds followed Him, because of the miraculous signs they saw, when He healed the sick. So He went up into the hills and sat down there with His disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.

Then lifting up His eyes, Jesus saw the crowds that were coming to Him, and said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread so that these people may eat?” He said this to test Philip, for He Himself knew what He was going to do. Philip answered Him, “Two hundred silver coins would not buy enough bread for each of them to have a piece.”

Then one of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass there, so the people, about five thousand men, sat down. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish, and gave them as much as they wanted.

And when they had eaten enough, He told His disciples, “Gather up the pieces left over, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with bread, that is, with pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

When the people saw the miracle which Jesus had performed, they said, “This is really the Prophet, the One Who is to come into the world.” Jesus realised that they would come and take Him by force to make Him King; so He fled to the hills by Himself.

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Friday, 12 April 2024 : 2nd Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 26 : 1, 4, 13-14

The Lord is my Light and my Salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the Rampart of my life; I will not be afraid.

One thing I ask of the Lord, one thing I seek – that I may dwell in His house all the days of my life, to gaze at His jewel and to visit His sanctuary.

I hope, I am sure, that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Trust in the Lord, be strong and courageous. Yes, put your hope in the Lord!

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Friday, 12 April 2024 : 2nd Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 5 : 34-42

But one of the members of the Council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law highly respected by the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin. He ordered the men to be taken outside for a few minutes and then he spoke to the assembly.

“Fellow Israelites, consider well what you intend to do to these men. For some time ago Theudas came forward, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. But he was killed and all his followers were dispersed or disappeared.”

“After him, Judas the Galilean appeared at the time of the census and persuaded many people to follow him. But he too perished and his whole following was scattered. So, in this present case, I advise you to have nothing to do with these men. Leave them alone. If their project or activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. If, on the other hand, it is from God, you will not be able to destroy it and you may indeed find yourselves fighting against God.”

The Council let themselves be persuaded. They called in the Apostles and had them whipped, and ordered them not to speak again of Jesus Saviour. Then they set them free. The Apostles went out from the Council rejoicing that they were considered worthy to suffer disgrace for the sake of the Name. Day after day, both in the Temple and in people’s homes, they continued to teach and to proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah.

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Friday, 5 April 2024 : Friday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded that we must always be strong in our faith in the Lord, in being His disciples, witnesses and missionaries in our world today, so that in whatever challenges, trials and difficulties we may encounter throughout our lives, especially in living our lives faithfully as Christians and in proclaiming God’s truth and Good News, we will continue to be strong and be able to persevere through whatever trials and challenges that we may encounter in our respective paths in life. We should not easily be swayed to give up our struggles and commitments to God just because we encounter stubborn opposition and hardships in our journey of faith and life.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles of the moment when the two Apostles, St. Peter and St. John, who had performed a great miracle of healing on a crippled man at the Temple of God in Jerusalem, healing him in the Name of the Risen Lord, and afterwards they proclaimed with great courage and vigour the Resurrection of Christ and everything that God had done through His Son, to all those who had been present there to witness the remarkable event. We then heard of the chief priests and the Temple authorities, the influential members of the Jewish community like the Sadducees who refused to believe in the Lord, His teachings and works, and also His Resurrection, despite the many signs and evidences pointing to the contrary. They went to arrest the two Apostles and brought them before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Council.

Those authorities questioned the two of them about what they had done and put pressure on them because they did not want any further spread of the words and teachings of the Lord Jesus Whom they had condemned to death. At that time, the news about the Lord’s Resurrection had spread quickly to many people, and He has also shown Himself to many of His disciples, who eagerly went forth after Pentecost to proclaim what the Lord had told them to preach joyously, of the salvation which He has reassured us, and of His glorious Resurrection by which He has conquered death itself, and broken forever the chains and dominion of sin over all of us. Many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees among the members of the Sanhedrin refused to believe in the Lord because of their differences with what the Lord taught and stubborn attitudes.

The Pharisees opposed the Lord because they disagreed with Him regarding how the Law of God should be observed, practiced and enforced. They adopted a very strict interpretation of the Law and commandments of God, which led them to be criticised by the Lord for their failure to appreciate and understand the true purpose and meaning of the Law of God, as He Himself revealed to everyone the truth about the Law, and what the Law is truly all about, bringing God’s people closer to Him and teaching them to love Him and one another instead of being an oppressive set of excessive rules and regulations that made it difficult for many to follow the Lord. Meanwhile, the Sadducees who did not believe in the concept of resurrection, refused to believe in the Resurrection of the Lord, and did what they could to oppose the spread of this fact.

The Gospel passage today then reminded all of us that despite all of those challenges and difficulties, we must always remain firm in our faith in God, as the Lord will guide us to our destination and path, providing us with help and assistance along the way. He will not abandon us to the darkness or destruction, but will show us the advice and help so that we may find our way to Him, just as we heard in that Gospel passage. In that account from the Gospel of St. John we heard of the moment when the disciples of the Lord went to Galilee just as the Lord had instructed to them. There, they had been spending the night fishing at the Lake of Galilee without much success, catching no fish at all despite all of their efforts throughout the whole entire night.

That was when the Risen Lord appeared to them by the shore, telling them how to get good catch, and we heard how they immediately got so many fishes that their boats almost sank. That was when St. Peter immediately recognised the Risen Lord and went right to Him, swimming towards Him from the boat. This moment was an important one for the Lord’s disciples and for us because through that, we are reminded that by following the Lord, His will and commandments, we will have His blessings and help throughout our journey and struggles in life, and with God and His grace, our works and efforts will eventually bear many rich fruits and products. Without the guidance of God, like how the disciples failed to catch any fish earlier on, then no matter what efforts we put in, all of them may be futile in the end.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded that we must always keep our focus in the Lord, and trust Him in His providence and guidance. We must not allow worldly temptations, challenges and difficulties to distract us and to persuade or coerce us to give up our faith in God. Instead, all those trials, tribulations and challenges should in fact strengthen our commitments to God, as we should recall how the Lord Himself has suffered and endured the same kind of persecutions, challenges and trials throughout His ministry and then later on with His Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross. We are not alone in this journey, suffering and tribulations, as we are carrying our crosses together with the Lord.

That is why it is important that we continue to be faithful to God in all things, trusting in Him to lead and guide us down the right path, and helping us to overcome the many challenges around us, persevering through whatever opposition, persecutions and rejections that may come our way. May the Risen Lord continue to be with us, guiding and strengthening us so that in each and every moments, we will always continue to walk ever more faithfully in His Presence, becoming good and worthy witnesses of His Resurrection and truth, at all times. Amen.

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Friday, 5 April 2024 : Friday within Easter Octave (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 21 : 1-14

At that time, after Jesus appeared to Thomas and His disciples, He revealed Himself to them by the lake of Tiberias. He appeared to them in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas who was called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples were together; and Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They replied, “We will come with you.” And they went out and got into the boat, but they caught nothing that night.

When day had already broken, Jesus was standing on the shore, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus called them, “Friends, have you anything to eat?” They answered, “Nothing.” Then He said to them, “Throw the net on the right side of the boat and you will find something.” When they had lowered the net, they were not able to pull it in because of the great number of fish.”

Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” At these words, “It is the Lord!” Simon Peter put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and jumped into the water. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish; they were not far from land, about a hundred metres.

When they landed, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed into the boat and pulled the net to shore. It was full of big fish – one hundred and fifty-three – but, in spite of this, the net was not torn.

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” And not one of the disciples dared to ask Him, “Who are You?” for they knew it was the Lord. Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and He did the same with the fish. This was the third time that Jesus revealed Himself to His disciples after rising from the dead.

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Friday, 5 April 2024 : Friday within Easter Octave (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 117 : 1-2 and 4, 22-24, 25-27a

Alleluia! Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His loving kindness endures forever. Let Israel say, “His loving kindness endures forever.” Let those who fear the Lord say, “His loving kindness endures forever.”

The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing and we marvel at it. This is the day the Lord has made; so let us rejoice and be glad.

Save us, o Lord, deliver us, o Lord! Blessed is He Who comes in the Lord’s Name! We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God; may His light shine upon us.

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Friday, 5 April 2024 : Friday within Easter Octave (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 4 : 1-12

While Peter and John were still speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the Temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them. They were greatly disturbed because the Apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming that resurrection from the dead had been proved in the case of Jesus.

Since it was already evening, they arrested them and put them in custody until the following day. But despite this, many of those who heard the Message believed and their number increased to about five thousand. The next day, the Jewish leaders, elders and teachers of the Law assembled in Jerusalem. Annas, the High Priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all who were of the high priestly class were there.

They brought Peter and John before them and began to question them, “How did you do this? Whose Name did you use?” Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke up, “Leaders of the people! Elders! It is a fact that we are being examined today for a good deed done to a cripple. How was he healed? You and all the people of Israel must know that this man stands before you cured through the Name of Jesus Christ the Nazarean.”

“You had Him crucified, but God raised Him from the dead. Jesus is the stone rejected by you the builders which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other Name given to humankind all over the world by which we may be saved.”

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Friday, 29 March 2024 : Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is Good Friday, the day marking Our Lord’s suffering and death on the Cross at Calvary. On this day we remember primarily everything that Our Lord Jesus Himself had done in bearing up all the burdens of our many sins and wickedness, all the evils and corruptions we have had in our lives, the punishments due to them, as He willingly sacrificed and offered Himself on our behalf, giving us the assurance of eternal life and salvation because He, the Paschal Lamb and the High Priest of all of us mankind, had given Himself up and offered Himself as the perfect and worthy for the atonement of all of our many and innumerable sins. It was indeed Good Friday because while we are sorrowful over the suffering and death of Our Lord, but it was indeed ‘Good’ because through this event, all of us have received the assurance of salvation and eternal life.

In order to appreciate and understand this better, we have to go back all the way to the very beginning of time, at the moment of Creation. The Lord created all of creation, all of the whole Universe, and each and every one of the living things in it, and ultimately all of us mankind because He has loved everything that He has created, and He wants to share this overflowing love with each and every one of us. That was why He had created us, and yet, our ancestors from the beginning chose to disobey Him, disregard His commandments and guides, trusting instead in the falsehoods and lies of Satan, who tempted them to sin. They chose to eat from the fruits of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which God had told them not to eat from, and thereafter, they sinned against God and were cast out of the Gardens of Eden.

God has always intended for us to enjoy the fullness of His love and grace, and we were never intended to suffer in this world as what we and our ancestors have been experiencing. But it was by our own conscious choice to disobey the Lord, rejecting His generous offer of love, compassion and mercy, His guidance and help, which He has always provided to us along throughout our whole lives, we have therefore turned away from His love and grace, and having to endure the consequences and punishments because of those sins which we have committed. It was never His intention to punish us or see us destroyed, as if He had wished us to be destroyed, He could have just easily done it with the mere whim of His thought and will from the very beginning.

Instead, God has assured all of us that He would be sending us His Saviour, the One Who would bring about the deliverance of all mankind, the whole entire world from the power of sin, evil and death, all of which had dominated over us for a long period of time, as He would not let us all to suffer forever under their dominion and power. From the beginning, the Lord had already proclaimed the ultimate defeat of the evil one, and how He would avenge our forefathers, while gathering all of His faithful ones, all those who cling on to His truth and love, from being scattered all throughout this world, through none other than His own beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus, Who as our Good Shepherd and Guide, laid down His life for us because of His love for us.

In our first reading today, we heard from the passage taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, in which the Lord told His people through Isaiah of the prophecy of the coming of the Suffering Servant, the same One Whom God would send into the world to save His people. We heard of how Isaiah described that this Servant of God would face beatings, hardships, sufferings and pains for our sake and on our behalf, so that by His wounds and hurts, His injuries and pains, all of us would be healed and brought towards God’s salvation and grace. This was indeed the prophecy of everything that would happen to Jesus Christ at the moment of His Passion, when He suffered greatly, bearing His Cross and enduring the worst and most humiliating punishments known then, reserved only for the worst criminals.

For the crucifixion was the Romans’ ultimate form of punishment, reserved to the worst offenders and criminals, for those who were found to deserve death for their crimes. In particular, most crucifixions in fact did not involve the criminals being nailed to the Cross, but rather only being hung there on their respective crosses until they all died from thirst and exhaustion, or until they died when their legs were broken if they had not yet died. The Lord’s crucifixion was much worse because He was not just hung on the Cross, but pierced by the nails on His hands and feet, and He was also lashed and tortured, forced to wear the painful crown on thorns upon His head, bleeding and wounded from all over His entire body, stripped and humiliated before everyone to see His Suffering Self.

Thus in the Crucifixion of Our Lord at Calvary, everything that God had promised and prophesied through the prophet Isaiah came true, and as the author of the Epistle of the Hebrews mentioned in our second reading passage today, He, as Our one and true Eternal High Priest, Who has taken up our human nature and existence, obeyed His Father’s will so perfectly, so that He, as the New Adam, would come to the ‘Tree’ of the Cross, and obeying what God has planned for all of us, for our salvation, He would lead us all out of the darkness and reconciling us to our loving and ever merciful Father, Whom we can call Father because Jesus Himself, as the Son of God, through His Incarnation, has become one of us, sharing our human nature, and therefore, we share in His Sonship, becoming the adopted sons and daughters of God.

And through His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus as the New Adam, by His perfect obedience, showed us all the way out of our disobedience, as once caused by the disobedience of the first Adam, and his wife Eve. Together with Mary, His blessed Mother, who is the new Eve, the Lord showed us all the path that we all should follow in our journey towards God, in our pursuit of His salvation and grace. While our forefathers had chosen to disobey the Lord, eating the forbidden fruits of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and wanting to become like God, the Lord Jesus Himself showed us the exact opposite. He showed us all not just perfect obedience, but how God willingly humbled and emptied Himself, that He became a humble being like us, in our broken and imperfect human existence, just like us, with the exception of being without any sin.

Thus, we can see clearly here the opposite ideals shown in the Book of Genesis, when mankind’s fall happened because of a Tree and their disobedience, listening to Satan’s lies and allowing themselves to be swayed by those lies, and being driven by their desires and the temptations in their hearts, on the other hand, mankind’s salvation and return to grace came about because of the other Tree, the Tree of the Cross, upon which the Saviour Himself, the Son and Word of God Incarnate, chose to willingly suffer and die for our sake, in emptying Himself from all glory, and in humbly submitting Himself to His heavenly Father’s will, rejecting earlier on the three temptations of the same Satan, who failed to tempt the Lord with worldly power and glory in the desert.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, having understood better the greater idea and appreciation behind the means that the Lord had chosen in saving us, by reversing everything that had happened through our downfall into sin, and raising us up again through His obedience and His Cross, He showed us all the perfect path to redemption. Through His offering as our High Priest and sacrifice of His own Most Precious Body and Blood, broken and outpoured for us from His Cross, He has given us all the perfect offering in atonement for our sins, that no earthly means can give us. Our Paschal Lamb, Christ Himself, has suffered, died and was slain, sacrificed on the Altar of the Cross, and by His offering, truly worthy and acceptable, a most selfless and loving sacrifice made for us, He has saved us all.

Through His suffering and death, Christ has united each and every one of us to His death, which we share through our baptism, where we commit to die to our past sinful way of life, and we are reminded of this fact every time we renew our baptismal promises at Easter. And then, as we are about to celebrate with Easter in just over a day’s time, through His glorious Resurrection, Christ also united us all to His Resurrection, and we are brought into new existence and life, one that is no longer put under the power and dominion of sin and death, but one that is instead filled with God’s grace and love, and directed towards His Holy Presence, bound for eternal life.

That is why each and every one of us should make good use of the time and opportunities which God has given us, and the love He has shown us all from His Cross. As we gaze upon the Cross, looking upon our Crucified Messiah, let us all come to realise that every single wounds inflicted upon Him are our sins, caused by our disobedience against God and our folly in thinking that we know it better than to follow God and His path as we should have done. Let us all keep our focus upon the Cross, with sorrow and regret in our hearts for the many sins which we have committed in our respective lives, and from there, coming with the strong desire to seek God’s forgiveness and mercy, embracing His Son’s most loving sacrifice on the Cross. Let us all embark on this journey of faith, to enter into God’s Redemption and grace, and to be once again in His Loving Presence.

May the Lord Jesus Christ, our Crucified Messiah, be with us always in our journey of faith and life, so that we may also bear our crosses in life and follow Him faithfully. May He continue to help and guide us all, carrying His Cross together with us so that we may continue to persevere and do our best in enduring the many challenges and trials that we may encounter in our journey as Christians, in living our lives ever more faithfully in the path that God has shown and taught us. May God bless us all, at all times, and may He strengthen us all in faith, that we may draw ever closer to Him, now and always. Amen.