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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 26 March 2016 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Genesis 1 : 1 – Genesis 2 : 2

In the beginning, when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth had no form and was void; darkness was over the deep and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.

God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘Day; and the darkness ‘Night’. There was evening and there was morning : the first day.

God said, “Let there be a firm ceiling between the waters and let it separate waters from waters.” So God made the ceiling and separated the waters below it from the waters above it. And so it was. God called the firm ceiling ‘Sky’. There was evening and there was morning : the second day.

God said, “Let the waters below the sky be gathered together in one place and let dry land appear.” And so it was. God called the dry land ‘Earth’ , and the waters gathered together He called ‘Seas’. God saw that it was good.

God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation, seed-bearing plants, fruittrees bearing fruit with seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.” And so it was. The earth produced vegetation : plants bearing seed according to their kind and trees producing fruit which has seed, according to their kind. God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning : the third day.

God said, “Let there be lights in the ceiling of the sky to separate day from night and to serve as signs for the seasons, days, and years; and let these lights in the sky shine above the earth.” And so it was. God therefore made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day and the smaller light to govern the night; and God made the stars as well. God placed them in the ceiling of the sky to give light on the earth and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning : the fourth day.

God said, “Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth under the ceiling of the sky.” God created the great monsters of the sea and all living animals, those that teem in the waters, according to their kind, and every winged bird, according to its kind. God saw that it was good. God blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the waters of the sea, and let the birds increase on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning : the fifth day.

God said, “Let the earth produce living animals according to their kind : cattle, creatures that move along the ground, wild animals according to their kind.” So it was. God created the wild animals according to their kind, and everything that creeps along the ground according to its kind. God saw that it was good.

God said, “Let us make man in Our image, to Our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the wild animals, and over all creeping things that crawl along the ground.” So God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God said, “I have given you every seed-bearing plant which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that bears fruit with seed. It will be for your food. To every wild animal, to every bird of the sky, to everything that creeps along the ground, to everything that has the breath of life, I give every green plant for food.” So it was.

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning : the sixth day.

That was the way the sky and earth were created and all their vast array. By the seventh day the work God had done was completed, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work He had done.

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Thursday, 3 April 2014 : 4th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Exodus 32 : 7-14

Then YHVH said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a molten calf; they have bowed down before it and sacrificed to it and said : “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.”

And YHVH said to Moses, “I see that these people are a stiff-necked people. Now just leave Me that My anger may blaze against them. I will destroy them, but of you I will make a great nation.”

But Moses calmed the anger of YHVH, his God, and said, “Why, o YHVH, should Your anger burst against Your people whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with a mighty hand? Let not the Egyptians say : ‘YHVH brought them out with evil intent, for He wanted to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth.'”

“Turn away from the heat of Your anger and do not bring disaster on Your people. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the promise You Yourself swore : I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land I spoke about I will give to them as an everlasting inheritance.”

YHVH then changed His mind and would not yet harm His people.

 

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Thursday, 20 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 17 : 5-10

This is what YHVH says, “Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings and depends on a mortal for his life, while his heart is drawn away from YHVH! He is like a bunch of thistles in dry land, in parched desert places, in a salt land where no one lives and who never finds happiness.”

“Blessed is the man who puts his trust in YHVH and whose confidence is in Him! He is like a tree planted by the water, sending out its roots towards the stream. He has no fear when the heat comes, his leaves are always green; the year of drought is no problem and he can always bear fruit.”

“Most deceitful is the heart. What is there within man, who can understand him? I, YHVH, search the heart and penetrate the mind. I reward each one according to his ways and the fruit of his deeds.”

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Tuesday, 14 January 2014 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Samuel 2 : 1, 4-5, 6-7, 8abcd

My heart exults in YHVH, I feel strong in my God. I rejoice and laugh at my enemies for You came with power to save me.

The bow of the mighty is broken but the weak are girded with strength. The well-fed must labour for bread but the hungry need work no more. The childless wife has borne seven children, but the proud mother is left alone.

YHVH is Lord of life and death; He brings down to the grave and raises up. YHVH makes poor and makes rich, He brings low and He exalts.

He lifts up the lowly from the dust, and raises the poor from the ash heap; they will be called to the company of princes, and inherit a seat of honour.

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Friday, 13 December 2013 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or Red (Martyrs)

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

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

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

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

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Friday, 6 December 2013 : 1st Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Nicholas, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Isaiah 29 : 17-24

In a very short time, Lebanon will become a fruitful field and the fruitful field will be as a forest. On that day the deaf will hear the words of the book, and out of the dark and obscurity, the eyes of the blind will see. The meek will find joy and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

For the tyrant will be no more and the scoffers gone forever, and all who plan to do evil will be cut down – those who by a word make you guilty, those who for a bribe can lay a snare and send home the just empty-handed.

Therefore YHVH, Abraham’s Redeemer, speaks concerning the people of Jacob : No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will his face grow pale. When he sees the work of My hands, his children again in his midst, they will sanctify My Name, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and stand in awe of the God of Israel.

Those who err in spirit will understand; those who murmur will learn.

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Thursday, 14 November 2013 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord warns us today, that the kingdom of God is coming, and indeed it is drawing nearer even as we speak. No one but God Himself knows about the exact timing when this will happen. We can only know that it is indeed very, very soon. We are urged to be prepared that when the time comes, we will not be caught unprepared and therefore thrown into the pits of hell and suffer for eternity.

Jesus revealed that the kingdom of God has arisen within each one of us, since the Holy Spirit that gives us life, dwells within all of us. It is with this Spirit that the kingdom of God arrives to us within our hearts. As mentioned in the first reading taken from the Book of Wisdom, wisdom itself came from God, and indeed everything eventually has their origins from the same, one, and true God.

It is the Holy Spirit who dwells in us that represent the wisdom present in all of us. Wisdom is a gift from God to mankind, that we all may, through the Spirit, discern about our lives and what happens around us. A truly wise person is not someone with plenty of knowledge or intelligence, as this is not true wisdom. A truly wise person is someone who realise that the Spirit within them has empowered them to do many things, including realising and preparing for the coming of God’s kingdom.

Through wisdom in the Holy Spirit, the full truth of the works of Christ in this world has been revealed completely, just as it had to the apostles many years ago. Through Christ, God wants to reunite mankind to Himself, by the redemption of their sins and the resurrection of the body and soul from death. That has been revealed to us in the life of Jesus Himself, who suffered for our sins, died, was buried, and rose up from death, leading mankind towards the Father in a similar way.

Those who sincerely believe in God will have no need to ask what the Pharisees and the people had asked, because they already know God’s involvement in all things, especially in what Jesus had done throughout His ministry. These others asked because simply their faith is not strong enough and lacking. They doubted the works of God in Jesus, and were not convinced by what Christ had told and taught them all those while.

They asked for signs of the coming of the kingdom of God, and yet Christ Himself is the concrete sign that the kingdom of God is near. All the prophets had been prophesying about Him, the one and true Lord who would come to save His people, and yes, He came indeed, in Jesus, saving all mankind through His sacrifice on the cross, that a new hope may dawn, the hope of everlasting life in glory in heaven.

Jesus has given us much, as He gave His own flesh and blood for us, through His disciples, and which we commemorate in every Mass until today, for us to eat and drink, and be strengthened by His power and presence within us. Through the Most Holy Eucharist, the Lord comes within each one of us who believes and dwells within us. That is the essence of wisdom that had been mentioned.

For wisdom cannot come without accepting the Lord our God as our Saviour and Lord, and immerse ourselves in the abundance of His divine love. For it is in the Lord and with the Lord who dwells within us, with His presence and His Spirit, that we gain the complete perfection of wisdom as well as the completeness of salvation.

Many would say that science and the present day discoveries and developments prove that our faith in God and all that are meaningless. Why so? Because they tried to use human wisdom to explain what is divine, and in the same way, this is precisely what the Pharisees had done. They doubted the coming of the kingdom of God through Jesus, just because they were not able to see it. They were blinded to the truth that has already been revealed through Jesus and through His actions.

Science, brethren, is in fact not a bad thing. It is how people use it makes it look bad, especially to us the faithful ones in God. Science is our humble men’s attempt to explain what happens around us, and inevitably, the greater understanding we have for our surroundings, for our universe, will bring us to the greater picture, that is the realisation, of how wondrous God’s love for us, and how great God is, in bringing about all creation together, by Himself.

Many phenomena in our universe cannot be fully explained by mankind, and through science, no matter how advanced it is. Why so? That is because many of the important events that scientists have deduced through science are in fact, deductions and hypotheses. These are predictions based on what people think might have happened, through observation. Yet, again, in all these, without the presence of God, everything truly is empty and meaningless.

For it is God who made all things, in ways that our minds and our understanding can never comprehend, not even with the most advanced tools and technologies. It is He who give purpose and meaning to all things, even to our very existence, to our very own lives. How wasted and meaningless our lives would be, if it were to be without meaning, without a clear goal, that is for us to reach out to God, the One who made all things exist.

And the Lord promised us that He will come again, and come again He will indeed! As we all always say in our Creed, that the Lord will come again to judge the living and the dead, that is the moment, when the kingdom of God is truly present and become a perfect reality, when all the righteous ones will join God in heaven, while those who are wicked will be cast out from the sight of God for eternity.

Yet, as Jesus had said, the kingdom of God is already within us, as we who received the Lord and the Spirit that He sent us, the kingdom of God is already within our heart. Inside, the Lord had planted various good seeds that awaits us to germinate, grow, and produce fruits. Therefore we are all expected to give fruitful and indeed, bountiful returns. We cannot be barren nor be useless. For when the Lord comes again to judge all creation, we will be found unworthy by the Lord.

May the Lord our God who loves us, continue to do so, and keep us always in His grace. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 26 October 2013 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Mass of our Lady)

Brethren, bear fruit and be bountiful in all our actions and graces. That is what the Lord wants from all of us, when He told us through His disciples, on the parable of the fig tree. We should not be barren and unproductive, as the fig tree that was barren.

Yes, we are the fig trees, and we have been given much ‘nutrients’ that is the love and the Spirit of the Lord, and this love within us has grown much, and then, comes what is expected from us, that we bear fruits from ourselves. The Lord can be likened to a farmer or a landlord, and this world, His field. We are then the seeds that the Lord had planted in this world, and in time, as we are nurtured in faith and love, we grow tall as a majestic plant, and in time, bear flowers and hence much fruits.

However, it does not mean that we can just remain idle. If we remain idle and do nothing, then we will never bear fruit. Although the Lord can be likened to the farmer of the field, we too are in a sense farmers of the field of the Lord, for we have to toil and labour for the sake of the plants that are ours, that they will grow healthy and bear bountiful products.

Plants can indeed grow without assistance, and even so, they can also bear fruit, but the results are usually not good, and the plant will likely look sick and weak. There are many threats to the healthy growth of a plant, especially for crop plants, such as weeds, diseases, lack of nutrients due to barren soil, heat and dryness, and many other factors. Equally so, there are many factors that help these plants to grow better, such as water, fertiliser, insecticides, and many others.

Therefore, by using these farming examples, just as Christ had done, let us take time to reflect on ourselves and on the actions we have taken in the past. When we look back at what we had done, especially in the past one week or so, have we noticed what we had done for the healthy growth of our faith? You may ask what is the relationship between the farming story and our own real lives, but they are indeed very clear, brethren.

For the plants indeed reflect ourselves and our own nature, the faith that is in us, the faith we have towards the One and True God. The plants cannot grow well or even die, if it is choked by weeds, or being competed out by the roots of those weeds, lacking nutrients for growth, and if the soil itself is lacking in the aforementioned nutrients. In human terms, this can be equated to the entanglement of sin, temptations of the world, and an environment without love.

In this world, brothers and sisters, it is getting more difficult for us, in order to ensure the healthy growth of our faith, that eventually it will bear fruits. This world offers us too much temptations at times, for many of us to be able to persevere, and we often give in to our desires. We become ensnared by the threads spun by the devil, and fell into state of sin. We also often live in environments not conducive for the development of healthy faith in God.

This is where, we need our fertilisers, insecticides, and basically everything fhat makes plants grow healthy, strong, and fruitful. Our fertiliser is our prayers, made in deep love, devotion, and faith in God our Lord. A good prayer life nurture our spiritual development, and we will also then be made ever closer to the Lord our God. Without prayer, we will not be able to get closer to God, and we will be more prone to the power of the devil and his temptations.

Therefore, brethren, let us begin from now on, to develop an ever more intimate relationship with God, especially by nurturing a healthy and deeply spiritual life, that our hearts will be ever filled with the love of God, thus helping us to grow strong in our faith, and ultimately to be fruitful, producing plenty of fruits. Yes, the fruits of the Holy Spirit are what we will richly produce from ourselves, in the love, hope, wisdom, and faith that pour out from the deepest depth of our hearts.

May the Lord who planted the seeds of faith and love in us continue to guide us, that we can nurture what is good inside us, that we can truly be fruitful, producing the richness of love, that we will be found worthy by the Lord our God when He comes again. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 26 October 2013 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Mass of our Lady)

Luke 13 : 1-9

One day some people told Jesus what had occurred in the Temple : Pilate had had Galileans killed, and their blood mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.

Jesus asked them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered this? No, I tell you. But unless you change your ways, you will all perish as they did.”

“And those eighteen persons in Siloah, who were crushed when the tower fell, do you think they were more guilty than all the others in Jerusalem? I tell you : no. But unless you change your ways, you will all perish as they did.”

And Jesus continued with this story, “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it, but found none. Then he said to the gardener, ‘Look here, for three years now I have been looking for figs on this tree, and I have found none. Cut it down, why should it use up the ground?'”

“The gardener replied, ‘Leave it one more year, so that I may dig around it and add some fertiliser; perhaps it will bear fruit from now on. But if it does not, you can cut it down.'”

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Thursday, 24 October 2013 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Romans 6 : 19-23

You see that I speak in a very human way, taking into account that you are not fully mature. There was a time when you let your members be slaves of impurity and disorder, walking in the way of sin; convert them now into servants of righteousness, to the point of becoming holy.

When you were slaves of sin, you did not feel under obligation to righteousness, but what were the fruits of those actions of which you are now ashamed? Such things bring death. Now, however, you have been freed from sin and serve God. You are bearing fruit and growing in holiness, and the result will be life everlasting.

So on one side is Sin; its reward, death; on the other side is God; He gives us, by grace, life everlasting in Christ Jesus our Lord.