Holy Sunday Mass

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Sunday, 4 December 2016 : Second Sunday of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the second Sunday in the season of Advent, a time for preparation and anticipation for the celebration of the Nativity, of our Lord’s birth at Christmas. On this day we heard about the life and works of St. John the Baptist, the Herald of the Messiah and servant of God, and also of the promise of the time of His Second Coming, a time of true peace and harmony.

The readings hearken us to the meaning of Advent, which is anticipation and preparation, not just to celebrate the first coming of our Lord Jesus which happened two millennia ago, but also that of His expected and promised Second Coming, which many of us are currently not aware of and are ignorant of. This is a time for us to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Lord, so that when the Lord comes again, we will be ready for Him.

It is therefore related to what we heard in the Gospel today, when we heard about St. John the Baptist, who came before the Lord to proclaim His imminent coming and arrival into the world to prepare the people, so that when the Lord comes again, they will be ready to welcome Him. It is therefore important that we should heed what he said in the Gospel today, so that we will be able to make full use of this Advent season for our benefit.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are looking for the time of the Lord’s coming, when He will herald peace, justice and harmony among all the peoples, as we heard in the First Reading, a vision that the prophet Isaiah had seen at that time of the coming of the Messiah or Saviour of the world. But before He comes, we have to prepare ourselves, heart, mind, body and soul, so that we will not be caught unprepared when the Lord comes again.

Otherwise, what St. John the Baptist said to the Pharisees and the elders would also be said to us by the Lord. At another occasion in the Gospel, Jesus told His disciples and the people about the Last Judgment, where the good and wicked will be separated from each other. Those who are wicked are rejected by God because they have not done what the Lord had asked them to do.

They have ignored the plight of the needy, the needs of those who are hungry, thirsty, imprisoned and without love, and thus God rebuked them and rejected them. Those who have done what they could to help these needy brothers and sisters of theirs have been rewarded by the Lord with the gift of eternal life and joy in the kingdom of God.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, the elders and the scribes, all of these liked to show off their faith to the people, showcasing their piety to the people to see, but at the same time, they strictly enforced the tenets and practices from the laws of Moses, and made it difficult for the people of God, and they condemned people like tax collectors and prostitutes, whom they deemed to be unclean and damned, without hope of salvation.

And in their hearts, they did not place God as first in their priorities, but instead, they put themselves and their ego first. Why is this so? That is because in all the things they do, not only that they had made it difficult for the people to remain faithful, they also closed the door of salvation to those whom they deemed to be sinners and unworthy, and they did all that they have done in order to be seen by the people and receive praise and fame.

Let us all ask ourselves, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we like the Pharisees in our faith? Have we considered ourselves as Christians and yet, in our actions, we tend to exclude and condemn others because of their supposed sins and wickedness? Have we all acted to enhance our own self-prestige and glory amongst men? Have we gone to the Mass intending to boast of our own piety and look down on others.

First of all, we have to realise that all of us are sinners, from the ones with the least sins to those who have committed great sins. But all of us are equal in the manner that all of us have disobeyed the Lord at one point of our life or more. Some have committed more and some committed less sins, but nevertheless, all of us have been separated from the love and grace of God by our sins.

And that is why this Advent should be a time for us to contemplate our actions and deeds, and remember the moment of our own baptism, even as we listened to St. John the Baptist and how he baptised the people at the Jordan with water to bring them to a turning and conversion of the heart that they abandon their sins and wickedness, be washed through and through and made clean, and begin a new path towards God.

At our own baptism, we have made the promise to reject the advances and the false promises and lies of Satan, and we have made that profession of the faith committing ourselves to God and His ways. But along the way, we have encountered many persuasions and temptations, and some of us fell into the temptation and sinned.

Nevertheless, God always gives us the opportunity and chance to repent and to turn our back away from our sins. As long as it is not too late for us, and as long as we still draw breath in this world, there is always a chance for us to change our ways. Let us all not be like those who always procrastinate, thinking that they can always delay their repentance and do whatever they want first, and delay their conversion and repentance to the last minute.

After all, who among us are able to tell when is the exact time we will meet the end of our earthly life. It is only God Who will know the time. Many people who were condemned and met their end in hell were those who kept delaying their repentance even unto their last breath. They waited and waited, and when the time comes they realise that it is too late for them.

Let us all think about how we have lived our lives so far, and let us reflect about our actions in life. Have we been procrastinating about turning towards the Lord? Have we waited and delayed in our repentance? There is always time before it is too late, and therefore, let us wait no longer. Let us use this opportunity given to us this Advent season to reexamine our lives, devoting ourselves to new actions for each other, founded in love and mercy.

Let us all show mercy, compassion and love in all of our dealings. Let us forgive each other our mistakes and whatever had caused hurt in our hearts and bodies. Let us show love and care for our brethren who are in need of these, those who are unloved, ostracised and abandoned by the society, and all those who are poor, oppressed and weak.

May each and every one of us be able to show true Christian values in our lives, being selfless and caring for one another, and do as what the Lord had taught us to do. Let us not be hesitant and delay no longer, for the Lord is coming, and surely we will not want us to be caught unprepared when that happens. Do not tarry and wait until the moment when the Lord is before us and He cast us out of His presence and we are condemned to suffer eternally because we have ignored all the reminders and opportunities given to us thus far.

May God help us all in our endeavours, and may He strengthen our faith and our resolve to live our everyday life filled with commitment and love for each other and for our Lord, so that when the time comes, we will be welcomed into the life everlasting filled with harmony, peace and true joy as what we have heard in the first reading today, the vision of the prophet Isaiah. May the Lord be with us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 4 December 2016 : Second Sunday of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Matthew 3 : 1-12

In the course of time John the Baptist appeared in the desert of Judea and began to proclaim his message, “Change your ways, the kingdom of God is now at hand!” It was about him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said : A voice is shouting in the desert, ‘Prepare a way for the Lord, make His paths straight!'”

John had a leather garment around his waist and wore a cloak of camel’s hair; his food was locusts and wild honey. People came to him from Jerusalem, from all Judea and from the whole Jordan valley, and they were baptised by him in the Jordan as they confessed their sins.

When he saw several Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he baptised, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who told you that you could escape the punishment that is to come? Let it be seen that you are serious in your conversion, and do not think : We have Abraham for our father. I tell you that God can raise children for Abraham from these stones! The axe is already laid to the roots of the trees; any tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire.”

“I baptise you in water for a change of heart, but the One Who is coming after me is more powerful than me; indeed I am not worthy to carry His sandals. He will baptise you in Holy Spirit and fire. He has the winnowing fan in His hand and He will clear out His threshing floor. He will gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn in everlasting fire.”

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Sunday, 4 December 2016 : Second Sunday of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Romans 15 : 4-9

And we know that whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, for both perseverance and comfort given us by the Scripture sustain our hope. May God, the source od all perseverance and comfort, give to all of you to live in peace in Christ Jesus, that you may be able to praise in one voice God, Father of Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Welcome, then, one another, as Christ welcomed you for the glory of God. Look : Christ put Himself at the service of the Jewish world to fulfil the promises made by God to their ancestors; here you see God’s faithfulness. The pagans instead give thanks to God for His mercy, as Scripture says : Because of that, I will sing and praise Your Name among the pagans.

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Sunday, 4 December 2016 : Second Sunday of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 71 : 2, 7-8, 12-13, 17

May He rule Your people justly and defend the rights of the lowly.

Justice will flower in His days, and peace abound till the moon be no more. For He reigns from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.

He delivers the needy who call on Him, the afflicted with no one to help them. His mercy is upon the weak and the poor, He saves the life of the poor.

May His Name endure forever; may His Name be as lasting as the sun. All the races will boast about Him, and He will be blessed by all nations.

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Sunday, 4 December 2016 : Second Sunday of Advent, Memorial of St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Isaiah 11 : 1-10

From the stump of Jesse a Shoot will come forth; from his roots a Branch will grow and bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him – a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and power, a Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.

Not by appearances will He judge, nor by what is said must He decide, but with justice He will judge the poor and with righteousness decide for the meek. Like a rod, His word will strike the oppressor, and the breath of His lips slay the wicked. Justice will be the girdle of His waist, truth the girdle of His loins.

The wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will rest beside the kid, the calf and the lion cub will feed together and a little child will lead them. Befriending each other, the cow and the bear will see their young ones lie down together. Like cattle, the lion will eat hay.

By the cobra’s den the infant will play. The child will put his hand into the viper’s lair. No one will harm or destroy over My holy mountain, for as water fills the sea the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. On that day the “Root of Jesse” will be raised as a signal for the nations. The people will come in search of Him, thus making His dwelling place glorious.

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Sunday, 27 November 2016 : First Sunday of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the beginning of the new liturgical year cycle as well as the beginning of the season of Advent, a season of preparation and spiritual journey for all of us Christians as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the feast of Christmas. On this day we begin the time of spiritual renewal and discernment, as we are getting ready for the commemoration of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

And as we begin today’s celebrations and the season of Advent in general, let us all take into consideration what we have just heard from the Scripture readings, where we see how the prophet Isaiah prophesied about the coming of the Lord, Who would come to reveal His ways and truth to the whole world, that everyone and every nations may no longer bicker and fight over one another and with one another, but live in peace and harmony in the Lord.

And this prophecy has been fulfilled in Christ, the Saviour Who has come into the world and fulfilled all the promises God had made for His people, and in this season of Advent we are preparing ourselves to celebrate His coming into the world, both that of the past and the future, as the meaning of the term Advent, taken from the Latin word ‘Adventus’ which is translated into English as the arrival or the coming of someone or something. In that word, there is the connotation associated with expectation and waiting, as the precursor to something that is to come.

We may indeed wonder, brothers and sisters in Christ, on what we are truly preparing ourselves for in this season of Advent, but we do not need to look far beyond what we can already seen around us, in how the world and many people celebrate and rejoice during Christmas, and how many of us perceive Christmas and its festivities. Advent cannot be understood separately from Christmas as its existence is intimately and closely tied with that of the celebration of the birth of our Lord.

While in the beginning, Christmas was indeed a joyous season and time when all the faithful rejoice over the Nativity or the birth of our Lord Jesus, God made Man, over time, as we can clearly observe in our world today, Christ has become forgotten and ignored during the anniversary of the moment He was born into the world. The birthday Boy from Whom we got the name ‘Christ’mas has been ignored and overlooked on His own big day.

Instead, many of us and the world celebrate it with many forms of secular joy amd celebrations, festivities and feasts that are not centred in the figure of Christ, and what many children are familiar with in this world are figures like Santa Claus, his supposedly elvish helpers, magical reindeers, all of which elements are distractions for many of us, especially for our children, in how we ought to be truly celebrating Christmas.

We often associate Christmas with great feasts and gatherings, where our children enjoy the parties and the gifts they received, and we worry about what we are to wear to such an occasion, worrying about what we will say when we meet with our relatives and friends, and even what kind of decorations we ought to be putting up this Christmas, whether it should be cones, or stars, or statues of Angels, or bells, or whatever other things out there we tend to be worried about when Christmas time is approaching.

All these things are what have distracted us from our true focus and the true purpose of Christmas. If we do not understand what Christmas is about, then our joy and celebrations will be meaningless and empty, and we will not benefit a single bit from it. And that is why this season of Advent is very important for us, as a time for us to take a step back, stop whatever we are doing and reassess ourselves and ask ourselves this question, what is Christmas? What does it mean to us?

Let us all understand, brothers and sisters in Christ, that in Christmas, we are celebrating Christ Who was yesterday, today and future. He came that time two millennia ago, as the fulfilment of the long promised salvation, and that was the moment when our Lord Himself took up our form and our flesh, becoming Man like one of us and entered into this world. But then, through what He had done, He has saved us all by His death on the cross, and offered His own Body and Blood to us all, so that all of us who share in the Eucharist will be saved.

And that is what we celebrate, the Christmas of the past, when the Lord first came into the world, and the Christmas of the present, as the Lord Himself is present and living in each and every one of us who have worthily received His Body and Blood in the Eucharist. And finally, we celebrate the future coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Christmas of the future, the day we are looking forward to, as He has promised, that He will come again at the end of time to bring all of His faithful ones into eternal glory and life.

Therefore, we can see that Christmas is indeed about Christ, and all the other celebrations and joys we celebrate are secondary. Our primary and main joy comes about because Christ our Lord has been willing to do what needed to be done for the sake of our salvation, and because of that He willingly emptied Himself and came down, the Divine Word made flesh, to be one of us, so that by that action, He may unite us with Himself, and by dying on the cross, sealed away and destroyed all of the fetters and chains binding us that is our sins.

We rejoice in Christmas because now we know that death is not the end of everything. There is indeed hope and light in our journey, and that light and hope is Jesus our Lord, the One Who ought to be commemorated and celebrated in Christmas. He is the Lord and Master of Christmas, the One Who ought to be the focus of all our attention as we prepare to celebrate this annual solemnity of Christmas.

This Advent season is one of preparation and also of longing. We prepare ourselves body, heart, mind and soul to welcome the Lord, both He Who came into the world two millennia ago, and He Who comes into us as we receive the Eucharist, and He Who will come again as He had promised, to succour and bless His faithful ones, all the same Lord Jesus our Lord and King.

And we long for Him just as the people of Israel once long for the promised land, after a long journey in the desert for forty years. By their disobedience they had been made to wander in the desert and perish, but those who were faithful persevered on and eventually were granted entry into the land of milk and honey, the lands promised to their forefathers. In the same manner, we also long for the Lord and for His coming, which timing we are not aware of.

Yes, that is also the essence of today’s Gospel, which reminds us that the coming of the Lord will catch many people by surprise precisely because they were not expecting it to happen. And when He comes again, what will He find in the world? How will He find us at that moment? Will we be worthy in His eyes because we have obeyed Him and fulfilled His will? Or will we instead be caught in wickedness and in sin?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is what we really need to think about and consider during this season of Advent, right from the very beginning. Are we prepared for the Lord? Are our bodies, minds, hearts and souls ready for the Lord in case He comes again? Are we ready to celebrate Christmas with the right mindset and right attitude?

Let us all take some time to reflect on these, and do our best to prepare ourselves thoroughly, so that this season and time of Advent will be useful and meaningful for us, and being fully utilised, we will be ready to celebrate Christmas in the correct manner, having great joy and celebrations, but not for our own sake or for our own glory, but instead, placing the Lord Jesus Christ at the centre of all of our celebrations and our joy.

May the Lord Jesus bless us and keep us in His grace and love, and may He strengthen our wavering spirit and faith inside us. May He help us to persevere through the challenges and difficulties, resisting the many temptations of the world, so that we may be always ready no matter what time or moment it is, for the sake of His glorious Second Coming, that when He comes, He will find us ready and true to Him in faith, and thus be worthy of eternal life with Him in joy. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 27 November 2016 : First Sunday of Advent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Matthew 24 : 37-44

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “At the coming of the Son of Man, it will be just as it was in the time of Noah. In those days before the Flood, people were eating and drinking, and marrying, until that day when Noah went into the Ark. Yet they did not know what would happen, until the flood came and swept them away.”

“So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man : of two men in the field, one will be taken and the other left; of two taken and the other left; of two women grinding wheat together at the mill, one will be taken and the other left. Stay awake then, for you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

“Obviously, if the owner of the house knew at what time the thief was coming, he would certainly stay up and not allow his house to be broken into. So be alert, for the Son of Man will come at the hour you least expect.”

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Sunday, 27 November 2016 : First Sunday of Advent (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Romans 13 : 11-14a

You know what hour it is. This is the time to awake, for our salvation is now nearer than when we first believed; the night is almost over and day is at hand. Let us discard, therefore, everything that belongs to darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

As we live in the full light of day, let us behave with decency; no banquets with drunkenness, no promiscuity or licentiousness, no fighting or jealousy. Put on, rather, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Sunday, 27 November 2016 : First Sunday of Advent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 121 : 1-2, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” And now we have set foot within your gates, o Jerusalem!

There the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, the assembly of Israel, to give thanks to the Lord’s Name. There stand the courts of justice, the offices of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : “May those who love you prosper! May peace be within your walls and security within your citadels!”

For the sake of my relatives and friends, I will say, “Peace be with you!” For the sake of the house of our Lord, I will pray for your good.

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Sunday, 27 November 2016 : First Sunday of Advent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Isaiah 2 : 1-5

The vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In the last days, the mountain of YHVH’s house shall be set over the highest mountains and shall tower over the hills. All the nations shall stream to it, saying, “Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and we may walk in His paths. For the Teaching comes from Zion, and from Jerusalem the word of YHVH.”

“He will rule over the nations and settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not raise sword against nation; they will train for war no more. O nation of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!”