hope in the Lord

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Thursday, 3 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the word of God spoken through the Holy Scriptures, where we heard about how the people doubted what the Lord Jesus had done, and even accused Him of colluding with the devil and his forces in order to perform the miraculous things that He had done. It was indeed sad to witness such a turn of events, and surely many of us are asking, why is it so?

It is because their hearts had been hardened by prejudice, by selfishness, by stubbornness, and by worldly desires of men, who sought to satisfy themselves first at the expense of others. They hardened their hearts because Jesus spoke the truth to them, and the truth to these people was not something that is good or appealing. For it was revealed the extent of their sinfulness, and how wicked they had been.

And they had not changed in their ways of life. They resorted to wicked and unholy things, and they refused when someone came telling them to turn away from their paths. That is the nature of our human pride, our ego, that we are reluctant to admit that we are wrong and that the other person or people were right. Our ego and ambition prevented us from looking humbly at things and instead of rectifying the issues at hand, we ended up perpetuating the bad things we have done.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are all called to reject all sorts of ego and human pride, and all the negative emotions and wickedness inside each one of us. And why is this very important, brethren? What Jesus our Lord had told us this day also ring true in its other meaning and reminder to us. When He spoke of a kingdom being divided against itself will fall, it also spoke about the same division that is currently inflicted in us.

What does this mean? Let us look at the state of the Church itself, brothers and sisters, that we have so many people who professed faith in the Lord, and yet equally as many professed the faith in their own ways, and many followed their own versions of the faith, refusing to obey the Lord and His Church, of which there is only one, the One and only Holy Mother Church, the Catholic Church.

God established His Church on earth through His Apostles and the other disciples, who continued His mission through many places and from cities to cities, as more and more people come to believe in the Lord. But it was human ego and pride that made them to start to be distracted and be swayed in their path towards God. And instead of listening to the Lord and obeying His commandment through His Church, they chose to forge their own path and broke apart the unity of the Church.

And thus the scandal of disunity was born, and many Christians everywhere were divided against each other, and many refused to listen to the call of God calling them to return to the Holy Mother Church. They accused one another and calling each other liars and sinners, while they themselves did not look at their own sins and wrongdoings. And these are what we should avoid doing in this season of Lent.

Rather, God is calling us to work hard and to labour for unity, for the complete reunification of His Church, the Body of our Lord consisting of all those who professed true faith in God and in full obedience to Him in the unity of His Church under the authority of St. Peter and his successors, the Popes as well as the bishops united to the authority of the Vicar of Christ.

And so, let us all, brethren in Christ, work together as one to overcome our human emotions and challenges that had become our obstacles in the path to true unity, and let us help to restore the unity of the faithful in God’s Church, by learning to be humble, and to preach humility, so that all those who have left the true faith by following their own paths may return in humility and together we may find our way to God and to His salvation. May God bless us all, His Church. Amen.

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Thursday, 3 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 94 : 1-2, 6-7, 8-9

Come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful sound to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him giving thanks, with music and songs of praise.

Come and worship; let us bow down, kneel before the Lord, our Maker. He is our God, and we His people; the flock He leads and pastures. Would that today you heard His voice!

Do not be stubborn, as at Meribah, in the desert, on that day in Massah, when your ancestors challenged Me, and they put Me to the test.

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Wednesday, 2 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about God Who had given us all His laws and covenant, the commandments and guide on how we ought to live out our lives, in full alignment to His ways and in full and perfect obedience to His laws and ordinances. If we say that we are Christians, then indeed all of us have to be those who do the will of God with all of us heart’s zeal and strength.

In the Gospel today, Jesus challenged the teachers of the Law, the Pharisees and the elders of Israel for their aberration and their twisted following and observance of the Law of God. These people called themselves as pious and holy people, and they maintained that they have been obedient and observant of God’s laws and ordinances, by maintaining close observation and preservation of the laws according to Moses.

But they have not been obedient in the way that God wanted them to. They thought that Jesus tried to destroy and alter the laws that they had tried to protect for many years and generations, without knowing that whatever they attempted to protect had been twisted and turned away from the truth due to years of corruption by human interests and ego.

Yes, this means that instead of truly using the Law to seek out the Lord and to love Him more in all things, they have used the Law to oppress the people, to force upon them customs, observances and rituals that were done for the sake of doing them, and which did not help to bring God’s people closer to God. In all their attempts, they were only trying to satisfy their human needs, the need for praise and adulation for their ‘faith’ rather than true love for the Lord.

Our Lord Jesus showed them the errors of their ways, and thus, He was showing it to us all as well. It was not by showing off our faith, or by public display of prayers and piety that we can be saved, but it is through real and concrete dedication of ourselves, our efforts and our whole beings for the love and the commitment we can show to the Lord.

This means that we should do all things that God had asked us to do, His commandments and laws, because in the first place, we know that we are sinners, and we have been delinquents and rebels, stubborn people who had refused to listen to God in many occasions, and now, knowing that God is full of mercy to all those who are willing to turn from their evil ways and return to Him, then we want to make a difference in our own lives.

How to do so, brothers and sisters in Christ? In this season of Lent in particular, it is the perfect opportunity for us all to renew our faith and to restart our own lives on the path towards righteousness and salvation in God. We cannot call ourselves true Christians if we do not act and behave like one. Being Christians mean that we imitate our Lord Himself in all the things that He had done, and He had indeed shown all these through Jesus His Son, Who came into the world in order to save us.

And this means that we should show care and concern for the poor, for those who are less fortunate than us, either because they had less things than us, or having even little or none to eat and drink, and also those who were unloved and ostracised from the society, making sure that we ourselves do not participate in actions that bring about misery upon others for our own benefits.

Therefore, let us all pray, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we may become ever better and more faithful disciples of our Lord through real action, and may all of us in this season of Lent be completely and thoroughly converted to the Lord. Let us all turn our every effort, our every focus and attention to God and His ways, and let us sin no more, but do His will from now on with proper understanding, and with genuine love for Him and for our fellow brethren, God’s same children. Amen.

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Wednesday, 2 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Deuteronomy 4 : 1, 5-9

And now, Israel, listen to the norms and laws which I teach that you may put them into practice. And you will live and enter and take possession of the land which YHVH, the God of your fathers, gives you.

See, as YHVH, my God, ordered me, I am teaching you the norms and the laws that you may put them into practice in the land you are going to enter and have as your own. If you observe and practice them, other peoples will regard you as wise and intelligent. When they come to know of all these laws, they will say, “There is no people as wise and as intelligent as this great nation.”

For in truth, is there a nation as great as ours, whose gods are as near to it as YHVH, our God, is to us whenever we call upon Him? And is there a nation as great as ours whose norms and laws are just as this Law which I give you today? But be careful and be on your guard. Do not forget these things which your own eyes have seen nor let them depart from your heart as long as you live. But on the contrary, teach them to your children and to your children’s children.

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Tuesday, 1 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the passage from the Holy Scriptures, which message is very clear, asking us all to practice mercy and forgiveness in all things, as well as humility and sincerity in seeking to purify ourselves and free ourselves from our chains and bonds of sinfulness. We should not judge others unjustly and thinking that we are in the position to place ourselves as better than others, as we too were once sinners like them.

We heard Jesus speaking to Peter and to His other disciples, when he asked Him about forgiveness of those who have slighted or offended them. When we look at how mankind normally deal with this, our human nature would have made us to be angry against those who have slighted us, and we would have sought to make a revenge against them, and inflict on them the same pain that they have caused to us.

But Jesus reacted otherwise and told us to do things differently. He told Peter and the other disciples to forgive those who have wronged them, many, many times. Jesus told Peter not just to forgive seven times, but seventy-seven times. Did Jesus tell Peter and the other disciples to literally forgive their enemies seventy-seven times precisely? No, it is not what Jesus meant.

What Jesus wanted from them, and thus from all of us is that we all should learn to forgive one another our sins, so that we may always learn to let go of our anger, our jealousy and all of our hatred on others, and learn to forgive those who have caused us harm and those who have ill-intent on us. That means, we must have the heart to forgive others, and must have the heart filled with love that will love and care for all our brethren regardless of what they have done to us.

It is important for us to learn to love as our God has loved us, and to learn to forgive as God has loved us. We are all called to follow our Lord and Father in all the things that He has done. Just as children learn from their fathers and therefore gain good things that their fathers had done, thus, we too imitate our Lord in all the things that He had done, and take them up as our own.

This is because we cannot be hypocrites, those who profess faith in the Lord and yet our actions and words speak otherwise. This will instead bring scandal to our faith. How can people believe in us when we preach to them about the Lord, if our actions by themselves have made us all liars and hypocrites? How will people then listen to the Lord and His truth, if they see how wicked our actions have been?

If God has forgiven us all many, many times, even though we are sinners through and through, then we too must forgive one another, and seek to be forgiven ourselves. We have to learn to forgive those who have hurt us, just as we have to remember that we ourselves are sinners too. If we condemn others, then we ourselves will be condemned, and if we do not forgive others, then we too should not deserve to be forgiven. No one is truly beyond redemption.

It is not up to us to decide the fate of others around us, in the matters of sin and forgiveness of those sins. But we can do our part to do what our Lord had told us to do, that is to forgive others their faults, just as we heard in our Lord’s Prayer, that we ask God to forgive our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.

Let us in this season of Lent be model for one another in faith and in our lives. Let us commit ourselves anew to God and love Him and His creations, that means loving one another with all of our hearts, and devoting ourselves in love to the less fortunate ones among us. May God bless us in our endeavours, and may He awaken in our hearts the charity, care and concern for each other, that through our loving actions, we may be absolved from our sins and be brought into the life everlasting in God. Amen.

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Tuesday, 1 March 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 24 : 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9

Teach me Your ways, o Lord; make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour.

Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.

Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.

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Monday, 29 February 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the famous and well-known story of how God healed Naaman, the Syrian general through the prophet Elisha, from his disease of leprosy when he sought for help and healing in God. Naaman was made whole and had his leprosy healed, when he obeyed the commands of Elisha to wash himself seven times in the River Jordan.

However, that did not come about easily, as initially Naaman refused to do as the prophet Elisha commanded him to do, thinking that he was above doing the seemingly simple chore that Elisha had asked him to do. In his anger, he almost left and went away without being healed, if not for his servants who tamed down his anger and then persuaded him to be humble and to listen to the will of God spoken through His prophet Elisha.

And in the Gospel today Jesus our Lord made it clear to the people of His time, how God at that time, chose not the people of Israel but someone from Syria, from the neighbouring kingdom of Aram, a stranger, a foreigner and even an enemy of Israel, to heal him from his afflictions of leprosy. And it was also reiterated how God chose the suffering widow of Zarephath in Sidon, also an outsider and foreigner to Israel, to bring His help and mercy.

The people of Israel at the time thought that because they were the chosen race, the chosen people of God, then they were favoured and could do things as they liked, and they would still receive the favour from God, and shunned the other peoples of the other nations as pagans and barbaric, unworthy of God’s favour and forgiveness. And yet, they were proven wrong, as God showed that His love is given freely to all.

It was not about one’s background, birth, upbringing, descent or any other parameters that decided our faith, but rather, it is our actions, our words and deeds that lead us to either do things that are in accordance with the will of God, or things that are abhorrent and wicked in the sight of God. And all of us have been given freedom to choose by God, our free will, to decide what we are to do with our lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the story of Naaman, and also the widow of Zarephath is a reminder to all of us that God is trying to reach out to us, and He wants us to be reconciled with Him. It is contrary to what many of us must be thinking, if we thought that God is an angry God Who punished all those who have sinned against Him without any chance of redemption. It was we ourselves and our refusal to accept His mercy that had condemned us to destruction.

In this season of Lent, we are called like Naaman to be freed of our own affliction, the leprosy of our souls, that is sin. Sin is the disease that had been corrupting us and causing us all to be sick, and the cure can only be found in God, in our obedience to God and to His will. We must not be proudful or be filled with hubris and with selfishness, or else we might be like Naaman before he submitted to God’s will, or be like the Israelites who have sinned against God.

Therefore, let us all in this season of Lent commit ourselves to do things and works that bring good to others around us, helping one another and sharing the love which we ought to have inside each one of us, and therefore through what we have done in obedience to God, we may be found righteous and worthy, and He will bestow upon us all that He had promised on us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 29 February 2016 : 3rd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 41 : 2, 3 and Psalm 42 : 3, 4

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for You, o God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I go and see the face of God?

Send forth Your light and Your truth; let them be my guide, let them take me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You reside.

Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my gladness and delight. I will praise You with the lyre and harp. O God, my God.

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Sunday, 28 February 2016 : Third Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s readings, we see the encounter that happened between mankind and God, between sinners and their Creator Who loved them, and Who desired to save them and bring them from the slavery of sin into the liberty and freedom that He wants to bring to them, and we see how we are also part of this great works of the Lord to bring salvation to all mankind.

God does not abandon us to die or to be destroyed, even though our sins and wickedness can indeed be very great. Many of us, just like the people of Israel whom God Himself had saved from their enslavement in Egypt, had been rebellious, disobedient and unwilling to listen or to commit ourselves to the ways of our Lord. And thus, as a result, our sins grew and we grew more distant from our Lord.

The Scripture readings today from the Book of Deuteronomy spoke of the uncertainty, the doubt and the lack of faith in the hearts of the people of God, who questioned His love and dedication for them, and who refused to see the light and refused to accept and understand that God had given them so much, so many things and blessings, and yet they were still not satisfied.

God gave them freedom from the scourge and yoke of slavery, lifting up from them the yoke and chains of the Pharaohs, that they would no longer suffer in the lands of Egypt, and that they would no longer toil in harsh labour, but be freed and He led them to the lands which He Himself had promised to their ancestors, and which promise He also renewed with them Himself, as He renewed the covenant He had with them.

And He destroyed their enemies and pursuers, their oppressors and all things wicked before them. He crushed the Pharaoh and his chariots, drowning them in the Red Sea, and He destroyed the Amalekites and the other enemies of the people of God, giving them victory and triumph. He guided them through the desert for many long years, leading them on the way and providing for them with none other than the food from heaven.

He blessed them with the manna, the bread of the Angels, and gave them many large birds and other foods to eat in the midst of the lifeless desert. He gave them clear and sweet spring water from the rocks in the middle of a very dry and parched desert, that all of them would have their fill and be satisfied. They all had what they needed, and no one lacked anything.

But they were not content and neither were they satisfied. They grumbled and complained against God for having brought them into the desert while they could have enjoyed a ‘better’ life in Egypt even though they would be enslaved. They rebelled against God, because they had no true love or commitment for their Lord, and their stomachs and hearts’ desires got the better of them.

How is this relevant to us, brethren? It is just as we ourselves also prefer sin to doing the will of God. We refuse to listen to God and do what He has asked us to do. Instead, we preferred to walk on our own path, because we see them as better, more enticing and less troublesome or risky. But this is all because it was the intention of the devil and all of his wicked forces, trying to lure us all into damnation by tempting us to do all those vile things.

And yet, even though we often failed to follow His will and even though we have committed so much wickedness throughout our lives, not listening to God and His words, but the love which He had for us was truly very great indeed, for He still offered us His salvation, His mercy and His love despite the fact that we were still sinners. St. Paul pointed out this fact for us, so that we may realise this and come to sincere and genuine repentance.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in this season of Lent, we have all been called to cease our rebelliousness and to cast aside our pride, our hubris, greed and desire, all of which had led us deeper and deeper into disobedience and sin against the Lord our God. This is the perfect time to begin our lives anew, to turn our backs against the past, that is our past sins and vile deeds.

All of us have been called to the mercy and forgiveness of God, and God had made it clear that those who are willing to repent shall be accepted and received in God’s eternal kingdom. But we first have to learn to restrain ourselves and to die to our pride and hubris, our greed and desires, and this is why we fast and abstain during this period of Lent. Thus, when we fast and abstain, let us all do them with proper understanding of their purpose, so that they may benefit us ever more for our salvation.

Let us all recommit ourselves anew to the Lord, that by our words, deeds and actions, we may show Him and the world all the same, that we are willing to live in accordance to our faith, and no longer adhering or being corrupted by this world’s desires and sins, but instead are committed to be good disciples and followers of our Lord from now on.

May Almighty God guide our paths, and may He strengthen the resolve in our hearts, so that we may strive always to live faithfully in accordance with His will and thus be worthy of the salvation and eternal life which He had promised us all. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 27 February 2016 : 2nd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the familiar story of the prodigal son, who went away from his father to live in sin and wickedness, and then who returned to his father in shame and in humility, begging for mercy and to be forgiven, and the father accepted him back with great joy and gladness, celebrating how the lost prodigal son had been found and had returned to him in safety.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what we heard today in the Gospel and in the other readings have just summarised the entire meaning of our observations of the rules and customs of the season of Lent which we are in the midst of at this moment. We are the prodigal sons, and we are those who have gone astray in our path towards God, our Lord and Father, Who is filled with love and mercy for our fate, and Who wants us all to be redeemed through Him.

Through our sins and our disobedience against God, even no matter how small it was, we have been sundered and separated from the fullness of God’s love. We have to realise, brethren, that while God loves us, but no sin and wickedness can remain in His presence and go unaccounted for. If we sin and do not repent, we will have no part in Him. It is the same desire for sinning that is also the same desire causing the younger, the prodigal son to choose to go away from his father, carrying all of his wealth and inheritance with him.

In the same way therefore, all of us have been given by God, the free will to choose how we are to live our own lives. Thus, we can indeed choose to be like the prodigal son, and leave behind our Father, that is God, and all of His ways and instead following our own will and desires. Therefore this means we give in to sins and to the wicked ways of the world. The path will indeed seem to be easier, and all the allures of the world, the pleasures and happiness we encounter will persuade us to go and dwell in deeper into that path.

But after all of them ended, what will we get in the end? The story of the prodigal son told to us how after the prodigal son spent all of his wealth and squandered all of them in a life of hedonism and sin, he was truly left with nothing, and he could not even afford to eat a proper food, since he had nothing left with him. And when he tried to work at a pig farm and eat the same food that the pigs were eating, nobody allowed him to do so.

In that scenario, he became even less than a pig, an animal considered unclean at the time of Jesus by the Israelites, and therefore, he was treated as a nobody. And indeed, it is going to be the same with us, once we exhausted our time enjoying all the false happiness and joy, all the pleasures that the world is offering and giving to us. We would have nothing but desolation and destruction, and doom is upon us without hope of succour or redemption if it is too late for us.

That is also the same feeling whenever we come to realise how sinful we have become, how wicked were the things that we had done, and how great was the extent of our sins. And the danger here is that we fear, and we are afraid to retrace our steps and come back to the Lord, because we are afraid that He will be angry with us because of our disobedience.

And thus, this is why many people were not able to repent and change their ways. They are afraid that God will punish them and rebuke them. But the reality is that it is better for us to be rebuked by God rather than for us to be lost forever to the darkness. That is why, we have to take note of the resolve of the prodigal son to return to his father despite all the things he had committed.

Shall we therefore also seek to return to our Lord with a heart filled with regret and sorrow, the desire for the forgiveness of our sins? Shall we commit ourselves to a life of repentance and be forgiven for our trespasses? This is the best time for us to do so, to be like the prodigal son who regretted his sin, and resolved to return to his father seeking forgiveness.

And then, let us also not forget that, heeding the example of the elder son, it is important that we also take note the lesson from there. The elder son represented the actions of those who have been made righteous, but then they succumbed to their sense of selfishness and jealousy, and they resented the love that God gave to sinners and all those who had erred in their path, and yet forgiven by God when they repented.

We should not resent those who have yet to be saved and still living in darkness, or be disgusted at them for their sins. Remember, we ourselves were once like them, sinners and delinquents, rebels in the sight and presence of God. Condemning or being disgusted at others who have sinned, or still living in the state of sin is just like being disgusted at ourselves.

If all that we can do is just to condemn others, to be disgusted at what we ourselves had once done ourselves, and then doing nothing to help these people, then we are truly responsible for their downfall on the day of judgment. Do not think that if we do not do anything wrong or wicked, then we are certainly safe and immune from being judged, as we have to remember, that failing to do good while we are perfectly capable of doing so, is just as bad as doing something that is bad and wicked.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, in this holy season of Lent, let us make best use of the time available to us, in order to change our ways and dedicate ourselves to help one another to find our ways to the Lord. Let us no longer be apathetic or indifferent to the sufferings of others, especially those who are still trapped in the darkness of this world.

May Almighty God, our Lord and Father, awaken in us all the love which we all ought to have for Him, and may He bless us with the hope and the strength with which all of us may persevere in our path towards Him, that resisting and rejecting all forms of sin, we may always seek to be faithful to Him in all things. God bless us all. Amen.