humility

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Monday, 8 April 2013 : Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Today we commemorate the day when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, the Mother of God, and announced to her, the great news of joy, that the Lord had finally made true His promises, that He would come and then save the people of Israel and all mankind. It is through Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born through Mary, His mother, that the salvation of the world came into fruition, the culmination of God’s long-conceived plan since the day of our fall into sin and death.

That day was indeed a glorious day, because the angel announced the arrival of the Messiah, who was to be none other than Son of God Himself, Jesus, born into man, incarnate from His divinity and took up the mortal man’s body though without sin. But the greater is the joy and glory because of what Mary did on that day, for her faith and obedience to the Lord was so great and perfect, that through her humble acceptance of that great mission to bear Christ in herself, and through her humility, that the salvation of the world and all mankind was possible.

Without Mary’s full obedience and acceptance of her mission in delivering Christ into this world, the coming of the Messiah would not have happened. It is her attitude towards the vocation that God had placed in her, which earned her our praise and adoration, the first and greatest of all the saints in heaven, and none other than the mother of our Lord Himself, to whom our Lord would listen, just as at the wedding in Cana.

We all had deserved death since the beginning of time, since when our ancestors, from the time of Adam, succumbed to the temptations and the lies of the evil one, preferring worldly pleasures to God and His love, rebelling against His great kindness. Through this act of treason, we deserved death, but yet, our God, with His great love for us, was keen to show us His mercy, and throughout time, through countless prophets, He had made His intentions clear for all to see and listen, that He would send a deliverer, the Messiah, who would correct all things once again, and made the world into a perfection once again, cleansed from all the taints of evil.

So great was God’s love that He gave us His only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, that through Him, all of mankind and all creation have hope of a new life, an eternal life with God, and no longer be separated from the very God who loves us very much. To make all these possible, Christ would have to lower Himself, to be as men are, but unblemished, without the taints of sin. Pure as crystal and white as snow, and that is who Christ was. Because He was to give Himself up, not as mere burnt or sin offering and sacrifices, but as the true Lamb of God, our paschal lamb of sacrifice, whose purity and unblemished nature was the only one in all creation worthy of redeeming all of us from our unavoidable fate, that is death.

While the blood of goats and bulls was only able to cleanse sin temporarily, and that people would still die after those offerings, those cleansed by the Precious Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ would no longer experience death, that is eternal death. For through the offering of His Body and Blood, Christ had given each of us a new lease of life, a life that is filled with the glory and love of God. In baptism, that we received, either as a baby or as an adult, we received this new life. We were dead to our old life, and we shared in this death, the death of Christ on the cross, that we die to ourselves and our sins, and with the Risen Lord, we too are resurrected to begin a new life in God.

It is not easy to obey God’s commandment and will, especially in the case of what God had entrusted to Mary, and to no other person. For Mary was born without sin as well, immaculate, just as her Son is, because, to be the vessel through whom God would be incarnate as Man into this world, no vessel that is tainted with sin would be worthy. Mary’s obedience made her role in our faith ever greater, since her obedience became a great role model to all of us. She obeyed despite the difficulties, and the implications of her acceptance would have on her.

Remember that what happened after Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant. He wanted to divorce her, though with honour, so that she would not be treated as an adulterous woman, since she was a virgin, and yet with child. This was the implication that would happen to Mary, all the difficulties she had to endure, by accepting the will of God, to bear Christ in herself, that through her holy womb, Christ was brought forth as Jesus, her Son. Yet she obeyed without conditions, and submitted fully to the will of God, gladly embracing the role that she is to play in the history of salvation.

As we commemorate this great event, let us reflect this fact, and whether we too can be as courageous, faithful, and obedient as Mary was, in bravely and gladly answering the call of God, that all the great works of our Saviour would be possible. Can we begin today, to strive to be more like her, and to follow her example? We may not have to bear Christ and give birth to Him like Mary did, but in our own surroundings and in our own lives, we have our own missions and callings by God, and the things God had entrusted upon us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us pray, that we would be able to follow after the example of Mary, the Mother of God, that we can also say yes, to our Lord, and accept His will, and the mission He had entrusted upon all of us with great humility and great joy. May God bless all of us, and make our faith stronger, that we will always live in the favour of God, filled with His love. Amen.

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Saturday, 6 April 2013 : Saturday of the Easter Octave (Scripture Reflection)

“To obey God instead of men.” Yes, Peter and John the Apostles faced the chief priests and the Sanhedrin who questioned them about teaching in the Name of Jesus and testifying in His Name, and even under pressure from them to stop, the Apostles did nothing of the sort and instead continue to step up their teachings ever further around Jerusalem and beyond to the ends of the earth just as commanded by Christ, that they be the progenitor of conversion into the faith in Christ, by testifying on the Good News and Christ Himself, on the Risen Christ who conquered death and on God the Almighty.

The chief priests, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Sanhedrin, who are respected members of the society at the time, rejected the testimony of the Apostles and were openly hostile against them, just as they had opposed Jesus, and brought Him to crucifixion through false charges. This was because mainly of their human jealousy against Jesus, that Christ had usurped from them the authority to teach the Law. But in fact, that teaching authority was not even theirs to begin with, if not given by the Father in heaven, just as Pilate had no authority over Jesus, if it had not been given him by the Father.

The Jewish priests preferred human love to the love of God, preferring the praise of men and the approval of fellow man and their Roman masters to the approval that comes from God. This was why they were against Jesus from the very beginning, and earned Jesus’ rebuke as hypocrites almost every time He was referring to them, and even after His death and resurrection, they would not let the Apostles now to do what they like, as to them, the fact that they are teaching about the resurrection usurped their ‘authority’ ever more and also placed the blame on them on having crucified Christ the Messiah, rejecting Him and putting Him onto the cross.

The Sadducees were mentioned in particular, because they were a faction most stubbornly against any notion of resurrection from the dead and the life in the afterlife. They had confronted Jesus before His Passion on the resurrection, and when confronted with the Apostles, and their teaching that Christ had risen from the dead and showed Himself to them was an unacceptable fact to the Sadducees. The mental block against the truth of Christ had been deeply embedded within their minds, just as the block of pride and arrogance that were within the minds of the chief priests and the Pharisees, that they saw themselves as paragons of virtue and ideal of the faithful, where in fact they had corrupted the faithful people of Israel, and misled them in their path towards God.

Human pride had always been a very difficult hurdle to be overcome, and the sin of pride was indeed what made the evil one, once known as Lucifer, mightiest among angels in heaven, to fall, and in his fall, brought a third of angels in rebellion with him, and in his treachery, tempted Adam and Eve, our ancestors into rebellion against God as well. It is our human pride that prevented us from returning to God, and from humbly submitting ourselves to God’s love and mercy. It also prevents us from opening our hearts and minds to receive the Lord and to listen to His words.

Therefore brothers and sisters in Christ, let us strive in this Easter season to lower our human pride and sharpen the edge of our humility and our love, that we will reach out more to others and spread the Good News through our actions infused with love that is of the Lord. Open our hearts to receive the Lord, and do not harden it against Him. Forgive one another and support one another in times of joy and sorrow. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 5 April 2013 : Friday of the Easter Octave (Scripture Reflection)

Christ is the stone whom the builders rejected, and had become the cornerstone. What is a cornerstone? It is most commonly associated with an arch, but can also be found in other structures, that this stone bear the weight of the entire structure, and keep the whole structure together. As long as the cornerstone remains in place, the building would stand safely despite forces applied against it. But if the cornerstone is to be removed, the entire structure would crumble in moments, since the cornerstone is truly the key part of the building structure, without which the building could not stand.

Yes, Christ is our cornerstone, the cornerstone of our life. For we cannot live without Christ, who is God, and who had come down from heaven to die for our sake, that bearing our faults and sins, He gave us a new hope of eternal life in Him. If we keep Christ as the cornerstone of our life, we will be saved, as with Christ as our cornerstone, we will stand firm despite the assaults of the evil one, and the temptations of worldly pleasures that threaten to derail us from our path to return towards the Lord who loves us.

Yet many of us make different things false cornerstones of our lives, that is not Christ, and not of Christ. These false cornerstones are the false focus of our lives, that end up diverting our attention from God and from doing the good works that is of our God, and end up being selfish, prideful, and arrogant in defiance of the love of God and ignoring the need to love our fellow mankind. Some examples of these false cornerstones are money, possessions, false pleasures, and false idols.

We often involved ourselves in mindless pursuit of wealth and money, to achieve more and gain more from our career, to gain more promotions that we can enjoy more and get more goods and live our lives to the fullest. Is it so? I am not so sure. Remember that more often that not when we dug deep into the pursuits of these worldly desires, we often neglected to do things that we should have done. What are these? Basically love and care for others, and our love for God. God had loved us whom He created and He sent us His only Son that we can be saved, and it is natural that we should love Him back, and He also told us to love one another as we had loved ourselves.

Indeed, we have often neglected those around us in our pursuit of false satisfaction, in gaining more money and more possessions, neglecting our families, our children, our parents and those who are dear to us. We forgot about them, and we cared ultimately only for ourselves, and sometimes we even inadvertently or unintentionally cause pain and suffering to others, just that we can gain pleasure for ourselves. That is when we put our trust in men rather than God, and placing our trust in our own weak self rather than placing it upon God who can indeed be trusted. Had He not watched us all the days of our life since our birth?

Let us reflect on this, and pray, that our faith in God will be strengthened, that we will once again make God the cornerstone of our lives, by throwing away all the false cornerstones of worldliness, that eventually would only bring temporary satisfaction, but one that leave one’s heart continuously longing for the true fulfillment that can only be filled by the divine love of God, and love itself. It is not wrong to gain money and possessions, but we must be careful lest we become slaves to them instead of being their master. Indeed, we should strive to master our possessions and use them for the good of others. Get rid of selfishness, pride, and arrogance, and sharpen the edge of our humility and love.

May God always remain as our cornerstone, the cornerstone of our faith, and the cornerstone of our lives, that by entrusting ourselves fully to Him, we will not be disappointed, and will be rewarded with abundant graces and blessings. Amen.

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(Easter Sunday) Sunday, 31 March 2013 : Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Week, Easter Octave (Scripture Reflection)

Alleluia! The Lord is Risen! He had conquered death through His glorious Resurrection, and victory over death. He triumphed over Satan, who had tried to end His mission on this world by condemning Him to death through the people and crucifying Him, but all to no avail. Satan failed to realise that in crucifixion lay the very key to our redemption by Christ, who became our Paschal Lamb, through whom we are made whole and worthy of God.

Yes, just as the lamb was sacrificed and the blood marked the doorposts of the people of Israel in Egypt, Christ had shed His blood on the cross, and this blood marked all of us as His chosen people, whom He would protect against certain death, and bring into life in Him. For the blood marked the people of Israel apart from their Egyptian masters, so that the angel of the Lord passed over them when they killed the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, animals and humans alike.

Therefore, in Christ, lie our new Christian Passover, for all of us deserved death for our sins and our sinful ways, and through the rebellion of our forefathers, since the days of Adam and Eve, who disobeyed the Lord and ate the fruits of the tree of knowledge. But although we deserved death, God loves us so much that, He could not bear us to face death and separation from Him.

That is why, God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who became man like us, and was born in the flesh through Mary, His mother. He is the Lamb of God, that became the Paschal Lamb, that is the lamb of sacrifice for our sins, but not like any other lamb. Being divine, and yet lowering Himself as a human, He alone is worthy to redeem all mankind from their sins. His Precious Blood that flowed down from the cross washed down evil and sin in those who believed in Him, and who has faith in Him and believe in His Resurrection.

Let us firmly reject Satan and his lies, and reject his temptations on us with worldly goods and desires, just as our Lord rejected his approaches in the desert. Remain true to our mission just as Christ was obedient unto death on the cross. That through our faith we will be rewarded with resurrection into life just as Christ was resurrected. Let us renew our commitment to serve the people of God and make the Holy Spirit that God had given us through baptism and confirmation to bear much fruit in both ourselves and in our fellow men.

Let us strive to become truly the people of God in this blessed Easter season. Let us make full use of this season of Easter, both in our great joy in the resurrection of our Lord, and as well as to share this joy that we have, with others around us, that they too will learn of the great joy of all Christians, that is the Lord crucified had been risen from the dead, and through that resurrection, all of us are saved, and had our life restored to us.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us keep on praying that God will continue to bless us everyday of our lives, and may He guide us as we embark on the new year after this Easter season, that from today onwards till the next year when we celebrate Easter again, we can make this year a truly fruitful and blessed year. Also in the spirit of the Year of the Faith, let us also strive to strengthen our faith in the remaining half a year of the celebration of this Holy Year.

I wish everyone a happy and blessed Easter, and may the Risen Christ our Lord shine His face upon all of you, to share in the glory of His Resurrection. Amen!

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(Good Friday) Friday, 29 March 2013 : Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Week (Scripture Reflection)

Our Lord Jesus Christ had died for us, and we commemorate this fact on Good Friday every year. Why did He choose to die? and why did He choose to suffer? Surely God has His ways to rescue us from our sins without having Christ suffer humiliation, mockery, and death? Surely He can just cleanse us from our sins through another way?

No, this is not simply the case. When Adam and Eve, our forefathers, sinned by disobeying God in the Garden of Eden, by obeying Satan and his wish that they eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. they were tainted by the taint of evil and sin. Because of this, they were banished from the presence of the Lord, just as Satan was banished due to his pride and sin that originated in his heart. Because the Lord is so holy and perfect that no one who has sinned can stand in front of God, in His presence and live.

Therefore, there is a need to rescue mankind, who was created by God in His own image, and brought to life by His own Spirit in the breath of life. God said to Moses that, in order to alleviate one’s sins, in the Book of Leviticus, He prescribed the burnt offering of the lambs and goats, which were offered by the appointed Levite priests, who offered them to the Lord, and in this offering, the temporal sins that the people have, were cleansed. But yet, this kind of offering is not worthy enough to completely redeem us from our death and sin.

That is because the blood of these lambs and goats are mere mortal bloods insufficient as the payment for our rebellions and our sins. Only Blood worthy enough, that is the Blood of the Lamb of God, that is worthy for the forgiveness and the cleansing of all the sins of all mankind, once and for all. This blood sacrifice also reestablished the bonds that mankind had with God, lost when our forefathers disobeyed God and listened to Satan and his temptations instead.

The Blood of the Lamb is the Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He freely poured down for us, just as the blood flowed down from the cross, and from his wounds. All of these wounds represent the reparations that Christ had paid for our sins and our faults. That through this holy and the only worthy blood, our defects that made us unworthy before God can be removed.

He washed us who believe in Him in His Blood, that we can once again be pure and as white as snow, just as said in the Psalm, but if we are truly repentant on our sins and sincerely seek the Lord and ask for His most gracious mercy.

Why today is called Good Friday? Because it is indeed a good day! We have to remember to put our faith constantly focused on the events that we commemorate on this day. For we are not Christians if we do not base ourselves on Christ, and we are not Christians if we do not believe in Christ who is not only glorified by God, but also was crucified on the cross, and who died a criminal’s death though He was sinless and faultless, all so that we ourselves can be freed from our sins, and have hope of a new life through Christ, who made all of this possible, hence today is a good day indeed.

He is the only one worthy of redeeming us from our faults, and out of His perfect and pure love for all of us, even for those who hated and rejected Him, He came to all of us, in our own mortal form, that through His mortality, and His life on this world, He could bring forth the full completion of the works of salvation God had begun with the prophets and since the days of Moses when He brought Israel out of Egypt, and even since the beginning of time.

Christ brought forth the commandments of love, that we are to love one another, just as He had loved us. He brought forth the perfect example of His own commandments, by laying down His life for all His friends, that is all of us. He humbled Himself and died on the cross, to die in humiliation that all of us can be glorified in Him, just as He was glorified in the glorious Resurrection, when God and mankind both triumphed in the ultimate struggle against evil, who first brought forth sin and taint on the first mankind.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us reflect, and reflect deeply on the humility that Christ had assumed, and in His great obedience to obey the will of His Father, that through His sacrifice, as the Lamb of God, brought without struggle to the slaughter that is the cross, and through the shedding of His Precious Blood, and the parting of His Precious Body, He had given salvation and life freely to us, if only we accept His precious gifts.

Therefore, let us pray that on this holy day, when Christ died for us, when He broke the chains of death and sin from us, that we can grow to love Him more and more, and be more and more courageous for the sake of our Lord crucified, and to continue preaching the good news on the Christ who was crucified but then was resurrected in triumph against sin and the evil one. When hope seemed lost, He turned a new chapter in life, through His resurrection.

Let us pray for one another, that the faith within us, will remain forever strong, and we will be able to carry our own crosses, alongside the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God. Amen!

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(Good Friday) Friday, 29 March 2013 : Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Week (Second Reading)

Hebrews 4 : 14-16 – Hebrews 5 : 7-9

We have a great High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God, who has entered heaven. Let us, then, hold fast to the faith we profess. Our High Priest is not indifferent to our weaknesses, for He was tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sinning. Let us, then, with confidence approach the throne of grace; we will obtain mercy and, through His favour, help in due time.

Christ, in the days of His mortal life, offered His sacrifice with tears and cries. He prayed to Him who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His humble submission. Although He was Son, He learnt through suffering what obedience was, and once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for those who obey Him.

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(Holy Thursday) Thursday, 28 March 2013 : Mass of the Lord’s Supper – Cena Domini, Holy Week (Scripture Reflection)

Jesus showed us that to be a leader, one must be ready to be a servant. For a leader is not appointed for the sake of the leader, but rather for the sake of the people over whom the leader is appointed for. Therefore, Christ too, who is the Lord and Master of all things, are also in service to all those things He is Master of, that is all the mankind and all those children of God to whom He come.

No better form of service that our Lord had rendered to all the people, other than the gift of Himself, the Lamb of God, as the lamb of sacrifice in the manner of the lambs of the Passover, since that first Passover in Egypt, when the Lord told Moses to celebrate the Passover to mark the salvation of the people of Israel from the slavery of Egypt.

In Christ, there is a new salvation indeed, not just salvation from physical bonds, but indeed, the most important of all, the breaking of the bonds that had bound us since the time of our forefathers, from the time of Adam and Eve, the first mankind, when they rebelled against the Lord under Satan’s instigation and sinned. Thereafter, sin enslaved mankind, and made them do plenty of immoral things and things evil in the sight of God.

Yet Christ, the Son of God, who came into this world, out of the perfect love that God has for all of us, became the new Adam, who renewed mankind’s bonds with the Lord, by acting as the one and only bridge through which mankind, banished since the time of Adam onto the wild earth, to return back to God who loves them like a father loves his children. Christ broke the bonds of sin, and released mankind from slavery of sin, that is the spiritual slavery of the soul, much worse than any physical slavery.

For as long as we are enslaved by sin and the evil one, we have no hope of life in God, and we are doomed to death eternal with Satan and his fallen angels, to suffer the separation from the love of God for eternity. Christ ensured that this does not happen to us, as long as we are also welcoming of Christ’s love and redemption, that He offered freely to all mankind.

Christ poured out His Blood and His Body for all to eat and drink, through the bread and wine transformed into His Divine Presence in the Eucharist. Just like the unblemished lamb, whose flesh was eaten by the people of Israel, and whose blood marked the doorposts as a sign of salvation to God, that whoever marked by that blood, belongs to Him and deserves no death.

Therefore, similarly, Christ marked us through His Blood, and through His flesh, His Body. For no lamb is greater and more perfect than the Lamb of God Himself, and no blood or sacrifices are ever more worthy of redeeming one’s sins than that of the Blood of the Lamb itself. He gave Himself that we all may have hope of life, in Him! Such is the sacrifice and the service that He, who is Lord and Master, had rendered to all His people whom He loves.

Just like Christ who washes the feet of His disciples, He washes them clean from impurities, therefore the Blood of Christ too washes our sins away. Remember that in the Book of Revelations, John saw the large multitude of saints and martyrs who had washed their robes white in the Blood of the Lamb, that they be made holy and pure through their willingness to die for the sake of their Lord, and in defense of their faith.

Therefore, just like the martyrs and the saints, we too should wash ourselves clean through the Blood of the Lamb, which He freely gave to us. We are already cleaned externally as long as we bathe and ensure that all hygienic steps are taken, but what is much more difficult to clean is that of our interior, our heart, our mind, and our soul.

This is why we should bring the Lord into us, and we can do that by receiving worthily the Precious Body and/or Blood of our Lord. Just as the Church teaches us that either the Body or the Blood is already complete in itself, so it does not mean that if we only receive the Body then we receive the incomplete Lord.

No! This is not the case, and the most important things is to keep sacred the Temple of the Lord that is our being, our body, and our soul, that we make ourselves to be a worthy vessel, a worthy Temple, and a worthy Tabernacle in which our Lord resides. He who resides within us, through the Holy Spirit, and through his cleansing Blood, will purify us from our sins, if we are truly repentant and wish to be rid of such impurities.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, in the commemoration of this year’s Maundy or Holy Thursday, let us renew our commitment to the Lord, in order to receive Him into ourselves, and to partake in His Body and Blood, and welcome Him in our hearts, and humbly accepts His cleansing of our being and our soul, just as how He washed the feet of His disciples.

Let us all strive to be more faithful and be more loving, just as Christ had loved us to the point of death. May He shine over us and bless us with His grace, that we may have a great time in our celebration of the Easter Triduum, and will truly become the children of God, who values service to others, and to embody service in our leadership if we are chosen as leaders, and also to show God’s love through our actions, daily and even to the smallest of things that we do, that we show love in them. Amen.

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Monday, 25 March 2013 : Monday of Holy Week (Scripture Reflection)

Jesus Christ, the Saviour, came into this world from God the Father, so that all of us can be saved from the hold of the evil and sin. He willingly accepted death on the cross for us, that through His death, and then resurrection, our death may be destroyed, our sins may be absolved, and that we may have a new life in Him who died for us, and through Christ, as the bridge to God, we can once again return to perfect unity with God, through Him.

Such is God’s love for us, and especially for all those who are underprivileged and weak, and for those shunned and rejected by the society, that He came bearing love and salvation for us all. He showed His love through humility and through miraculous deeds, but yet He remained true to His true call that is to die on the cross, as the crucified king on the cross, the crucified Christ.

There are two persons mentioned in the Gospel today, namely Mary, the sister of Martha, and Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, who would later betray Jesus to the chief priests to be crucified, for thirty silver coins as a price. The perfume that Mary poured over the feet of Jesus, was, according to Judas, a shrewd ‘businessman’ that he was, three hundred silver coins at least. Therefore, he priced His God at a tenth of that of a simple bottle of perfume! No matter how expensive it was.

Indeed, for the role that Christ had taken in the salvation of the world, in redeeming us from our sins, He gave no silver or gold coins at all. Instead, what He gave to the world is His very own Precious Body and Precious Blood, through which we are redeemed, and sealed by His sacrifice on the cross. He gave us what is priceless by the world’s standards, not because it is worthless, but because no amount of money can replace it or limit its great worth. Remember, that, through His suffering, death, and resurrection, all of us are saved from certain eternal death and separation from God, who loves us. Indeed, He loves us so much that He sent His only Son that all of us can be saved.

Let us strive to be like Mary, and not be like Judas Iscariot. As someone who honours the Lord for His great sacrifice and gift of eternal life to us, without hypocrisy as Judas had done. Thinking about how the perfume can be sold for the poor, while it was in fact used to glorify the Lord and anoint Him prior to His death. Remember too, the gifts of the Three Magus or Three Kings, or the Three Wise Men from the East, who brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh as gift to the newborn Christ in Bethlehem.

This is why we must appreciate the beauty that is within our Church, and within our celebration of the Mass. Our focus in the Mass remains in the Lord, and through the Mass, we glorify the Lord through the best way we can in our human ways to glorify Him and thank Him for His great works in salvation. In the Mass, the vestments and the decorations are all for the glory of the Lord, that we too can bask in God’s glory, but yet, still, at the same time, remembered His great humility and obedience, in dying for our sake, and obeying His Father’s will to the end.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us strive to always honour our Lord, with our words and our acts, that we will always, at all times, give thanks to the very God who loves us so much, that He gave Himself up, on the cross, that all of us will not suffer certain death, but instead be reunited with Him in eternal life, forever and ever. May God bless our lives, and protect us from evil, that we will always, in our daily lives and actions, give glory, praise, and honour to our God. Amen.

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Sunday, 24 March 2013 : Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Holy Week (Scripture Reflection)

Christ, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whom we know as our Saviour, through His death on the cross at Calvary, had His story of the Passion He went through for our sake told today, beginning from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and ending with the great Resurrection on Easter Sunday. It all began in what today’s commemoration called as the Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Holy Week, in which in this holiest of all weeks in history, the story of salvation of all mankind was unfold. It marked the culmination of Jesus’ mission on this world to save it and bring it back into unity with God the Father, who loves all.

Palm Sunday marked how Christ came into Jerusalem, welcomed as a ‘king’ and glorified with the palms and hymns, and all the people glorifying God and mentioned His descent from David, as a sign of His mission to make God’s promise fulfilled to David, that is to establish David’s throne forever through Him, and to mark the return of the true King to the people of Israel. He is indeed a king of glory who will lead His beloved people to glory and victory once again, and this victory is none other than that of the ultimate triumph over evil, Satan, and all his evil plots that had plagued all mankind since he brought Adam and Eve, our forefathers to evil and rebellion against God.

Yes, Christ had entered Jerusalem in order to bring about that triumph, that victory against Satan who had enchained mankind to slavery under sin since the beginning of creation. He came as the one to liberate mankind, as their king to lead them out of the darkness of evil. Yes, Christ is a king, king of all kings indeed. For in Him lies all authority and all power that is there on earth and in heaven. But yet, our Lord remains humble, a servant leader. For even He entered Jerusalem not on a mighty warhorse or elephants as kings and rulers of the earth would do or had done before, but on a humble donkey, widely considered as a dumb and weak animal.

Yes, and as Christ had mentioned in the Last Supper He had with His disciples, the greatest among all, the leader should be the servant of all, and show the leadership, not via strong arms, wealth, or power, but through example through service. That a leader truly is a leader only if he serves as an example of his leadership, for a leader is not made a leader to glorify that leader, but most importantly that he will do good for the sake of others, especially those upon whom he had been appointed as a leader for.

And remember, Jesus Christ Himself had said that His kingdom is not of this world, but is a kingdom of love and truth, and not of power, strength, and glory. For Christ had come into this world, to be that servant leader, that as its leader, being God, who created it and all mankind and creations on earth, He had come to show example through His teachings and His actions, and also showed example to other leaders on how they should be responsible on their duties entrusted to them, as well as showing them how to lead as He had done.

He came to Jerusalem to face His death, as we all know, that He was to die on that week, which we commemorate every year on Good Friday. From that jubilation and glorification that we see and commemorate today of His entry, within a short time, all that turned to lamentation, and worse, condemnation, when they shouted “Crucify Him!” at Christ when He was being condemned to death before Pilate. He shows that power and glory indeed are just temporary, and indeed things may just change as quickly as it would, as it was with Christ, who was hailed as King and then condemned to die like a criminal within the same week.

Jesus wanted to enter Jerusalem because He must do so in order to accomplish the mission that had been given to Him by the Father, and also because He is of the Father, He also loves us that He wants to save us, despite all the difficulties and the sufferings that He had to go through. Being human as Jesus is, He Himself too feel the suffering that all of us suffer from, and even He asked God the Father, to let that cup of suffering that He had to drink to pass from Him. Such is the extent of suffering that He had to suffer from that even Jesus, who is fully human and fully divine, was also pushed to the point of wavering in the face of such unprecedented and unimaginable weight that He had to bear.

Indeed, inside that cup of suffering, is all our sins, our faults, and our rebellions against God. That is all the weight of sin that Christ had to bear through His suffering until His death, in order to purchase us from Satan, our jailor, our slaver. He redeemed us from our slavery to sin by His own being, His own Precious Body and Precious Blood, which He freely gave to all of us, that we may have eternal life in Him.

It is up to us entirely whether to follow Christ, in taking up our crosses as Christ had asked of us and His disciples, and therefore in doing so, sharing in the cross of Christ and therefore in His glory upon His resurrection, or we can be like His accusers and like those who shouted for His death, or by continuing to live in our state of sin, and therefore adding more and more to that cup which Christ had to bear, and also therefore took part passively in scourging Christ and creating His wounds.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we begin this Holy Week and all the celebrations and Masses that we are going to have, let us keep our focus on Christ, on Christ crucified on the cross, for through that cross all of us were saved from sin and eternal damnation, and also on Christ Resurrected, which on Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday, and indeed through the entire Easter season we are going to celebrate. That despite the death of Jesus on the Cross, all is not lost, since on the third day, He was risen to life again, and was resurrected in glory, to show the final victory of God and light over Satan and his agents of darkness.

Holy Week is not just like any other week, but it is indeed a very important week, and should be the most important week in our calendar year, when there are so many events surrounding the salvation of the world are being commemorated. We should do our best and our utmost in order to make this Holy Week a truly holy and blessed week. Let us reflect on the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as we begin this Holy Week, with today, reflecting over the entry of Jesus in Jerusalem, how Jesus, the king of all kings, and Son of God the Most High, entered Jerusalem, His Holy City on a donkey, a lowly animal, and readily welcoming the death that would take Him that same week in Jerusalem.

May God Almighty bless all of us and make this Holy Week a truly holy and blessed week for all of us. Happy Holy Week! Amen.

by

Homily of Pope Francis at the Mass of the Palm Sunday of the Passion of our Lord at St. Peter’s Square, Sunday, 24 March 2013

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130324_palme_en.html

Jesus enters Jerusalem. The crowd of disciples accompanies him in festive mood, their garments are stretched out before him, there is talk of the miracles he has accomplished, and loud praises are heard: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Lk 19:38).

Crowds, celebrating, praise, blessing, peace: joy fills the air. Jesus has awakened great hopes, especially in the hearts of the simple, the humble, the poor, the forgotten, those who do not matter in the eyes of the world. He understands human sufferings, he has shown the face of God’s mercy, and he has bent down to heal body and soul.

This is Jesus. This is his heart which looks to all of us, to our sicknesses, to our sins. The love of Jesus is great. And thus he enters Jerusalem, with this love, and looks at us. It is a beautiful scene, full of light – the light of the love of Jesus, the love of his heart – of joy, of celebration.

At the beginning of Mass, we too repeated it. We waved our palms, our olive branches. We too welcomed Jesus; we too expressed our joy at accompanying him, at knowing him to be close, present in us and among us as a friend, a brother, and also as a King: that is, a shining beacon for our lives. Jesus is God, but he lowered himself to walk with us. He is our friend, our brother. He illumines our path here. And in this way we have welcomed him today. And here the first word that I wish to say to you: joy! Do not be men and women of sadness: a Christian can never be sad! Never give way to discouragement! Ours is not a joy born of having many possessions, but from having encountered a Person: Jesus, in our midst; it is born from knowing that with him we are never alone, even at difficult moments, even when our life’s journey comes up against problems and obstacles that seem insurmountable, and there are so many of them! And in this moment the enemy, the devil, comes, often disguised as an angel, and slyly speaks his word to us. Do not listen to him! Let us follow Jesus! We accompany, we follow Jesus, but above all we know that he accompanies us and carries us on his shoulders. This is our joy, this is the hope that we must bring to this world. Please do not let yourselves be robbed of hope! Do not let hope be stolen! The hope that Jesus gives us.

The second word. Why does Jesus enter Jerusalem? Or better: how does Jesus enter Jerusalem? The crowds acclaim him as King. And he does not deny it, he does not tell them to be silent (cf. Lk 19:39-40). But what kind of a King is Jesus? Let us take a look at him: he is riding on a donkey, he is not accompanied by a court, he is not surrounded by an army as a symbol of power. He is received by humble people, simple folk who have the sense to see something more in Jesus; they have that sense of the faith which says: here is the Saviour. Jesus does not enter the Holy City to receive the honours reserved to earthly kings, to the powerful, to rulers; he enters to be scourged, insulted and abused, as Isaiah foretold in the First Reading (cf. Is 50:6). He enters to receive a crown of thorns, a staff, a purple robe: his kingship becomes an object of derision. He enters to climb Calvary, carrying his burden of wood. And this brings us to the second word: Cross. Jesus enters Jerusalem in order to die on the Cross. And it is precisely here that his kingship shines forth in godly fashion: his royal throne is the wood of the Cross! It reminds me of what Benedict XVI said to the Cardinals: you are princes, but of a king crucified. That is the throne of Jesus. Jesus takes it upon himself… Why the Cross? Because Jesus takes upon himself the evil, the filth, the sin of the world, including the sin of all of us, and he cleanses it, he cleanses it with his blood, with the mercy and the love of God. Let us look around: how many wounds are inflicted upon humanity by evil! Wars, violence, economic conflicts that hit the weakest, greed for money that you can’t take with you and have to leave. When we were small, our grandmother used to say: a shroud has no pocket. Love of power, corruption, divisions, crimes against human life and against creation! And – as each one of us knows and is aware – our personal sins: our failures in love and respect towards God, towards our neighbour and towards the whole of creation. Jesus on the Cross feels the whole weight of the evil, and with the force of God’s love he conquers it, he defeats it with his resurrection. This is the good that Jesus does for us on the throne of the Cross. Christ’s Cross embraced with love never leads to sadness, but to joy, to the joy of having been saved and of doing a little of what he did on the day of his death.

Today in this Square, there are many young people: for twenty-eight years Palm Sunday has been World Youth Day! This is our third word: youth! Dear young people, I saw you in the procession as you were coming in; I think of you celebrating around Jesus, waving your olive branches. I think of you crying out his name and expressing your joy at being with him! You have an important part in the celebration of faith! You bring us the joy of faith and you tell us that we must live the faith with a young heart, always: a young heart, even at the age of seventy or eighty. Dear young people! With Christ, the heart never grows old! Yet all of us, all of you know very well that the King whom we follow and who accompanies us is very special: he is a King who loves even to the Cross and who teaches us to serve and to love. And you are not ashamed of his Cross! On the contrary, you embrace it, because you have understood that it is in giving ourselves, in giving ourselves, in emerging from ourselves that we have true joy and that, with his love, God conquered evil. You carry the pilgrim Cross through all the Continents, along the highways of the world! You carry it in response to Jesus’ call: “Go, make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19), which is the theme of World Youth Day this year. You carry it so as to tell everyone that on the Cross Jesus knocked down the wall of enmity that divides people and nations, and he brought reconciliation and peace. Dear friends, I too am setting out on a journey with you, starting today, in the footsteps of Blessed John Paul II and Benedict XVI. We are already close to the next stage of this great pilgrimage of the Cross. I look forward joyfully to next July in Rio de Janeiro! I will see you in that great city in Brazil! Prepare well – prepare spiritually above all – in your communities, so that our gathering in Rio may be a sign of faith for the whole world. Young people must say to the world: to follow Christ is good; to go with Christ is good; the message of Christ is good; emerging from ourselves, to the ends of the earth and of existence, to take Jesus there, is good! Three points, then: joy, Cross, young people.

Let us ask the intercession of the Virgin Mary. She teaches us the joy of meeting Christ, the love with which we must look to the foot of the Cross, the enthusiasm of the young heart with which we must follow him during this Holy Week and throughout our lives. May it be so.