jealousy

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Tuesday, 18 February 2014 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, doubt should never be inside our hearts, particularly not doubt in God. We should never lose faith in God because of the various reasons that mankind often employed against Him. God did not destine us for destruction, because what He wants from us and what He ask of us is our love and undivided attention and devotion.

Doubt opens the way to temptation of the evil one, and it distances us from God and His love. Yet doubt is always present in this world, and many of us mankind refused to acknowledge God as our Lord and Saviour, trusting in the power of men instead of putting our trust in Him. Even the holy disciples and apostles of Christ were not immune.

Yes, they and many of the people God even today, failed to understand and appreciate God’s love. We taken God’s love lightly and were not faithful to Him. They doubted in their hearts and did not put their complete trust in the Lord, just as how the disciples of Christ failed to realise in Jesus, the greatness of God and His love.

Very often, we blame God for the misfortunes that befall us, and the difficulties that we face, without knowing that God was truly not the One who gave us all of those challenges. More often than not, those difficulties and challenges came about because of our own lack of faith in God, and therefore due to our wickedness and disobedience against the will of God.

We who follow the ways of this world, are bound to be affected by the evils that affect this world. It does not mean that we ought to isolate ourselves or hate the world, but the crucial issue is whether we are able to open the doors of our hearts and welcome the Lord into our house, inside our hearts, or whether we keep our hearts closed against Him.

We mankind have lived so long in sin that we tend to not realise when we commit things that cause us to sin and become wicked before God. We have been desensitised against evil and wickedness, and often we even become indulgent and seeking for sin. We enjoy the pleasures of this world and that is why, when the Lord comes into our presence, we are often like the disciples, who were unsure and let their doubts took over.

Through Jesus, as mentioned in the first reading, we have been given the truth, about all things, and about the Lord. He told us the revelation of God’s love. The Lord showed that by giving Jesus, He had given mankind salvation and a way to escape the punishment and slavery of sin. And He did this because He cares for them and wants them to be by His side. Yes, all of us are wanted by the Lord, and He wants to give us His love.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all cast aside the veil of lies which the devil had put on us. The devil certainly does not want us to be in the grace and favour of God. That is why it is important for us to seek for the truth in Christ, which He had passed down to us through the Church, through which the knowledge of the truth and its revelation is made available to us.

Let us keep by God’s truth and devote ourselves solely towards Him. Do not be misguided by the forces of evil, and from now on, let us deepen our faith and commitment in God. Love God and our fellow brethren more and more, that the Lord will see us and our faith, and reward us with eternal glory. God be with us all. Amen.

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Friday, 14 February 2014 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk, and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Let all who have ears listen and those who have eyes see, and those who have tongues speak of the power and the glory of God! Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we witnessed Jesus’ healing of the man who was deaf and mute, and opening his ears and tongue, Jesus revealed to us all the true authority He has over all, and the truth about Himself, that He came to open our minds and our hearts, to welcome into them the Lord.

Yes, brethren, it is imperative for all of us to open wide the doors of our hearts and sharpen the edge of our senses, that we may know when the Lord comes to us, so that we may welcome Him and bring Him to dwell in ourselves. We have to be responsive to the Lord calling for us, that we may heed His call and come to Him.

We ought to avoid the fate and punishment that fell on Solomon and his descendants, who because of Solomon’s obstinate attitude and refusal to listen to the Lord had resulted in the kingdom of Israel being torn apart, together with the community of the people of God. Solomon was wise, and was greatly blessed with wisdom, power, and authority by the Lord, but these were also the cause for his greatest undoing.

In continuation with yesterday’s reflection on the readings, Solomon fell because he put his trust more and more in his human power and glory, and gradually less and less on the Lord, unlike his father David, who constantly kept up his faith and devotion in the Lord throughout his life. Solomon was swayed by the devil, through his wives and concubines, who blinded him and deafened him from the calling of God, asking him to keep faithful the commandments his father had kep so faithfully.

That is exactly what can also happen to us all, brothers and sisters in Christ, because power, authority, worldly glamour and prestige are all the things that keep our attention away from the Lord and blinds us against His truth, and deafens us from His call, and closes our tongue that we may not call on Him. These prevent us from reaching the Lord and the Lord from reaching us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we let what had happened to Solomon also affect us? Shall we let ourselves be punished for our disobedience because we refuse to listen to the Lord as Solomon had done? Shall we let ourselves be condemned because the Lord saw wickedness in us because we refuse to obey the Lord and walk in His ways as Solomon had done?

It is easy for us all to forget about the Lord and become engrossed in ourselves, in all the glory we have, and in all the good things that the world can offer us. As you know, especially in our world today, where more and more things are being commercialised and consumerism is getting at a dangerously high levels, it is even easier for us to be led astray by the temptations of the world than ever before.

That is why the Lord sent Jesus into the world, to send His own Son to open the eyes, the ears, and the tongues of the people, that He may resensitise them and reopen the senses of their hearts to the love of God, and to the truth that is in the Lord. Through His teachings and revelations of God’s nature and love, which He passed down through His apostles and disciples, we receive the revelations and our minds are opened.

God wants to open our minds, and to let our eyes see, and our ears hear, that we may believe in Jesus, and break free from the chains of pride and arrogance, from the shackle of desire and greed, and from the oppression of lust and anger. He wants to free us from all the distractions that burdened us and kept us away from Him, but we too need to work hard and do our best, so that we may break free and return to the Lord our God who loves us.

Today, we celebrate the feast of two saints, said to be brothers, that of St. Cyril and St. Methodius who converted many pagan nations and peoples in central Europe during the Dark Ages, and they helped to bring many people who lived in darkness into the light of God. That was why they were also known as the Patron Saints of Europe, due to their hard and zealous works in bringing so many people of that continent into the faith.

St. Cyril and St. Methodius helped to translate many works of the faith into the language of the then pagan peoples, and through their preachings and works, they truly, just as Jesus had done, opened the eyes and the ears and the tongues of those people, who then witnessed the truth about the Lord, the folly of their old ways, and the need for them to repent and follow the Lord, and that they did.

The two saints converted many souls and brought many to salvation in God. A people who lived in darkness had seen a great light indeed, that is the Light of Christ reflected in the actions, words, and deeds of both St. Cyril and St. Methodius, without whom many people would have been lost to damnation and hell.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, the example of Solomon and the two saints, as well as Jesus Himself, showed us the need for us to strongly reaffirm our faith in God and to reorientate ourselves that in all things we align with our Lord and God. And it is important for us to seek Him out in humility and ask Him for His healing and mercy, that we may have the doors of our hearts and senses opened, that we may truly experience His love and mercy.

May the Lord our God continue to bless us, empower us, and open ever wider the doors of our hearts to Him, while closing it to any influences of the devil. May He remove from us all the distractions of this world that we may then be truly faithful to Him without any hindrance. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 12 February 2014 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Mark 7 : 14-23

Jesus then called the people to Him again and said to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and try to understand. Nothing that enters a person from the outside can make that person unclean. It is what comes from within that makes a person unclean. Let everyone who has ears listen.”

When Jesus got home and was away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him about this saying, and He replied, “So even you are dull? Do you not see that whatever comes from outside cannot make a person unclean, since it enters not the heart but the stomach, and is finally passed out?”

Thus Jesus declared that all foods are clean. And He went on, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him, for evil designs come out of the heart : theft, murder, adultery, jealousy, greed, maliciousness, deceit, indecency, slander, pride and folly. All these evil things come from within and make a person unclean.”

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Monday, 27 January 2014 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Angela Merici, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins)

Mark 3 : 22-30

Meanwhile the teachers of the Law, who had come from Jerusalem, said, “He is in the power of Beelzebul : the chief of demons helps Him to drive out demons.”

Jesus called them to Him, and began teaching them by means of stories, or parables. “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a nation is divided by civil war, that nation cannot stand. If a family divides itself into groups, that family will not survive.”

“In the same way, if Satan has risen against himself and is divided, he will not stand; he is finished. No one can break into the house of a strong man in order to plunder his goods, unless he first ties up the strong man. Then indeed, he can plunder his house.”

“Truly, I say to you, every sin will be forgiven humankind, even insults to God, however numerous. But whoever slanders the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven : he carries the guilt of his sin forever.”

This was their sin when they said, “He has an unclean spirit in Him.”

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Thursday, 23 January 2014 : 2nd Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Samuel 18 : 6-9 and 1 Samuel 19 : 1-7

When the soldiers arrived after David had slain the Philistine, the women came out from the cities of Israel to meet king Saul singing and dancing with timbrels and musical instruments. They were merrily singing this song : “Saul has slain his thousands, and David, his tens of thousands.”

Saul was very displeased with this song and said, “They have given tens of thousands to David but to me only thousands! By now he has everything but the kingdom!” From then on, Saul became very distrustful of David.

Saul told his son Jonathan and his servants of his intention to kill David. But Jonathan, who liked David very much, said to David, “My father Saul wants to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning and hide yourself in a secret place. I will go out and keep my father company in the countryside where you are and I will speak to him about you. If I find out something, I will let you know.”

Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said, “Let not the king sin against his servant David for he has not sinned against you. On the contrary, what he has done has benefitted you. He risked his life in killing the Philistine and YHVH brought about a great victory for Israel. You yourself saw this and greatly rejoiced. Why then sin against innocent blood and kill David without cause?”

Saul heeded Jonathan’s plea and swore, “As YHVH lives, he shall not be put to death.” So Jonathan called David and told him all these things. He then brought him to Saul and David was back in Saul’s service as before.

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Saturday, 28 December 2013 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Jealousy and greed for power, as well as the fear of losing it, are just a few of the evil afflictions that affect mankind, and which many of us had succumbed to, many, many times. These evil afflictions affect us, because we have been made vulnerable to them, ever since our ancestors opened the way to sin through their disobedience to the Lord.

Today, as we continue into the Christmas season, and continue with the festivities and revelries, and all the joy and happiness that we have among us, all the gift exchanges and partying, we must not remember a great tragedy which we all remember on this day, that is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, a great tragedy that is filled with sorrow and wickedness of mankind.

On this day, we remember the great and merciless slaughter of the innocent infants of Bethlehem, the city of David, where our Lord Jesus was born. King Herod the Great, the then Roman appointed King of Israel and Judea, was so fearful and jealous of the authority and power of the promised King of Israel, the true King of kings, Jesus the Messiah, that he resolved to kill this Messiah, before the kingdom that was his is usurped from him.

You can clearly see this king’s hubris, jealousy and arrogance, that even though he knew about the coming of the Messiah, he was unwilling to part with his own authority and power and give it to the coming King. He was foolish and short-sighted, one which certainly brought him down to the deepest depth of hell. You see what desperation, fear, and wickedness can bring to men.

Yes, they brought downfall to man, and they bring nothing but death and destruction. And it is often that the innocent ones are the ones to suffer, such as what happened in Bethlehem. One may ask why God did not intervene in the case of what has happened, but indeed, if we look at it again, God gave everyone a free will to follow what he thinks is best to be done. One can choose to follow the Lord and be righteous, or give in to their human vulnerabilities and embrace what is evil and wicked.

And those infants were innocent, and Herod massacred them in order to ensure the continuation of his own power and authority. He took the quick way out of problems, and did not regard even the sanctity of human lives. Those innocent infants also deserved to live. They therefore, were holy martyrs of the faith by the virtue of their innocence. They were the victims of humanity’s disdain for the sanctity of life.

Today we all remember these Holy Innocents, whose massacre is a reality amidst the joy and the festivities surrounding Christmas. And that is why we have to always remember that Christmas is about life. Yes, the sanctity of life, which is also often under attack in today’s society, especially by those championing for the culture of death.

That is right, on this day, on this era, thousands of even unborn infants or more are being killed on daily basis. You all know about the controversy, and the voices crying out for and against the practice of abortion. It is sad indeed, that even among us who believe in the Lord, the source of life, even some of us agree, or participate in the killing of the innocents, either by our actions or by our silence.

Hence, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate Christmas, never forget that we have to celebrate life, and we cannot forget about the massacre of the innocents that had happened, and what is happening even now. Life is sacred, brethren, as is it not Jesus who came into this world that we may have life eternal. We cannot profess to be Christians and yet treat life as something trivial. It is a gift from God to all of us.

May the Lord therefore continue to inflame in us, the love for Him, as well as the love for all of God’s creations, treating with honour everyone, even to the least of all, the poorest of all, and the weakest of all, to the smallest of infants. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 28 December 2013 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 2 : 13-18

After the wise men had left, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, “Get up, take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon be looking for the Child in order to kill Him.”

Joseph got up, took the child and His mother, and left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. In this way, what the Lord had said through the prophet was fulfilled : ‘I called My son out of Egypt.”

When Herod found out that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighbourhood who were two years old or under. This was done in line with what he had learnt from the wise men about the time when the star appeared.

In this way, what the prophet Jeremiah had said was fulfilled : ‘A cry is heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation : Rachel weeps for her children. She refuses to be comforted, for they are no more.’

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Thursday, 26 December 2013 : Feast of St. Stephen, Protomartyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Acts 6 : 8-10 and Acts 7 : 54-59

Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. Some persons then came forward, who belonged to the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia. They argued with Stephen but they could not match the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.

When the chief priests and the people heard the reproach that Stephen made to them, they were enraged and they gnashed their teeth against Stephen. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, fixed his eyes on heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus at God’s right hand, so he declared : “I see the heavens open and the Son of Man at the right hand of God.”

But they shouted and covered their ears with their hands and rushed together upon him. They brought him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, saying : “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

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Tuesday, 24 December 2013 : 4th Week of Advent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Brethren! Tomorrow is Christmas, when we will celebrate the first coming of our Lord in Jesus Christ His Son, the Word made flesh. And we should all rejoice, and break into songs of joy and praise, because our Lord and God was willing to come upon us and deliver us from sin and death. That was the promise He had made to our ancestors, ever since the day of Adam, and which He reiterated again to David, the king of Israel and His chosen one.

And in Christ and His arrival into the world, God’s promises to mankind was fulfilled. That was why Zechariah, the father of St. John the Baptist, was joyful and exuberant, singing what is now known as the Canticle of Zechariah, which is the Gospel reading today. Such is the joy that we all should have, that in the coming of the Lord, we are saved and have hope anew.

After waiting for four weeks and preparing for the day of glory and rejoicing, during the Advent season, we can now finally see the light, that is the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. We have long expected the coming of our Saviour, and here He is, at our doorposts, as the fulfillment of salvation promises long given by the Lord.

In Christ our Lord we rejoice, and that is the joy we experience at Christmas, the joy of seeing our Saviour among us, as God who dwells with His people, incarnate as one of us. Through Christ, God professed His eternal and undying love for all of us, willing to forgive our past trespasses, rebelliousness and disobedience, even to the point of taking the burden of our sins and die for our sake, that through His death, as a worthy sacrifice for our sins, we who believe may receive life eternal.

God came into the world not for some trivial things, and neither did He do this for leisurely purposes. He came to liberate us, from our bondage to sin, and to seek the lost ones among us, looking for them in the greatest depth of darkness, offering them the light, and a new opportunity to live in the Light. Yes, the light of God indeed, the true Light of the world.

Are we all ready to welcome the Lord when He comes again? Just as He had once came into the world? Remember that Jesus promised that He will come again at the end of time, at the end of everything, when God will raise up all those who remain faithful to Him, and reunited them all with Himself, and when all taints of sin and evil will be purified and cast out of the world forever.

When He first came into the world, Jesus was not welcomed, and He was rejected by the innkeepers who did not want to receive the poor family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. They reasoned that the inns were full, and hence the king of kings and Lord of all creations have to spend His first night in this world in a humble and dirty stable fit only for animals.

And when He went forth to teach and reveal the nature of God and His coming kingdom to the people of God, He was not well-received either. While some listened to Him and followed Him, many rejected Him, booed Him, mocked Him, and even sought after His death. Chief among these were the Pharisees and the chief priests, who saw Him as a rival, and wanted to bring doom to Christ, by arrest or death.

They did not welcome Christ when He first came into the world. Instead of rejoicing, they condemned Him to death, and called Him a blasphemer and a false Messiah. They truly lacked faith in the Lord and His saving power. Their hubris and human flaws had prevented them from understanding the truth. However, how about us? Do we also welcome Christ when He comes? Or do we join the Pharisees in mocking and rejecting Christ and His love?

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, many of us professed our faith to the Lord, and we had proven it many times, and yet, are we able to truly call our lives as blessed by God? Are we able to realise that we have to put Christ in our Christmas and Christ in our lives as Christians? Christ must be the centre of our lives and He must be at the centre of our Christmas joy.

If we do not place Christ to be at the centre of everything, and especially in this Christmas, then we are just like those Pharisees and the chief priests who rejected Jesus. We often pay too much attention to the glamour of Christmas, that is the joy of exchanging gifts, the wonderful decorations and musics, as well as the secular and commercialised nature of Christmas, with the figure of father Christmas, better known as Santa Claus, to lure many away from God and from His ways.

We have to reorientate our celebrations of Christmas, that it does not just revolve or focus around ourselves, our desires, wishes and needs. Instead, let us make Christmas truly a joyful one, not only for us, but also for everyone. Share the joy of Christmas with one another, especially with the poor around us, those who do not even have enough to celebrate Christmas on their own. It is sad that many too want to join in the festivities but they could not.

It is not wrong for us to enjoy Christmas, and to celebrate it with parties and revelries, but it should not be overdone, and indeed when we rejoice, we have to keep Christ at the centre of our joy, as the reason for our joy. Let us all therefore make this Christmas, and the next Christmas celebrations henceforth, a joyful one for everyone, a joy because Christ our Lord has come, to be one of us and dwell among us, that through Him we once again have hope of life eternal. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 9 November 2013 : Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today is a great feast for the Church, and for all of us. Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was declared by Pope Pius IX over one and a half century ago, after our Lady showed herself to St. Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes in France.

She revealed to St. Bernadette, the truth about her Immaculate Conception, that is, Mary the mother of our Lord Jesus, was born without sin, pure and immaculate, because as the mother of our Lord, it is only fitting that His mother, just as He is, free from all kinds of defilement of sin.

The Church and the tradition of the faith had for long held a view somewhat similar to the concept of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, even since the early Church, but the apparition of the Blessed Virgin to St. Bernadette in Lourdes confirmed the teachings of the Church, and that was how we come to have this Solemnity, the great feast in honour of the Immaculate Conception of the mother of our God.

All of these, brothers and sisters, were part of the grand plan of salvation God had planned from the very early beginning. Ever since mankind fell into sin, the Lord had planned it all, even to the smallest of details, on how He is going to save us all. He knew everything even long before the things actually happened, simply because, He is God.

Then one may ask, how come then God did not try to stop Adam and Eve from disobeying Him by eating the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? He is God right? Certainly that is within His ability? If He knows everything, then He should have known that His most beloved creations would disobey Him because of the trickery of the devil, right? Then why did He not act for the sake of our ancestors?

Yes, these are the natural questions that will undoubtedly come to our minds as we read this passage. Certainly if God had prevented them from disobeying Him, then we will all live in paradise today right? After all mankind had been created and given the world as their dominion, and the beautiful Garden of Eden to live in. But sadly no, that is not how things are supposed to be.

God can easily impose His power and make things according to what we had thought, but most importantly, God gave mankind free will, and it is that free will that God has bestowed on us, the freedom to choose, whether to do something in line with God’s laws and ordinances, or to do things against the Lord and His laws.

And mankind chose to disobey the Lord and listen to the temptations of devil. They were then still innocent, pure without any trace of sin, for sin was unknown to mankind when they were created. But they made the wrong choice, out of their curiosity, and suffered the consequences. Sin entered into the world of men.

God punished mankind and the devil for their disobedience and the rebellion against His will, but He did not leave men empty-handed. For He loves all of His creations, from the smallest to the largest, and from the lowliest of all creations, to us, the most beloved ones that He created, the ones He created in His own image.

That is why He gave to us hope, by saying to our ancestors, that despite the difficulties that they and their descendants, including us, have to suffer, as a consequence for our disobedience, and despite that the devil will continue to hound us and try to trap us into damnation, note the words : “the snake will clutch at your children’s heels”, God gave us a hope.

That the woman will crush the head of the serpent, and in that sentence, lie the secret of God’s ultimate plan for salvation. That woman, as you all should be able to guess, is Mary. And in another passage it is said that the woman will bear the child, and the child will be named Emmanuel, which means God-is-with-us. And yes, that Emmanuel is indeed Jesus, because Jesus who is God and with God, has descended through Mary to be with us, as Man like us, and hence, God-is-with-us.

Through Mary, the salvation of the world was born, and through her, the final defeat was dealt on Satan and his plans to doom mankind into damnation in hell with him. For Satan was jealous of the power of God, and aspired to sit in His place, but he was defeated and cast down, and he planned his revenge on mankind, God’s most beloved creation, but God did not just let Satan have his ways, out of His love for all of us.

Mary, the woman, became the conduit, the vessel, through whom God made salvation possible for mankind. It was Mary’s complete trust and obedience in God that made all these possible. Her answer to the Archangel Gabriel showed her perfect faith in God and the purity of her heart, soul, and being. “I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me as God wills it.”, such an answer indeed.

And because she was to bear the Lord Himself in her, in flesh, it is not right for Mary herself to be tainted with sin as we are. This is because you all know the intimate bonds present between mothers and their child. Indeed, it is truly flesh from the mother’s flesh to the flesh of the infant’s flesh. Therefore, if Jesus who is Lord incarnate as Man is without sin, His mother too must be free from any kind of sin, no matter how small or insignificant the sin is.

That is why today we celebrate this solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our Lord made it since the very beginning according to the plan of salvation, that Mary was made special, set apart from any other human, that is without the taint of sin. Is it possible for God? Certainly. The Lord definitely has the power to do so, as after all, He is indeed God. He made Elizabeth to conceive a child in her old age, John the Baptist, the one who would prepare the way for the coming of the Lord, the Messiah.

What is important today, brothers and sisters in Christ, is that while we rejoice and celebrate the conception of this wonderful woman, through whom the world would later get its salvation from, we too should reflect on our own sinfulness, reflecting on the unworthiness that kept us separated from the Lord. And let us remember that our sins have been redeemed by the sacrifice of the Son of this wonderful woman, yes, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross as the Lamb of sacrifice, taking away our sins and replacing them with grace and blessings.

Hence, as we go deeper into the season of Advent, preparing for the celebration of the birth of our Lord at Christmas, let us seek to be prepared for the coming of Jesus. Remember that He promised that He will come again at the time of His choosing, to judge the living and the dead, all of us included, and He will pick those whom He considered worthy, that is those who had turned away from their sinfulness and look up towards God and strive to reach out to His grace.

Let us all make best use of this Advent season, and let this blessed season be an opportunity for us to be closer than ever to our Lord Jesus, through His mother Mary, the pure and immaculately conceived woman, the promised salvation of our God. Mary, Mother of God, holy and pure, immaculate as snow, pray for us, and intercede for us before your Son. Amen.