Lent

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Saturday, 2 March 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Psalm 102 : 1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12

Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless His holy Name! Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.

He forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; He redeems your life with destruction and crowns you with love and compassion.

He will not always scold nor will He be angry forever. He does not treat us according to our sins, nor does He punish us as we deserve.

As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His love for those fearing Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove from us our sins.

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Saturday, 2 March 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Micah 7 : 14-15, 18-20

Shepherd Your people with your staff, shepherd the flock of Your inheritance that dwells alone in the scrub, in the midst of a fertile land. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old, in the days when You went out of Egypt. Show us Your wonders.

Who is a God like You, who takes away guilt and pardons crime for the remnant of His inheritance? Who is like You whose anger does not last? For You delight in merciful forgiveness. Once again You will show us Your loving kindness and trample on our wrongs, casting all our sins into the depth of the sea.

Show faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as You have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.

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Friday, 1 March 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (Scripture Reflection)

We are urged today, not to have evil thoughts on our brothers and sisters today, as illustrated earlier in the story of Joseph in the first reading and the psalm, and how he was sold off in slavery to Egypt due to his brothers’ jealousy, which caused them to initially harbour evil thought of killing him. The same evil intent and plot also happened in the Gospel when the tenants disposed of the servants and the son of the landowner, in the intention of gaining the lands they have been lent with, and disobeying the owner’s wish.

We should not harbour such evil intent, but instead look upon our brothers and sisters with love. Especially, just as Christ has taught us, we should even also look upon our enemies and our persecutors with love! and pray for them too!

And then indeed, the story of the Gospel today, as many of you would know, is a parable on the life of Christ Himself, with the Pharisees and the chief priests being labeled as the evil tenants, as obviously stated in the Scripture. Jesus is the Son of the owner, who is God the Father, who sent Jesus to us, down to earth, just like the owner sent his son in the hope that he will be able to bring the tenants into line and pay up what they are supposed to pay.

But yet, the rejected ones, as we had seen, in both Jesus and Joseph, had become a great instrument of the Lord through their rejection by the people, represented by the brothers of Joseph and the tenants in the Gospel. For Joseph became the regent of Egypt through the gift of prophecy through dreams granted to him by God, which saved thousands if not many more souls from death, by the wise and ample preparation before famine ravaged Egypt for seven years. All these would not have happened without Joseph and his dreams.

Even greater is therefore the role of Christ, for in being rejected by the people, the ‘tenants’ particularly the chief priests, teachers of the Law, and the Pharisees, He has become the very instrument of salvation of all mankind. This rejection was represented by the arrest of Jesus, His trial by the Sanhedrin, leaders of the priests of Israel, and finally His condemnation to death, and His death on the cross. In this He, as the rejected stone by the builder, had become the cornerstone, the very vital part of God’s plan of salvation.

What is a cornerstone? While we do not often use the terms in daily life, architects and those dealing with infrastructure and buildings will know it very well. For cornerstone is named so, since, at the time of the Roman Empire, there is a passion for building commemorative and triumphal arches. Some of these arches can still be seen even today, and some remained in the city of Rome itself. Why are these arches so strong and so solid to be able to stand for centuries and even millenia? It is because of its structure, which is so wonderfully constructed even without modern technology to keep them intact, all just because of one single stone at the peak of the arch, which is called the cornerstone.

This cornerstone is the focal point and the most important point of the arch. For if the cornerstone is removed, the arch will immediately crumble. As long as the cornerstone remained in place, removing other stones from the arch would have minimum impact on the arch’s integrity. Similarly, cornerstone can also be found in other buildings, also known more as the foundation stone. This stone holds up the integrity of the whole building by just being there, and as long as the stone stands, the building will too.

Christ therefore, has become our cornerstone through His death and sacrifice on the cross, and later His glorious resurrection and triumph over death and evil. Why is He our cornerstone? That is because if we keep our anchor on Him, keeping faith in Him, and ensuring that our faith is anchored deeply and securely in Christ, no amount of worldly temptations, and no amount of attacks and persuasions by evil can sway us and make us to fall away from the grace of God.

Through Christ who is our cornerstone, we then can act out His love and compassion on all mankind, for only if we anchor ourselves in Christ, that we can act with love and kindness, out of our faith in God who also loves us dearly that He did not even hold back His Son to be given to us for sacrifice to liberate us from eternal damnation.

Then Christ too established His Church, our Church, as the living and concrete presence that represents Him and His mission in this world, and there was none other than Peter the Apostle, upon whom, as the Rock, Christ chose to build up His Church, making Peter the cornerstone of His Church, the Body of Christ, which is made up of all of us the faithful in Christ.

Now, that our Pope, Benedict XVI, who was the 264th successor of St. Peter, had stepped down from his position as our Pope effective today, our Church, God’s Church, has been left without that cornerstone of faith, which has been passed down since the day of Peter, the first cornerstone of the Universal Church. We still have Christ of course as our Cornerstone, on whom all hearts and minds must be directed to, but it is through the Apostle Peter and his successors, the Popes, that this is made manifest, by them being the cornerstone of God’s living presence in this world, that is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Therefore, today, and through the sede vacante period, and beyond that, let us pray, brothers and sisters in Christ, that first, we all will remain ever faithful, and that our anchor of faith will ever be solidly planted in the cornerstone that is Christ our Lord, always remembering His rejection and sacrifice on the cross that made Him the cornerstone of our life, the cornerstone of salvation, that enabled mankind to return and be reunited with God.

And then, we also pray in particular for our Church, that God will guide the Cardinal-electors who will elect a new Pope to succeed our beloved Pope Benedict XVI, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit sent by God upon all of them. That the world will again have a tangible cornerstone that is the successor of St. Peter, who made the Cornerstone of Christ manifest and real in this world, as the cornerstone of God’s most Holy Church, and as the cornerstone and head of the Body of Christ, the Church, leading all the faithful in Christ in unity with Christ their Saviour.

In the end, the cornerstone, although important, still requires the presence of all of us, the stones surrounding the cornerstone, for the cornerstone by itself will not make a building. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us support the new Pope, whoever he will be, as all the people who believe in Christ, that the new Pope, the future cornerstone of the Church, will together build up a solid and strong Church, that is able to project God’s love and work into this world, that more and more people will be saved.

May God bless all of us, bless His Church, bless our retired Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and his soon-to-be elected successor. Amen!

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Friday, 1 March 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 21 : 33-43, 45-46

“Listen to another example : There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a hole for the winepress, built a watchtower, leased the vineyard to tenants, and then went to a distant country. When harvest time came, the landowner sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the harvest. But the tenants seized his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.”

“Again the owner sent more servants, but they were treated in the same way. Finally, he sent his son, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they thought, “This is the one who is to inherit the vineyard. Let us kill him, and his inheritance will be ours.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.”

“Now, what will the owner of the vineyard do with the tenants when he comes?” They said to Him, “He will bring those evil men to an evil end, and lease the vineyard to others, who will pay him in due time.”

And Jesus replied, “Have you never read what the Scriptures say? The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and we marvel at it. Therefore I say to you : the kingdom of heaven will be taken from you, and given to a people who will yield a harvest.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard these parables, they realised that Jesus was referring to them. They would have arrested Him, but they were afraid of the crowd, who regarded Him as a prophet.

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Friday, 1 March 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Psalm 104 : 16-17, 18-19, 20-21

Then He sent a famine and ruined the crop that sustained the land; He sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

His feet in shackles, his neck in irons till what he foretold came to pass, and the Lord’s word proved him true. The king sent for him, set him free, the ruler of the peoples released him. He put him in charge of his household and made him ruler of all his possessions.

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Friday, 1 March 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Genesis 37 : 3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other children, for he was the son of his old age, and he had a coat with long sleeves made for him. His brothers who saw that their father loved him more than he loved them, hated him and could no longer speak to him in a friendly way.

His brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flock at Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are pasturing the flock at Shechem; come along, I’ll send you to them.” So Joseph went off after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

They saw him in the distance and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes the specialist in dreams! Now’s the time! Let’s kill him and throw him into a well. We’ll say a wild animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what his dreams were all about!” But Reuben heard this and tried to save him from their hands, saying, “Let us not kill him; shed no blood! Throw him in this well in the wilderness, but do him no violence.”

This he said to save him from them and take him back to his father. So as soon as Joseph arrived, they stripped him of his long-sleeved coat that he wore and then took him and threw him in the well. Now the well was empty, without water.

They were sitting for a meal when they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels laden with spices, balm, and myrrh, which they were taking down to Egypt. Judah then said to his brothers, “What do we gain by killing our brother and hiding his blood? Come! We’ll sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother and our own flesh!” His brothers agreed to this.

So when the Midianite merchants came along they pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the well. For twenty pieces of silver they sold Joseph to the Midianites, who took him with them to Egypt.

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Thursday, 28 February 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (Scripture Reflection)

We heard today, the well-known story of Lazarus the poor and the rich man. One who suffered in this life and received his reward in the afterlife, while the rich man who enjoyed in this world, suffers  grievously in hell. Do not be confused though. God does not hate the rich, and neither that He hates those who have more. It does not mean that if you are poor then you are guaranteed entry into the kingdom of heaven.

No, indeed, what matters is the state of the soul, and how are we aligned with God in our hearts. Wealth and property can be a hindrance in our path to God, but they can also be an asset that helps us in our path. What matters is how we use them, and to whom we depend on. We have a choice, either to place our trust in the eternal and undying Lord our God, and in His love, or to place our trust in mortal man and temporal wealth.

Wealth though useful, as indeed, we cannot live in this world today without money at all. Money makes the world spinning, and it allows many things to be done. But, as we have seen in many people today, many are ensnared and trapped in the futile thirst for wealth, possessions, affluence, and wanting for more of each of them, that they plough forward thinking only on the best way to get these, and immerse themselves so fully in their career and work, so that they can earn all these. Such is the kind of damage to our soul and our being, that materialism and commercialism in our world has brought us.

Just as in the first reading, in what the Lord said to the prophet Jeremiah, that these men who placed their trust in mortal and temporary things will be cursed and rejected just like the rich man. You can party all you want all day, and have a very enjoyable life in this world, but in too many cases, because of such pleasure, enjoyment, and fulfillment, we became blind to those around us, we became blind to the condition of the world outside our comfort zone, and we ignore the cry of the poor and the less fortunate for help.

We do not need to give all our wealth and possessions to the poor. We do not need to sell our homes and live like a poor ourselves, denying ourselves any property. For what is important is that, to listen. Just as Abraham said to the rich man in hell, that there is a need to listen, to listen to the teachings of God through the Law and the prophets, and listen to the word of God, which today we read and listened to in the readings. But to listen is also to sharpen our minds and our senses, to open our eyes and ears to see and hear the plight of the less fortunate around us.

That beyond all those ceaseless partying, happy life, and all, there is a way to achieve true happiness. Because, happiness that is built on these materials, possessions, and all mortal things will eventually be swept away, and although it is real happiness, but it is not true happiness. What is true happiness is to follow what God has constantly taught us through Christ, to follow His commandments of love.

To love our neighbour as we love ourselves, and to love God Himself with all our strength, and with all our being. In doing so, we will gain true satisfaction, and with the knowledge that God loves what we are doing, if we do so, we can be rest assured that we will not suffer the same way the rich man did. For the rich man had many opportunities in life to help Lazarus in life, who always present at his gate, and therefore must be well known to the rich man. Yet, instead of giving him help, the rich man lifted no finger to help and abandoned him to his death.

Indeed, again we heard about the sin of omission, that is, failing to do what we are supposed to do, and failing to do what is good, when we are able to. To sin is not by just doing what is bad and evil in the eyes of God, but we also have committed sin, if we are fully capable of doing good, and have the power and capacity to lessen the sufferings of others by sharing what good we have, but have chosen to ignore, and do not use what we have, the opportunity that we have. Such is the sin of omission, that the rich man had done, in addition to whatever bad things he might have done in his life, that made him deserve hell.

For in hell, the sufferings that the rich man suffered is in fact not physical fires and torment, as what many would have thought and portrayed as the burning hells. Instead, what is hell? Hell is the ultimate separation between God and man, where man has no hope of eternal life, but eternal death and separation from God who is everything. For God encompass everything and loves all of His creation, that it is incomprehensible to be left out of His love and presence.

Hell is when we have totally rejected God, and have turned our back entirely from Him, and shunned His divine and infinite love. The suffering of the rich man is the suffering of the soul, the internal fire, a fire that is the absence of the love and presence of God, that burns the person so greatly that they suffer. Imagine a world where you cannot reach out to God, and where you have no hope of escaping, and imagine the place where it is too late for you to ask the Lord for forgiveness, because we ourselves have rejected Him. That is the true hell.

We have the privilege today to listen to the Word of God through the Scripture, just as the rich man had the opportunity to listen to the Moses through the Law, and the prophets. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is now up to us to choose, whether we want to listen to the Word of God, and begin to change our ways and our life, that we may live in charity and love, or to reject the Word and continue to revel in our own pleasurable life, that is not true happiness.

Let us pray for one another that all of us will grow ever more in faith, hope, and love. That all of us can do in our own ways, charitable acts and acts of love, to help those less fortunate around us, and not limited to just that, but also to comfort the sorrowful and to accompany the lonely, and many others things that we indeed can do, and we have the potential to do. Let us pray for our Church, that it can continue to do its numerous act of charity, which all of us can also participate in, for the good of our brethren throughout the world, suffering from hunger, injustice, prejudice, and even persecution. May God bless us all, always. Amen.

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Thursday, 28 February 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Luke 16 : 19-31

Once there was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and feasted every day. At his gate lay Lazarus, a poor man covered with sores, who longed to eat just the scraps falling from the rich man’s table. Even dogs used to come and lick his sores. It happened that the poor man died, and angels carried him to take his place with Abraham.

The rich man also died, and was buried. From hell, where he was in torment, the rich man looked up and saw Abraham afar off, and with him Lazarus at rest. He called out, “Father Abraham, have pity on me, and send Lazarus, with the tip of his finger dipped in water, to cool my tongue, for I suffer so much in this fire.”

Abraham replied, “My son, remember that in your lifetime you were well-off, while the lot of Lazarus was misfortune. Now he is in comfort, and you are in agony. But that is not all. Between your place and ours a great chasm has been fixed, so that no one can cross over from here to you, or from your side to us.”

The rich man implored once more, “Then I beg you, Father Abraham, to send Lazarus to my father’s house, where my five brothers live. Let him warn them, so that they may not end up in this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.” But the rich man said, “No, Father Abraham; but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.”

Abraham said, “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced, even if someone rises from the dead.”

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Thursday, 28 February 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (Psalm)

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

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

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

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

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Thursday, 28 February 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Jeremiah 17 : 5-10

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

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

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