Lenten fast

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Sunday, 12 March 2023 : Third Sunday of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 4 : 5-42

At that time, Jesus came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there. Tired from His journey, Jesus sat down by the well; it was about noon. Now a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” His disciples had just gone into town to buy some food.

The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink?” (For Jews, in fact, have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift of God! If you knew Who it is, Who is asking you for a drink, you yourself would have asked Me, and I would have given you living water.”

The woman answered, “Sir, You have no bucket, and this well is deep; where is Your living water? Are You greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, together with his sons and his cattle?” Jesus said to her, “Those who drink of this water will be thirsty again; but those, who drink of the water that I shall give, will never be thirsty; for the water, that I shall give, will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to Him, “Give me this water, that I may never be thirsty, and never have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.” The woman answered, “I have no husband.” And Jesus replied, “You are right to say, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you said is true.”

The woman then said to Him, “I see You are a Prophet; tell me this : Our ancestors came to this mountain to worship God; but you Jews, do you not claim that Jerusalem is the only place to worship God?” Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, the hour is coming when you shall worship the Father, but that will not be on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for that is the kind of worshippers the Father wants. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit, and truth.”

The woman said to Him, “I know that the Messiah (that is the Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will tell us everything.” And Jesus said, “I Who am talking to you, I am He.”

At this point the disciples returned, and were surprised that Jesus was speaking with a woman, however, no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are You talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and ran to the town. There she said to the people, “Come and see a Man Who told me everything I did! Could He not be the Christ?” So they left the town and went to meet Him.

In the meantime the disciples urged Jesus, “Master, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” And the disciples wondered, “Has anyone brought Him food?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the One Who sent Me, and to carry out His work.”

“You say that in four months there will be the harvest; now, I say to you, look up and see the fields white and ready for harvesting. People who reap the harvest are paid for their work, and the fruit is gathered for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. Indeed the saying holds true : One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap where you did not work or suffer; others have worked, and you are now sharing in their labours.”

In that town many Samaritans believed in Him when they heard the woman who declared, “He told me everything I did.” So, when they came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days. After that, many more believed because of His own words, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you told us: we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is the Saviour of the world.”

Alternative reading (shorter version)

John 4 : 5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42

At that time, Jesus came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there. Tired from His journey, Jesus sat down by the well; it was about noon. Now a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” His disciples had just gone into town to buy some food.

The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink?” (For Jews, in fact, have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift of God! If you knew Who it is, Who is asking you for a drink, you yourself would have asked Me, and I would have given you living water.”

The woman answered, “Sir, You have no bucket, and this well is deep; where is Your living water? Are You greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, together with his sons and his cattle?” Jesus said to her, “Those who drink of this water will be thirsty again; but those, who drink of the water that I shall give, will never be thirsty; for the water, that I shall give, will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to Him, “Give me this water, that I may never be thirsty, and never have to come here to draw water. I see You are a Prophet; tell me this : Our ancestors came to this mountain to worship God; but you Jews, do you not claim that Jerusalem is the only place to worship God?” Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, the hour is coming when you shall worship the Father, but that will not be on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for that is the kind of worshippers the Father wants. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit, and truth.”

The woman said to Him, “I know that the Messiah (that is the Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will tell us everything.” And Jesus said, “I Who am talking to you, I am He.”

In that town many Samaritans believed in Him, so, when they came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days. After that, many more believed because of His own words, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you told us: we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is the Saviour of the world.”

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Sunday, 12 March 2023 : Third Sunday of Lent (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Romans 5 : 1-2, 5-8

By faith we have received true righteousness, and we are at peace with God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Through Him we obtain this favour in which we remain and we even boast to expect the Glory of God.

And hope does not disappoint us because the Holy Spirit has been given to us, pouring into our hearts the love of God. Consider, moreover, the time that Christ died for us : when we were still helpless and unable to do anything.

Few would accept to die for an upright person; although, for a very good person, perhaps someone would dare to die. But see how God manifested His love for us : while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

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Sunday, 12 March 2023 : Third Sunday of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

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

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

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

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

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Sunday, 12 March 2023 : Third Sunday of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Exodus 17 : 3-7

But the people thirsted for water at Rephidim and grumbled against Moses, “Why did you make us leave Egypt to have us die of thirst with our children and our cattle?”

So Moses cried to YHVH, “What shall I do with the people? They are almost ready to stone me!” YHVH said to Moses, “Go ahead of the people and take with you the elders of Israel. Take with you the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you on the rock at Horeb. You will strike the rock and water will flow from it and the people will drink.”

Moses did this in the presence of the elders of Israel. The place was called Massah and Meribah because of the complaints of the Israelites, who tested YHVH saying, “Is YHVH with us or not?”

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Saturday, 11 March 2023 : 2nd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Scriptures reminding us that God’s love and mercy, His kindness and compassion for us are truly boundless and wonderful. God has never abandoned us and has always remembered us despite our frequent rebellion and disobedience against Him. He is still always ever patient despite the many troubles and wickedness that we have committed before Him. He has always been generous with His love and mercy, although at the same time, He still despises our sins and wickedness. He chastised His people, His children with love, and when He punished them, He did so with the intention to be reconciled with us, by helping us to be more disciplined and to be steady in our lives, in resisting the pull of temptations and worldly attachments.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Micah, we heard of the prophet Micah speaking of God’s great love and mercy, reminding the people of God of everything that He had done for them, all the kindness and mercy that He has shown them, in leading them out of their slavery in Egypt, in the care and love He has shown them in each step of the way, even when they had rebelled and disobeyed against Him time and again. God never ceased to love His people. In that passage, the prophet Micah also uttered the prayer on behalf of the people of God, those who sought to be reconciled with God, asking Him to be merciful upon them and to give them His forgiveness and kindness. They had sinned a lot against Him and they had wandered off far away from His path, but that should not have prevented them from coming back to God if they so decided for it.

The prophet Micah himself lived during the reigns of the last kings of the northern kings of Israel and the time of the kings Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of the southern kingdom of Judah according to Biblical and historical evidence. Hence, based on the era and time of his work, we surely can see the dire straits in which the people of God had found themselves in, as Micah lived through the tumultuous years of the final years of the larger, northern part of the Israelites, surrounded and destroyed by the warlike and rampaging Assyrians, who crushed their kingdom and cities, destroyed Samaria and brought of many of the people into exile in far-off lands. The land of Judah in the south did not fare that well either, facing a lot of hardships and struggles, and all these came about because of the repeated stubborn attitude of the people, in persisting upon their rebellious actions and refusal to obey the Lord and His Law.

But that does not mean that God desired or wanted the destruction of His people. On the contrary, just as He has sent the prophet Micah to help remind the people to find their way back to the Lord, and many other prophets to both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, and also afterwards during the years of the Babylonian exile and beyond, God has always patiently cared for them all, for their descendants and everyone that He had loved. He truly desired for all of them to return to Him, penitent and repentant, regretting their sinful ways and wickedness and with the desire to be reconciled with Him and to live once again in His grace and fullness of love. God has given us many avenues and means to reach out to Him and to find His mercy and forgiveness, and He has done so again and again, over all the time, until this very day.

In our Gospel passage today, we are then reminded yet again of this great love and mercy of God with the famous and well-known parable of the prodigal son, in which we heard the story of the prodigal and rebellious younger son of a rich father, who had two sons. That younger son chose to take the portion of his inheritance and leave his family behind, to enjoy a hedonistic and wicked lifestyle in distant, foreign lands, and eventually as we all know, that prodigal son ran out of money and possessions, and ended up as a penniless man in that distant and foreign country, with no one to care for him, and with all of his former friends and associates caring only about the wealth and possessions that he had, and not truly loving him, unlike his father back at home, whom the prodigal son had chosen to leave behind.

We heard how the prodigal son returned to the father with shame and humility, humbling himself and begging himself to be taken back to his house, even if he were to be like one of the servants, as he told his own father that he no longer deserved to call him as his father for everything that he had done. Yet, the father welcomed back the prodigal, rebellious and wicked younger son with great pomp, as he has found him once again, and he saw how this son had repented and regretted his past sins and faults, and hence, by coming back all the way to him, instead of staying on in that distant lands, that son had once again gained the favour of the father, and there was indeed a great joy as the prodigal son was once again part of the father’s family, and this represents just the way that all of us should act in reaching out to God, our most loving Father, Creator and Master.

First of all, just as the prodigal son had a choice of staying on in the distant lands instead of humbling himself and swallowing his pride to return to his home, thus, we also have the option to remain stubborn in our path and way of sin, instead of humbling ourselves to seek God’s forgiveness and compassionate mercy. Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why pride is such a dangerous thing for us, as pride often becomes a great obstacle in our path of seeking God’s forgiveness and grace. Pride has led so many people to their downfall, including Satan himself, and many other of our predecessors, as pride led us to separate ourselves from the love of God, and often prevented us to admit that we have been wrong and are in need of healing and forgiveness from God. Many people steadfastly continued to walk in their wrong paths because they rejected the fact that they were in need of help from God.

Then, if we heard and recalled the action of the elder son, who was angry at the father for welcoming the younger son back, it is also a reminder to all of us not to be judgmental on others just because we think that we are better than them. Like the actions of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law back then during the time of the Lord Jesus, who often thought of themselves as holier and better than everyone else, condemning and being judgmental on those whom they deemed as sinners, unworthy and hopeless in their path towards God, they had closed the door of God’s mercy and kindness to so many of these people whom they could have helped if not for their own pride and arrogance. Again, here we can see how pride can even be the downfall of the righteous, if we allow pride to take over our actions and judgments in life.

Hence, brothers and sisters in Christ, having been reminded of all these and of God’s ever enduring and persistent love for us in this season of Lent, let us all keep in mind what we have been given all these times, the many opportunities and chances for us to turn away from sinful paths and from all the things that had separated us from the fullness of God’s love and grace. During this time of Lent, let us all turn away from our sins and our disobedience from God, and once again discover the love that we all should have for our loving Father and Creator. Let us all humble ourselves before Him, realising just how sinful we have been, and how we are in need of God’s forgiveness and mercy, and resist the temptations of our pride and ego, our greed and ambition, and the many other things that separate us from God and His love. May God help us all in our journey especially during this Lent, that we may come ever closer to Him, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 11 March 2023 : 2nd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 15 : 1-3, 11-32

At that time, tax collectors and sinners were seeking the company of Jesus, all of them eager to hear what He had to say. But the Pharisees and the scribes frowned at this, muttering, ‘This Man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So Jesus told them this parable : “There was a man with two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Give me my share of the estate.’ So the father divided his property between them. Some days later, the younger son gathered all his belongings and started off for a distant land, where he squandered his wealth in loose living.”

“Having spent everything, he was hard pressed when a severe famine broke out in that land. So he hired himself out to a well-to-do citizen of that place, and was sent to work on a pig farm. So famished was he, that he longed to fill his stomach even with the food given to the pigs, but no one offered him anything.”

“Finally coming to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will get up and go back to my father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against God, and before you. I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me then as one of your hired servants.’ With that thought in mind, he set off for his father’s house.”

“He was still a long way off, when his father caught sight of him. His father was so deeply moved with compassion that he ran out to meet him, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. The son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.'”

“But the father turned to his servants : ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Bring out the finest robe and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet! Take the fattened calf and kill it! We shall celebrate and have a feast, for this son of mine was dead, and has come back to life; he was lost, and is found!’ And the celebration began.”

“Meanwhile, the elder son had been working in the fields. As he returned and approached the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what it was all about. The servant answered, ‘Your brother has come home safe and sound, and your father is so happy about it that he has ordered this celebration, and killed the fattened calf.'”

“The elder son became angry, and refused to go in. His father came out and pleaded with him. The son, very indignant, said, ‘Look, I have slaved for you all these years. Never have I disobeyed your orders. Yet you have never given me even a young goat to celebrate with my friends. Then when this son of yours returns, after squandering your property with loose women, you kill the fattened calf for him.'”

“The father said, ‘My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But this brother of yours was dead, and has come back to life; he was lost, and is found. And for that we had to rejoice and be glad.'”

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Saturday, 11 March 2023 : 2nd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

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 from 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, 11 March 2023 : 2nd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

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 depths 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, 10 March 2023 : 2nd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, the Lord reminds us all in this season and time of Lent to remain vigilant against the many temptations all around us, especially all those things that could lead us down the path of sin and evil. All of us are reminded to resist those temptations and to root out from ourselves the corruptions of pride, ego, jealousy, worldly desires and attachments, all of which could lead us down the path of sin. That is why we are reminded again and again during this period of time, to be more aware of our sinful state and how we often need help and healing from God, the only One Who can heal us from our afflictions of sin. We should spend our time and effort to come closer to the Lord and to embrace His love and mercy.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis the account of the moment when the sons of Jacob or Israel were involved in the heinous act against one of their own, Joseph, the second youngest son of Jacob. Joseph was beloved by Jacob especially because he was born from Jacob’s beloved wife, Rachel, and together with Benjamin, his youngest, they were the only two born from Rachel from among all of his twelve sons. Jacob therefore treated Joseph much better than the others, which led to the ire of the elder brothers. As we heard that story, we also heard how Joseph’s gift of dreams, that he received from God, were resented even more by the brothers, as they heard how he spoke of them all bowing down before him. This was in fact a premonition of would happen much later, when Joseph had been made the Regent of all Egypt.

Based on historical and Biblical conjecture, Joseph was likely still very young then, and when he shared his dream with his brothers, he did not really do it with malicious intent or pride, but just willing to share what he had seen in his dream to his brothers, his closest ones. Unfortunately, to Joseph’s brothers, the other sons of Jacob, what they had heard, together with Jacob’s preferential treatment of Joseph made them all to be blinded by jealousy and fear in their hearts. Why is that so? That is because they likely feared that Joseph would take away all of their inheritance or would lord it all over them despite him being a younger child. Their resentment, jealousy and fear eventually led them to commit what they truly should not have done. Some of them wanted to kill their own brother at first, but one of them, Reuben, the eldest son, tried to save Joseph by suggesting that they should not kill him, their own brother.

Eventually, they decided to sell him off to the Midianite merchants on their way to Egypt, and in that way, that was how Joseph ended up in Egypt, which in the greater scheme of things, God turned that misfortune into His providence, as He not only protected and saved Joseph in Egypt, but made him powerful and great in Egypt, as the Regent of the whole kingdom and the trusted right hand man of the Pharaoh of Egypt. Eventually he also laid the foundation of the nation of the Israelites in Egypt, by providing for his brothers and his family, when they were eventually united during the great famine of seven years, which would have wiped out his family had Joseph not been sent earlier to Egypt with the foresight granted by the Lord to safeguard against the famine. Many more people would have perished from the famine as well.

In the end, we see how the jealousy and evils in our hearts can lead us to do unimaginable and evil things like the brothers of Joseph selling off their own brother, and even wanting to kill him at first. This same attitude was highlighted in the case of the Gospel passage today as well, in which the Lord told His disciples about the parable of the evil tenants. The evil tenants have greedily refused to pay their due for the land that had been rented out to them, and when the landowner sent his servants to get them to pay their dues, those wicked tenants resisted, persecuted and even murdered those servants. They even plotted against and murdered the son of the landowner who was sent to them, with the desire in their hearts that they could gain everything they wanted if they were to murder the son and heir of the ownership of the vineyard.

What drove those wicked tenants to such vile attitudes and actions? It was greed and fear of losing, jealousy of what others had, just like what happened to the brothers of Joseph. This is why each one of us are reminded today that we have to guard ourselves against those wicked desires and everything that can cause us to sin and to disobey God’s Law and commandments. We have been reminded of how we can be easily dragged by our temptations and emotions, and all those things that can prevent us from truly attaining righteousness and grace in God. That is why this Lent we are reminded to resist those temptations and discipline ourselves so that we may not fall into the traps that those things may lead us into. During this Lent we are also reminded to come closer to God and spend more time with Him, communicating with Him through prayer and other means.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all commit ourselves with renewed vigour to turn away from sin, to face the Lord with renewed faith and commitment, and do whatever we can to glorify Him by our lives. We are all capable of doing many great things that are in accordance with God and His path. The question is whether we are willing to make the commitment to walk in the right path, or whether we continue to allow ourselves to be misled and dragged down the path of sin and wickedness as we have often allowed ourselves to. Let us all make our Lenten observance and time meaningful and fruitful, doing whatever we can, to live our lives in a more Christian manner, as is fitting for all of us who profess to believe in the Lord. Each one of us should not be hypocrites who profess to believe in something, and yet, live our lives and act in ways that contradict our faith.

May the Lord continue to help and guide us in our journey especially during this time of Lent, that we may continue to lead a more holy and worthy life, truly worthy of the Lord and His grace. May God bless us all and be with us always, and may He empower us to be more courageous and committed in our lives, to be ever more faithful and able to resist the many worldly desires, attachments and all the things that often led us down the path towards damnation. May all of us have a blessed season of Lent. Amen.

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Friday, 10 March 2023 : 2nd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 21 : 33-43, 45-46

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “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.