Lenten Homily

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Sunday, 10 March 2019 : First Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we listened to the words of the Lord through the Scriptures reminding all of us of the need for us to prepare ourselves spiritually as we journey through this blessed season of Lent, a time of preparation and purification of ourselves, before we come to celebrate together the sacred mysteries of the Holy Week and the glorious joy of Easter. We are all reminded of all of the sins we have committed in life because of the temptations that Satan placed before us.

Today we listened to the temptation of the Lord Jesus by the devil in the desert, for forty days when He fasted from food and drink, right after He was baptised, to prepare Himself for His ministry in this world. The Lord met the devil who presented before Him three temptations by which the latter hoped to the good works of the Lord’s salvation to fail, by trying to tempt Him with the same temptations that we mankind often face in life.

While the first Adam, representing all of us mankind have fallen into sin, but Christ, Who became the new Adam, showed to us all that the sting of Satan, that is sin and death, no longer has power and dominion over us. The old Adam might have fallen and failed to remain faithful, but Christ showed us all mankind what it truly means to be faithful, and He defeated Satan in what can be seen as a rematch between Satan and mankind. The first man fell, but the New Man, Christ, overcome the three temptations by which Satan had tempted us throughout time, beginning from Adam and Eve.

The first temptation is the temptation of desire and selfishness, represented by the temptation when the Lord Jesus was told by the devil to turn the stones into bread when He felt hunger creeping up His flesh, just as Satan tempted Eve with the good looking fruit of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The devil was taunting the Lord, by saying that it is well within His power and authority to turn even rocks into bread, but that would be an abuse of His power to satisfy a selfish desire, the desire to satisfy the hunger of the flesh.

This is a warning for us all that gluttony and desire of our flesh can become our undoing, unless we make the conscious effort to resist those temptations. The desire to satisfy the needs of our body can easily end up becoming an obsession and a growing craving and desire for even more, as we are often prone to fall into the temptation of wanting more of whatever good things we have already had with us.

Many of us fall simply because we cannot resist the urge and the temptation of sexual pleasures and the temptations of our stomach, desiring good food and indulgences, and it is often that all these came from as simple as by looking at another person with desire, or at their possessions, and being jealous or being filled with desire to own what others have, to satisfy our own selfish desires.

To us, many of us will not easily find it enough just to have some good things we have gained in life. Soon enough, we would crave for even more, as the satisfaction that comes from fulfilling all these desires of ours are not long-lasting or permanent. Instead, we continue to find ways to gain more for ourselves and we become enslaved to the desires of our flesh, and disobey God and sin as a result.

The second temptation Christ faced was the temptation of glory, which imitated what Satan tempted man with, when he tempted them with the glory of the world, all of its knowledge and goodness, if they were to eat the fruits of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. Satan presented to the Lord Jesus the whole glory of the whole world, which he said that he would grant Him if only He were to worship him as God. Jesus quickly rebuked Satan and did not fall to the same temptation, humbling Himself before His Father, despite of His own Sonhood and Divinity.

We know just how He humbled Himself, that eventually, He even willingly emptied Himself of all glory and dignity, when He chose to take up the cross, bearing it upon His shoulders, taking up all the heavy burdens of our sins on Himself, and to suffer and die on the same cross, so that by His humble obedience, contrasted to the pride of man and the pride of Satan, in their respective pursuits for glory, all of us have been saved.

Then, in the last temptation that Christ faced from the devil, we heard how He was brought up to the parapet or the peak of the Temple of Jerusalem, with the devil asking Him to jump down from the top of the Temple with the intent to prove that God would intervene and save His Saviour from harm. The devil did this to make the Lord Jesus fall by means of ego and pride, by testing and doubting God at the sane time, just as he has tempted Adam and Eve, to be like God if they were to eat from the fruit of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge.

This is a very common temptation that we often encounter all around us, especially because pride is most often the most dangerous of all kinds of sins. It was exactly the sin of pride that caused Satan to fall from the grace of God because of his vanity of pride, thinking that his seeming perfection, beauty and glory, as the greatest and most brilliant among the Angels God had created, gave him the right to boast about his own might and desiring even to take over the place of God.

Therefore, this is a sin that the devil is certainly well-acquainted with, and by which he will relentlessly assault us, to make us to fall as well into the same path towards damnation and destruction. And we easily fall into pride, to succumb to our ego and the ambitions inside our hearts. When people praise us and say good things about us, it is easy to slid into our prideful mode, and grow more and more egoistic and ambitious, thinking that we are greater than who we actually are.

And in time, unless we resist this temptation, we will begin to resent others and seek only personal glory and power, greatness and good things for ourselves. We will not even hesitate to cause others to suffer just so that we can enjoy what we want to enjoy and gain what we desire for ourselves, be it prestige, wealth, standing and position in society, influence, fame, and even appearances, beauty and vanity, and many others.

Even by now, we should have seen how the devil has so many means by which he is capable of attacking us with, to tempt us and even to pressure us into disobedience against God. And last of all, he tempted the Lord as he has done with us, with the temptation of worldly glory, that is to gain for ourselves everything that is good in life, the glories and wonders of the world, all of its riches and pleasures, so long as we are willing to bow to Satan and worship him.

This is what happens when we are distracted and swayed by the many idols present in our lives. These idols now no longer refers to those idols of the pagan gods, made of clay or stone, wood or gold, but rather, those idols refer to the desires that we have for worldly glory, for material wealth and possessions, for luxury in many forms, for indulgences and practices that kept us distracted in life and preventing us from living our lives as true Christians.

We may say that we are Christians and we love God, and we may think that we worship Him and serve Him alone, but as long as our actions in life show that we prefer to follow the path of worldliness, the path of selfishness, entertaining our greed and desires, satisfying our ego and pride, all that Satan has tempted the Lord Jesus with, then we are not true disciples and servants of out God. Instead, as long as we persist in walking down this path, we are the followers of Satan.

How should we then carry out our lives from now on, brothers and sisters in Christ? As long as we allow ourselves to be swayed and to be tempted by the devil, we will not be able to proceed down the path towards the salvation in God. And the best way forward for us is to listen to the Lord and follow His example, in how He Himself has resisted the temptations of Satan, to the very end.

He withstood the assaults of Satan through love and obedience to His Father, reminding us that we need to listen to the word of God, and put our trust in the words of God, rather in the words of Satan, the deceiver and enemy. This is the key essence of what each and every one of us as Christians must do in order to break out of the traps which Satan had laid down before us, through his many temptations.

If we are able to put God back at the centre of our lives, then Satan will no longer have power over us, for God will become the source of our strength and He will be our foundation in life. And in order to do this, we need to have a profound change in attitude in our own lives, from one that is selfish, self-glorifying and self-indulging, into one that is selfless, filled with love and care for others, and self-mortification.

Remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that our primary goal in life is truly to serve the Lord and to glorify His Name, by all of our actions and deeds in life instead of to glorify ourselves. If we live only to glorify ourselves and serve our own purposes, then we must remember that our earthly life is limited, and no matter how much power, glory, wealth and worldly bounties we enjoy now, or plan to enjoy, the moment our earthly lives come to an end, or when disasters strike and destroy our hard earned worldly things, which are impermanent and temporary, what else will we have?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to follow the examples of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the new Adam and model for us all mankind, and He is calling on us to take up our crosses in life, and follow Him. We have to commit ourselves to endure the same cross of suffering that He has borne for our sake. And if the devil has struck so hard against the Lord, again and again, by stirring up the Pharisees and others who opposed Him, many times, causing so much difficulties and problems, then we can expect to encounter the same opposition, challenges and hardships in life.

This is why in this season of Lent, we are called to renew our commitment to the Lord, to turn ourselves once again to God. There may have been many occasions when we have been tempted to turn away and to give up our faith, but we must persevere on, or otherwise, we will fall into damnation with the devil, and the way forward for us is only through the Lord. Let us all carry our cross in life with faith and conviction, knowing that in God alone we have hope and true assurance.

God will be with us, and He will guide us through this difficult journey. Let us all learn to rid ourselves off all the wicked things by which the devil has tempted us with, the allures of pleasures, especially that of the flesh, the temptation of greed, and the stubbornness of pride. Instead, let us put God at the centre of our lives once again, and fill our lives with obedience and love for Him. May the Lord continue to bless us and our works, and may He continue to watch over us. May all of us have a meaningful and fruitful season of Lent. Amen.

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Saturday, 9 March 2019 : Saturday after Ash Wednesday, Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are all reminded that God is so full of love and mercy towards us, that He is willing to forgive us all our sins and to give us once again the wondrous graces and love, the promise of inheritance that we have once been entitled to, through the forgiveness of our sins. Although our sins may have indeed been very great, but God’s love for each one of us is even greater.

That is why He was willing to give it all to us, for our sake, that He willingly carried the heavy burden of the cross, so that by His suffering on the cross and by His death, He frees us all from the bondage of sin and death. The cross of Christ is the perfect symbol and evidence of His love for each one of us, of the great desire which Our Lord has for our salvation and for our turnaround from the path towards damnation, into reconciliation with Him.

God is calling on all of us to repent from our sins, and to turn away from our wicked paths, calling on us to abandon our past ways of disobedience and waywardness, our refusal to listen to Him and our stubbornness in following our own prideful and ambitious ways. God gives us opportunities, one after another, chances after chances, for us to turn back to Him, and to seek Him and His mercy before it is too late for us.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard of how the Lord Jesus confronted the Pharisees who criticised Him for His interactions with those whom they deemed to be sinners and to be unworthy of God’s grace and love. The tax collectors were among those who were at the bottom of the society’s regards and status, as they were widely viewed as betrayers and traitors to the nation for having apparently colluded with the Roman overlords.

But the Lord showed pity and mercy towards them, even when the Pharisees were criticising Him before the people for doing so. And the Lord made it clear that He came into the world seeking the healing and forgiveness of sinners, and those whose sins were greater, were those whom the Lord sought first, as He hoped to rescue them from the fate of eternal damnation. And many of the tax collectors were sorrowful and repentant of their sins, and they were forgiven.

And we heard how one among the tax collectors left everything behind and followed the Lord, the man who was known as Levi, later known as St. Matthew the Apostle, one of the Twelve Apostles and also one of the Four Evangelists. This example shows us how even great sinners can become great saints, as long as they turn away from their sinful ways and sincerely repented from their wickedness. Those who turn towards God and placed their trust in Him will indeed not be disappointed.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must realise that none of us are perfect in our ways, and in some way or another, we have not been fully obedient and good, and therefore, sins have corrupted us and caused us to fall deeper and deeper into this trap, and being led further and further away in estrangement from the Lord. We should not follow the examples of the Pharisees, who took great pride in their supposed piety and righteousness.

Why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because it does not matter how small or how great our sins are, as the fact remains that we are all sinners in need of healing and forgiveness. And it does not give any one of us the right to condemn or look down on others just because we think that our sins are lighter and smaller than others’ sins. It is not right for us to be judgmental on others just because we think that we are better than them.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Frances of Rome, a holy woman and religious Benedictine oblate who was remembered for her devotion and piety, despite her noble and privileged upbringing. St. Frances of Rome often took care of the sick and the poor that she encountered, and despite the various challenges that she and her family had to experience, she continued to live a holy life that is dedicated to the service of God, and in her charitable love for her brethren who were in need.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we are called to follow in the footsteps of our holy predecessors, in how they lived their lives with holiness, turning away from sins and wickedness. God is calling each and every one of us to holiness, to be forgiven from our sins, that we may be redeemed from our bondage to that great obstacle which prevented us from being able to be reunited with our God.

Let us all dedicate ourselves anew to the Lord, our time, effort and attention, to love the Lord our God and to serve our fellow brethren, to care for those who are in need. May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen us all in our love and dedication for Him. May God bless us all and our good works. Amen.

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Friday, 8 March 2019 : Friday after Ash Wednesday, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are yet reminded again of the matter of fasting and how important this practice of fasting for each and every one of us. As Christians we practice fasting as well as abstinence at certain times in the year, and the practice of fasting have to be done with full understanding and appreciation of what it can do to us, if we truly practice fasting as well as abstinence with the right reasons and purpose.

What we heard today in our first reading taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah as well as the Gospel passage today ought to jolt us and to make us realise that we do not fast or abstain from meat and from other things we want to abstain from, just because it is a formality and an obligation to do so. That is because it is easy for us to practice certain acts of piety and devotions, and yet, we did them not out of love for God, but because we want attention to ourselves, or that we want to satisfy our pride, ego and greed.

That was what happened to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law during the time of Jesus. When the Pharisees asked the disciples why they did not fast just as they have done, the Lord answered them that they would fast when the time was right, when He was to be taken away from them, and then they would fast. They did not fast just because they wanted to be seen or to be praised for doing so, unlike the Pharisees who made a lot of fuss and brought plenty of attention to their activities and pious acts.

When they fasted, they did so mainly because they were swayed by their pride, ego, desire and ambition. They wanted the people to praise them and respect them because of the things that they did. God did not have place of honour in their hearts and minds, as He should have received. God should have been the focus and at the centre of our every actions and works. But without that genuine love and dedication that each and every one of us should have for Him, we will not be able to remain faithful to Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, during this time and season of Lent we are called to redirect our focus in life as well as our attention back towards the Lord, by means of fasting and abstinence. When we fast, we must have the right focus and attention at heart, which means that we fast because we want to restrain our inner desires, all the wicked temptations that are within our hearts and minds, that caused us to sin against God.

When we abstain, we also restrain our own predisposition to sin, our vulnerability to the disobedience against God. Thus instead of following the examples of the Pharisees who used their practice of fasting and abstinence in the entirely wrong direction and intention, using those as excuse to indulge in their own ego, desires and pride, we should reject those prideful thoughts and temptations inside our hearts and minds.

Satan is ever busy and ready to strike at us through these temptations, the desires and greed within us, and by turning our ego, ambition and pride against us. Unless we make the conscious effort to resist the pull of desire, pride, ego and ambition, and dedicate ourselves to reject the pull of sin, we will likely end up falling deeper and deeper into the trap of sin. And this is where, during this time and season of Lent, we should make use of these opportunities given to us to repent from our sinful ways.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. John of God, a holy and devout servant of God, whose life and examples should become inspiration for ourselves, in how we ought to live our lives faithfully before God. St. John of God was remembered well for his service to the people of God, especially for the sick, the poor and those who have suffered physically and in unfortunate conditions. St. John of God dedicated his life, his time, his efforts and works to care for all of them.

Are we able to follow in the footsteps of this holy saint, brothers and sisters in Christ? God has given us the time, opportunity and ability to give our talents and abilities to be of benefit to one another, especially those who are weak, poor, oppressed and unloved. We are called to love God in ways that St. John of God and many others of our holy predecessors had done. Are we able to do this, brothers and sisters in Christ?

Let us progress through this season of Lent, with a new commitment to love God, as well as to love one another. Let us all get rid from ourselves all the pride, the ego and ambition, the greed and worldly desired that can prevent us from truly attaining the fullness of salvation and grace in God. Let us all make good use of this time of Lent to rediscover our faith in God. May God bless us all and may He guide us in this journey of faith. Amen.

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Thursday, 7 March 2019 : Thursday after Ash Wednesday, Memorial of St. Perpetua and St. Felicity, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day each and every one of us are reminded of the need for us to dedicate ourselves to the Lord wholeheartedly, and be ready to commit ourselves to His path. On this day, the day after Ash Wednesday, we continue to uphold our resolve to live through this blessed season of Lent, spending our time to be closer to God, carrying our crosses with Him.

In the first reading today from the Book of Deuteronomy, God through His servant Moses communicated clearly to the people the choice that they had before them, as they went through their forty years of journey in the desert while waiting to enter into the land promised to them by God. Many of them had disobeyed the Lord and refused to follow His ways and His commandments, preferring to follow their own, sinful ways, and hardening their hearts and minds against Him.

And thus, through this we are reminded that we too have been given a choice, that is either for us to live in God’s way and obey His laws and commandments, or for us to abandon Him and turn instead to the ways of the world that is full of temptations and are seemingly easier and less challenging for us. We are presented with the choice between the seemingly tougher and less appealing way that God showed us, and the seemingly more enjoyable path of this world.

We are no strangers to the alternative path shown to us by the world, for indeed, we are surrounded by many of the temptations. At the time of the Israelites in the days of the Exodus, the people of Israel constantly grumbled before God and before Moses, complaining that they were hungry without good food, or thirsty without water and good drinks to enjoy. They refused to budge even after they have seen many of the miraculous deeds God performed before them through Moses.

They desired to return to Egypt, saying that it was better for them to go back to Egypt and suffer again under slavery, as they would at least be able to eat decently and not having to worry about dying in the desert without food or drink. They complained and refused to comply to the Lord’s will, just because they had little faith in God. If only they know just how much God loved each and every one of them, as He gave them everything they needed, and yet even those were not enough for those stubborn people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we can see the parallel between their examples and our own lives in this present world today. The path of the world seems to be easier to us, and it seems to be less arduous, less challenging and more promising to us, as this is the effort by the devil and all of his forces, trying to tempt us into sin, into disobedience against God, by presenting all sorts of wicked temptations that go straight into our pride and ego, our desires and our hearts’ greed.

Some of us may even think that just because we are Christians, then we should expect to have good lives full of graces and blessings, that we do not have to suffer but instead, with greater faith comes greater blessings in life, in physical and material terms. But this is the false ‘gospel of prosperity’ that is unfortunately adopted by some of our separated brethren in faith. We must not fall into that same trap of the devil, who tries to tempt us with worldly temptations.

The Lord made it clear, in our Gospel passage today, that He Himself was to suffer grievously at the hands of His enemies. This was fulfilled when He went through His Passion, suffering persecution and rejection, brutal pain and sufferings, as He was beaten and spat on, ridiculed and made to bear a heavy cross, stripped and nailed to that cross, and made to suffer and die for the sake of all of us mankind.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is the suffering that our Lord had to endure, and all of that is caused by His love for us, which is so great that He was willing to even endure those painful torture and experience just so that by His selfless and loving sacrifice, we may be saved from certain destruction. And He Himself said that if we are to be His disciples, then we must follow Him and have a share in the cross that He bore out of love for us.

It does not mean that we will suffer forever. Instead, our suffering now on earth is just a temporary prelude of the greater glory and joy that is to come. God has promised that all those who are faithful to Him will not be disappointed, for in the end of the journey it is nothing less than an eternity of glory and true happiness being in the presence of God forever, where we will not suffer any longer, and all that we need are no longer there, for God alone is enough for everything.

The devil knows this, and he does not want us to be saved. And that is why he is so hard at work, trying to prevent us from finding our way towards Him. He is always at work, trying to lure us away from the right path, and turn us away from righteousness and faith. In fact, we will realise that frequently, we will have to go up even against our friends and those who are dear to us, and we have to make often difficult choices, to choose between obeying God and suffer, or to obey the devil instead and receive satisfaction from him.

Today, we celebrate the feast of two famous martyrs of the Church, two courageous women who defended their faith in God to the very end with great dedication and courage. St. Perpetua was a noblewoman while St. Felicity was a slavewoman, both of whom shared the Christian faith. At that time, during the height of the Roman Empire, Christians have been harassed and persecuted again and again by the authorities, and many had to practice their faith in secret.

But eventually some were found out to be Christians, and put in prison and made to suffer with the hope that they would abandon their faith in God and sought safety and good assurance in life for themselves. Some did fall to the temptations or yielded to the strong pressures and abandoned their faith, but many remained firm in their faith in God, such as St. Perpetua and St. Felicity. These two women were firm in their conviction to remain faithful to God.

Having endured much suffering and pain, opposition and challenges, even from those who were close to them, St. Perpetua, who encountered great challenges from her family, who wanted her to recant her faith, as well as St. Felicity, who suffered in prison while being pregnant with a baby, both of them chose to remain true to their faith, and died as courageous martyrs and examples of true faith and dedication to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are called to look upon the examples set before us by the holy saints and martyrs of God, particularly that of St. Perpetua and St. Felicity whose feast day we commemorate today. Are we able to make the same commitment and decision as they have done? They carried together the cross of Christ and endured the grievous sufferings just as the Lord had suffered, with the hope of eternal glory and salvation in the end of their earthly journey.

Let us all make good use of this season of Lent to reorientate ourselves and reorder our lives, so that from this moment onwards, we do not live any longer for ourselves, but rather, to serve the greater purpose of God, and to obey Him in all things, standing up to Him and remaining faithful to Him despite the challenges we may encounter in our daily lives. Let us all remain true to Him, and love Him ever more as we pass through this blessed Lent. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Wednesday, 6 March 2019 : Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the beginning of this penitential season of Lent, the forty days period of preparation before the coming of the Holy Week and Easter. On this day, that is Ash Wednesday, we mark this dramatic change from the Ordinary Time into Lent by the imposition of blessed ashes on our foreheads, and also the first time in the entire Lent and Holy Week until the coming of Easter that the Alleluia is not sung, and also that of Gloria until the Holy Thursday.

There are many significance to these practices that we do during the season of Lent, and in particular today on Ash Wednesday, besides the imposition of ashes, we are also required by the Church to practice fasting as well as abstinence. Fasting is compulsory for all Christian adults of ages between eighteen and sixty, excusing only the very young and the very old. Meanwhile, abstinence is compulsory for Christians above the age of fourteen.

Fasting refers to the practice of not eating more than a full meal and two small collations or snacks each day, limiting our food intake to what is essential to maintain our lives and not indulging in the desires of our body. And abstinence usually involves refraining from eating meat, as well as from committing acts and deeds that are both wicked and sinful in nature, resisting the temptations to do our bad habits and actions that often led us to sin.

But the Lord is reminding each and every one of us, that we should not lose our focus on the intention and purpose why we observe the season of Lent, as a special time of preparation meant to reorientate ourselves and redirect our focus in life, so that we can be spiritually, physically and mentally ready for the celebration of the great mystery of Easter, the pinnacle of our faith and the story of our redemption from sin.

Why is it that the Church place this season of Lent before Holy Week and Easter? That is because throughout the Scriptures, whenever a person was about to go forth on an important mission or spiritual journey, that person usually would go through a certain period of preparation, just as what Moses did when he went up the mountain of God in Sinai, staying up there for forty days and forty nights prior to receiving the Law.

The same happened to the prophet Elijah, when he went to the desert seeking for the Lord after he was exiled from the land of Israel. He walked for forty days and forty nights without rest, with strength from the food provided by the Lord, until he reached the mountain of God in Sinai to meet the Lord and heard His will. Then, the people of Israel themselves travelled through the desert for forty years, going through a long period of self-rediscovery and atonement, after they have rebelled against God and refused to put their faith in Him, that they could not go immediately into the land promised to them, until they have completed that period of purification and waiting.

And it was told that Mary, the Mother of God spent a period of purification after her childbirth, as all women had to go through, when she was unable to enter into the Temple, due to the impurities then associated with the bleeding caused by childbirth. After a traditional period of forty days of preparation, she entered the Temple, which is still celebrated in the Traditional Calendar of the Roman Rite as the Feast of the Purification of Mary, forty days after Christmas on the second day of February each year.

And finally, the Lord Jesus Himself went to the desert right after His baptism at the Jordan River, spending forty days and forty nights fasting as a period of preparation before He officially began His earthly ministry, and which symbolically linked Him to the forty years of journey that the Israelites endured in the desert, as the atonement for their sins and disobedience against God.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, fasting has long been associated with sorrow, mourning and regret. Those who fast often did so with dishevelled appearance and wearing sackcloth, a type of very coarse cloth used as sacks to contain rice and other matter, which is constantly itching on the skin and uncomfortable to wear, as a reminder of one’s physical shortcomings. Fasting is practiced as a means to reorientate one’s life to God.

However, in today’s Gospel passage, the Lord Jesus went through with the people of the dangers of misunderstanding the intention of these pious practices. This has to be understood in the context of the time, when the Lord was faced with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, many of whom showed off their actions before the people to show just how pious and good they were, that they might be praised by the people for their actions.

Today we heard how the Lord pointed out the flaws in their actions and how they have not done their fasting with the right intention. They fasted and made themselves to look in a very obvious manner that they have been fasting, so that the people would be in awe towards them. In reality, much of their intention and the driving factor behind their effort to fast and to do all the things that they deemed to be in accordance with the laws and traditions of the Jewish people, was because of their pride and desire to be famous.

This is why the Lord rebuked them because of their lack of real faith in Him. The Lord told the people to listen to them and their teachings, but not in what they are doing, because the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law did not practice many of the things that they themselves had preached before the people. They professed to be faithful to God, and yet, their hearts were not filled with love for God, but instead with love for themselves, and desire for worldly acclamations and glory.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is very important that each and every one of us Christians today reflect on how we are going to observe this most holy and blessed season of Lent, the time and wonderful opportunity that God has granted to us, as a way for us to rediscover our faith and our love for Him. This is the perfect time for us to take stock of our actions in life thus far, looking into how we have lived our lives in the past year, all the good things we have done, and even more importantly, our shortcomings and sinfulness.

Each and every one of us are sinners, because of our disobedience against God’s will. As long as we allow ourselves to be tempted, and fall into those temptations, succumbing to our ego and pride, to our greed and the wicked desires of our hearts and of our flesh, we will continue to sin against God. And unless we turn away from those sins, there will be no way forward to us, as sin has become a great obstacle in our way towards the Lord and His promise of eternal life.

We are reminded that first of all, the Lord’s love and mercy is always readily available for all of us. He is always ever compassionate, loving and merciful towards us, and even though we have often been disobedient and wayward, but He is always ever faithful to the Covenant that He has established with us. That is why this season of Lent is meant as a time for us to truly stop and think, and discern carefully how we want to carry on living our lives from now on.

And we fast as well as abstaining from wicked deeds, not because we want to be praised and acclaimed by other people, as what many of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done, but because we truly recognise how sinful each and every one of us are, and how weak we are in our flesh, easily tempted and easily falling into sin. Because of this, we want to restrain ourselves and learn to control our many avenues of temptation, by which we have fallen again and again, into disobedience against God.

Today, as the blessed ashes is imposed on our foreheads, let the blessed ashes be a reminder to each and every one of us, that we truly are mortals and sinners, and by our sins we have deserved to perish and die, and all of us will indeed one day have to face death, as a certainty that no one can avoid at all. But at the same time, let us remember that through the liturgy of Ash Wednesday God through His Church is also calling us to turn away from our sins and repent with sincerity.

As the blessed ashes came from the burning of the blessed palms used at Palm Sunday last year, they remind us of our own mortality, and of the urgency by which each and every one of us must act, to get rid from ourselves the sins that have tainted us. We will perish for sure unless we put our trust in God and turn towards His merciful love. And the blessed ashes is also placed on our foreheads in the shape of the cross, as a reminder that our fasting and abstinence in this season of Lent, is to prepare us to enter into the great mystery of the Holy Week and then Easter, when the Lord saves us by His ultimate sacrifice on the cross.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all begin this blessed season of Lent, by making use of every opportunities given to us, that we will not waste this chance that God has given us, for us to change and repent from our wicked ways. God wants us all to receive His salvation, and that is why, through His Church, He is preparing us in our hearts and minds, that we may rediscover our true love for Him, and distance ourselves from whatever is wicked and unworthy of Him in our every actions and deeds.

May God guide us always through our journey of faith in this season of Lent, and may our fast and abstinence help us to reorientate ourselves in life, and find for ourselves a new meaning in life, that is to love God and to serve Him every living moments of our life. Amen.

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Sunday, 13 May 2018 : Seventh Sunday of Easter, World Social Communications Sunday and Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we celebrate the seventh Sunday in the season of Easter. Therefore, in just one week’s time we will come to the celebration of the Solemnity of the Pentecost, and mark the end of this holy season of Easter. I hope that for all of us Christians, each and every one of us have made good use of this particularly blessed season to deepen our faith in God.

On this Seventh Sunday of Easter, the Church also commemorate the occasion of the World Communications Sunday. On this occasion, we remember the important command that the Lord gave to all of us, His disciples and followers, that we are to go forth to the peoples of all the nations, testifying our faith and belief in the Lord, Who has come upon this world to save us, by His death on the cross and by His resurrection.

And in order to be able to do that, of course, each one of us as Christians must know how to communicate. Then, many of us surely wonder, ‘Ah, but I know how to talk well!’ or ‘Ah, it is not a problem for me at all, for I am a good speaker and I can persuade people very well!’. Yet, do we actually know what communication is truly about, brothers and sisters in Christ? Is it all about talking and how well we can speak and talk to others?

No, that is not all, brothers and sisters. Good communicators are also good listeners, just as they are good speakers. And they are also usually good thinkers and contemplators. One cannot communicate properly, if one just speak right off from his or her mouth, without first thinking about it or contemplating what he or she is about to say. Otherwise, very easily the person could have gotten into trouble for what he or she had said, as those words had not been carefully thought of.

And if someone is quick to talk, and yet also refuse to listen, then he or she is also not a good communicator. That is because we will then find ourselves in a situation where we will end up misunderstand the intentions of each other. We will also not be able to communicate well, as if each side of the people in communication insist that they be heard first, and refuse to listen to the other person’s opinion, very quickly it will end up in a struggle and even conflict.

Unfortunately, that is who we often are, and that is how we also often act, and that was how wars have been started, conflicts and destruction of human lives, just because we failed to communicate well. People misunderstood each other’s intentions from time to time, and unless we make the effort to learn from our past mistakes, the same problems and mistakes are likely to arise again and again.

Then, brothers and sisters in Christ, do we realise that there are many ways we can communicate, more than just by words? Verbal speeches and words are just one way through which we are able to communicate with another person. There are many other ways through which we can convey what we want another person to know, that is through gestures and actions. Unfortunately, the same can also be said of our actions that are in fact contrary to what we are saying.

What do I mean by saying that, brethren? It means that as Christians, just as I have mentioned earlier that we are all called by God to be His witnesses to all the nations, to all the peoples, we cannot just depend on our words alone. It is often that actions carry much greater weight than words, and it is such that words that are not backed by concrete actions are often considered empty and meaningless.

And unfortunately, in our actions and in how we carry out our lives, we often did not do as what our faith said that we should do in our lives. Just as St. John in his Epistle, our second reading today said to the faithful, we are all called to love God and love one another, with all of our hearts, and with all of our efforts. And yet, how many of us actually truly love God with all of our hearts? How many of us actually prioritises God over all the other things we have in life?

The reality is that for many of us Christians, we tend to put God aside in our lives, as we are often too busy and too caught up in our worldly dealings and matters, to the point that we forget about God, and we only remember Him, if we even remember Him, in times when we are in need of His help. And when things start to go better once again for us, we forget to thank Him and we continue in our usual busy lifestyle and push Him aside once again.

And how about our love for our fellow men? Many of us Christians profess to be members of God’s Church, and yet, in our actions and interactions with one another, many of us do things that are anything but showing love for each other. How many of us, in our respective parishes and communities, often fall into the tendency and the bad habit of gossiping against each other, against fellow laity, and even against the priests? And even amongst the priests, sometimes we also see division and unpleasantness between each other.

Now, let me ask you all a question, brothers and sisters in Christ. If we want to communicate to those whom we intend to preach the message of the Good News of God, how can we then, in our own respective lives and actions, do things that are contrary to what we preach and what we believe? How can people believe in us, if we ourselves do not do as we say, and if we do not show that we truly believe in our faith, through action?

If we have done all these, then we are no better than the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. They were hypocrites, just as we are. The Lord Jesus Himself said to the people, ‘Listen to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, but do not imitate them in what they were doing’. Through this, the Lord rebuked those who claim to believe, and yet, their actions show completely different fact altogether.

And why did all these things happen to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is because we are not a good communicator, and we need to learn to be good communicators. We are often people who are easy to talk and give words out of our mouths, but we find it hard to act in the same manner, because we do not truly mean what we say, and we often do not think and discern before we say something.

This is where, we need to reflect on what we have just heard in our Gospel passage today, which is the prayer which Our Lord Jesus made, and addressed to His Father in heaven, for the sake of all of His disciples. He prayed for them to His Father, that He would keep them safe and protect them, and guide them, and make them to remain united as one people, as one body together, which St. John in his Epistle also elaborated further, that the love of God has dwelled in us, through His Holy Spirit.

But many of us often do not realise this, as we are often too distracted by the many things and concerns we have in this world. We do not spend enough time in prayer, and prayer is a very important part of our Christian life. The Lord Jesus often spent time in quiet places to pray to His Father, and we saw it in many occasions throughout the Gospels. He maintained a close and loving relationship with His Father, listening to Him and obeying His will.

And by that action, He has also shown us all as Christians, how we ought to devote ourselves to God through prayer. It is also important that we know how to pray in the right manner. Many of us think that our prayers have to follow a certain formula or that by saying longer and more concise prayers, our prayers will then be answered, or we can gain more from what we have prayed for.

However, it is too often that many of us are again not good communicators in this case, as we end up spending all the time talking and making our demands and desires known to the Lord, without allowing ourselves to hear the will of God, and we shut ourselves off from the word of God, speaking softly in the depths of our hearts and within our minds. We end up speaking all the time and not allowing God to speak to us. In this manner, we have failed in our communication to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to realise that each and every one of our prayers are actually meant to be communication between us and God. And as in any proper communication, it should be two-way in nature, allowing both parties involved to speak and to listen at the appropriate time. The problem is, as mentioned, we do not listen enough, and we demand that God listen to our demands, when we do not even open our hearts and minds to listen to His will.

May the Lord therefore, allow our hearts and minds, our senses to be open to God. If we have often been distracted and swayed from the path that God has shown us, then perhaps it is time now for us to turn wholeheartedly and completely towards God, with all of our hearts and with all of our minds. Let us all develop a good and working spiritual relationship with God, that we may come to know His will for us, and He may draw us ever closer to Him, with each and every passing day.

May we grow to be good communicators, that is, with the wisdom which the Holy Spirit has given us, we may be good listeners just as we are good speakers, and through the same wisdom, may we all discern and think carefully through all the things that we want to convey and say to others, that we may say them with grace, truth and charity. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 6 May 2018 : Sixth Sunday of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this holy day, the sixth Sunday of the season of Easter, all of us are called to reflect on the one fundamental nature of our faith, and indeed, of Our God, in Whom we believe. And this fundamental nature is indeed so important that it is from which all of our faith came from, and by which, we have been saved. And what I have just spoken about, is love.

In the first reading today, we heard about St. Peter the Apostle, who went to visit the house of a Roman citizen named Cornelius, who together with his family greeted the Apostle and asked about the Christian faith. They wanted to believe in the Lord Jesus, and they listened to the teachings of the Apostle St. Peter, whom God also called to visit their house. They became believers, and received the Holy Spirit as St. Peter himself witnessed.

This is a very important event in the early Church, which was then divided between those who wanted to impose strict Jewish laws and discipline, and in fact, wanted the faith to be kept within the Jews only, as they believed that salvation was given only to the Jewish people, the direct descendants of Abraham, as God’s chosen people, and those who believe that the Lord did not restrict salvation from being given to the non-Jewish people, and in fact, as He had commanded, wanted everyone to be saved, and to follow Him.

And the Lord showed St. Peter, and the other Church fathers and elders, how He desired for the salvation of all mankind, for all of the race of men have been chosen by God, out of His love for all of them. When He showed a vision to St. Peter earlier prior to his visit to the house of Cornelius, in which a multitude of unclean animals according to the Jewish tradition was presented to St. Peter as food as commanded by God, and upon his refusal, God said to him that ‘what God has decreed to be clean, you cannot say to be unclean.’

This is related to what we heard in the Gospel today, as the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “I shall not call you servants anymore, but I shall call you friends.” Through this, God revealed to us His true intention and nature. In the Old Testament, God was always portrayed as a mighty and angry God, Who is always ready to punish His people whenever they erred or turned against Him. But in reality, He did all of those because He loved His people.

Otherwise, why would God love those people who have rebelled against Him, disobeyed His commandments and laws? God did not intend for all of us to suffer difficulty and hardships in this world, as if we read the Book of Genesis, we should see how God intended for us all to live in perfect bliss and harmony, in eternal happiness with Him, as God had intended with Adam and Eve, our first ancestors in the Gardens of Eden.

Alas, our ancestors disobeyed God’s commandments and followed the lies of Satan instead, believing more in his sweet false promises rather than to obey the Lord, Who has given us His love so much, that He gave us everything in this world to be our own. Instead, we were banished out of Eden into the suffering of this world, and we came under the thralldom and tyranny of sin.

God could have destroyed us right there and then, and He could have crushed us, as He Who created us surely could also destroy us with the mere projection of His will. However, that was not what God has done. Instead, He called us to return to Him, beginning with the sons and daughters of Abraham, His faithful servant, and then by giving them His Law and commandments, the Ten Commandments.

But the people continued to sin and refused to obey Him, and instead, worshipping pagan gods and idols, performing what were wicked in God’s sight, by their unjust treatment of their peers and fellow men, they disgusted God and made Him to be angry at them. But that was not the true nature of God. God was angry at His people, because of their disobedience and their sins. It was these wickedness that God was angry with them for, but not because of themselves as human beings.

What does it mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? It means that God ultimately still loves us all, even though we are sinful and wicked in our deeds. However, it is these sins and wickedness which have separated us from Him, and which then prompted God to do what He had to do, in order to save us all from certain destruction because of those unrepented and unsettled sins.

And in this day’s Gospel passage, the Lord Jesus made it clear what He would do in order to fulfil the promise He has made to us mankind, that He would love us again and reconcile us to Himself, freeing us from our sins. He has considered us to be His friends, as those who are truly dear to Him. And what would Jesus do to His friends? In another Gospel passage, He said, “There is no greater love for someone than for him to lay down his life for a friend.”

That is exactly what the Lord has done, by voluntarily accepting the cross, as a punishment for all of our sins, the whole sum of the consequences that should have fallen unto us mankind, and yet, God willingly took all of them upon His own shoulders, and bore them on the way to Calvary, and He was crucified on it. He endured an unimaginably immense pain and sorrow, suffering and torture on the Cross, but He bore it all patiently.

And that is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, the Cross is the concrete and undeniable proof of God’s ultimate love for each and every one of us. God has loved us so much, that He did not only give us His only Son, through Whom He created us, the Word of God, made incarnate into the flesh of Man, but, in fact, through His singular act of perfect love and completely selfless sacrifice, He gave Himself up and His life, so that, by that loving act, He redeemed us all from our sins.

Now we have seen just how wonderful and amazing God’s love for us is. He has loved us all from the very beginning, and He wants to continue to love us. But unfortunately, many of us have not loved Him in the same manner. This is what God wants from each one of us, that we all love Him just as He has loved us first, and then we ought to show this love in our action and interactions with one another. That is the true essence of God’s commandments and Law.

Yet, how many of us truly love God in our hearts? How many of us put God as the priority in our lives? Instead of loving Him, we spent far more time worrying about our worldly concerns, about our career, our possessions and material wealth, about our relationships and concerns of the flesh? How many of us only remember God when we have need and we demand that God do something for us?

If we truly love God, then we cannot act in this manner. True love for God does not mean for us to just superficially be faithful to Him. Many of those Pharisees who obeyed the numerous rules and regulations of the Jewish customs seemed to be obedient to the Lord, but they did not love Him, for their love was for worldly power and influence, for their own satisfaction and pleasure, and not God.

How about us? Haven’t many of us been doing the same thus far? We are so busy and so preoccupied trying to accumulate for ourselves all these things, that we end up forgetting about God and about our obligation to Him. And then, we have also often forgotten about our obligation, to show the same love to our fellow brethren. Instead, we end up backstabbing others, being angry and jealous at others, desiring what others have and what we do not.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians, all of us are called to be true agents of love, that is the pure love which God has shown us, unconditional and selfless. Then, what is it that we need to do? We should begin to practice genuine love in our daily lives, by showing care and concern to those who are around us, forgiving those who have wronged us, and helping even strangers who need our help.

Let us not be prejudiced on others based on racial or national background, just as God Himself has not prejudiced against us, and love us all equally all the same. He has shown this to St. Peter, and by calling all the Gentiles, all the peoples from every nation, He wants to show us that He loves all mankind equally, and we too, should do the same with our own lives and in how we interact with our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord, all children of the one and same God.

By doing these things, then we will grow stronger in our love for God, as we truly now internalise and appreciate the same love which He Himself has given us from the cross, and which we imitate in our own actions to one another. In this way then, we will grow ever more faithful to Him, and draw ever closer to Him. Let us all pray then, brothers and sisters, that God will always be with us, loving is as He has always done, and may He guide us in our lives, that we may love Him all the more, with each and every passing day. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 29 April 2018 : Fifth Sunday of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s Scripture readings, we heard about the Lord Who spoke to us with His parables, comparing Himself and the Father as the Vine and the Vinegrower. In the first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard the first works of Saul, who would later on be known as St. Paul the Apostle, just right after his conversion to the faith.

What is the significance of these passages to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is ultimately a reminder for all of us, that everything we say, everything we do, and all the things that we have, ultimately belong to God and must be for God. God is the source of everything we have, and He is the One Who has given us and blessed us with everything we need, most important one of which, is our life.

God is the True Vine, from which everything else originated. Nothing can exist when they are separated from God, and if one should sever himself or herself away from God, sooner or later, he or she will perish. Sadly, in reality, there had been many occasions throughout history, when individuals separated themselves from God and chose to go their own way through disobedience against the will of God.

Firstly, God created Angels to serve Him and to glorify Him. But one of the Angels, the greatest and the mightiest among them, the most brilliant one, Lucifer, chose to rebel against God and against His Creator and Master. He wanted to claim God’s position, and in doing so, severing himself from God. As a result, he was thrown down and banished from heaven, forever from then, known as Satan, the great enemy, whose defeat and final destruction has been assured and prophesied.

But Satan did not want to go down quietly and on his own, so he tried to strike at those whom God loved and cherished, in particular His most beloved ones, that is us mankind. That is why, he struck at our ancestors, Adam and Eve in the Gardens of Eden, tempting them to disobey God’s commands, alluring them with sweet lies and false promises, the temptation of knowledge and power, essentially providing them with an ‘alternative’ to God’s way.

And unfortunately, they chose to listen to Satan over their obedience to God, and thus mankind fell into sin by eating the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. All because of their greed and unbridled desires, and having Satan who manipulated these greed and desires, we fell, and we sinned. And that was how mankind severed from the True Vine that is God. God never intended for us to be separated from Him, but unfortunately, we chose such a separation.

Why did I choose this narrative for today? That is because the account in Genesis is truly symbolic and relevant for what we have heard in today’s Gospel passage about the Vine of the Lord. By a tree we have been cast down, as we ate of the forbidden fruit instigated by Satan and by our own greed. We have chosen to sever ourselves from God, and as the Lord mentioned in the Gospel today, that no one who is separated from God can have life and survive, indeed, all of us mankind have been destined to perish together with Satan in eternal damnation.

However, God created us all in His very own image, far greater than all the Angels, even that of Lucifer, the tempter of all. And He created us all because of His great and unsurmountable and perfect love for us. If He has created us all because of His love, then it is illogical for God to desire for our destruction and annihilation. It is us who severed our connection to Him, but He wants to restore that connection He had with us.

And how did He do so? He did so through another ‘tree’, that is the tree of the Cross. While once mankind, having disobeyed the Lord by eating the fruit from a forbidden tree, fell into sin and disgrace, now, with the New Man, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, He bore the tree of the Cross, that bore a new fruit, the fruit of obedience and faith. It was Christ’s love and obedience for His Father, which ultimately redeems us from our sins and from our past wrongdoings.

By the cross, we receive the fruits of God’s love, and we saw His commitment to the Covenant which He has established with us. And through the cross, the Vine is remade and reestablished, with God and man reconciled and reunited by the actions of Christ, equally Man and equally God. The Cross is the bridge which has connected God and mankind, bridging over the previously impassable gap between the two.

Now that Christ has restored the vine, all of us who believe in Him as Christians have been made parts of the vine as members of His Church. He has established the Church in this world, as the physical and real existence of His all-embracing Vine. And how did we become part of this Vine? It is because we have received our faith from the Church, from the priests and our bishops, who themselves, received their faith from their predecessors.

And ultimately, those received their faith from the Apostles, who received their faith from the Lord Himself. Thus, while the Lord is the Vine, the Apostles are His principal branches, and our priests and bishops are the branches that emerge from those principal branches, and all of us Christians make up the entirety of the Vine, as members of God’s Body, the Church.

Now, it is important for us all to take note, that even though the Lord, Who by His love and ultimate sacrifice on the cross has reestablished the crucial connection between us and Him, but the threats presented by Satan and all of his wicked allies have not ended yet. Instead, these threats and attacks will only increase all the more, because Satan, realising that he has lost his grip on us, will try all the more to bring us down with him.

That is why, as all of us should well realise, that becoming a good and devout Christian in this time and era is increasingly becoming a challenge for us. Increasingly, keeping our faith as Christians and standing up for our faith become more and more difficult, as our Christian values of love, of faith, of hope, and of zeal, clash with the increasingly immoral ways of this world, seduced by Satan and his allies.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us are called to follow the examples of the Apostles, including that of St. Paul, who willingly chose to turn to God after his conversion, dedicating his whole life to the service of God, to preach the truth and the Good News of the Lord to His people, that many more people would repent and be saved from the certainty of eternal damnation in hell.

God wants us to be courageous in our faith and to be devoted to Him in this way. He does not want those who are just Christians in name and by formality only. He said this in the Gospel passage today, as He said that those branches that is not healthy will be cast aside and thrown away, pruned to make sure the whole Vine is healthy. To each and every one of us have been given the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and now, whether we are to use them or not, and how we use them, is entirely up to us.

Let us all therefore pledge ourselves to God, and to His cause, inspired by the examples of the Holy Apostles and saints. May all of us, faithful disciples of the Lord be able to commit ourselves, our time, effort and attention, to do God’s will through our every words and actions, so that we are truly Christians in spirit and in action. May the Lord be with us all through this journey, and may He help us all to persevere in faith. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 22 April 2018 : Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday and Vocation Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, we celebrate together the occasion of the Good Shepherd Sunday, known as such because of the Gospel passage of the Fourth Sunday of Easter that is about the Lord as the Good Shepherd, as well as the occasion of the Vocation Sunday, where all of us pray together for the vocations to the priesthood and life dedicated to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday is a very important one to us all in the Church, as all those who are priests and consecrated to God are the lifeblood of the Church, and an important part of God’s Church together with the laity. Without these courageous men who listened to God’s call and answered Him with concrete action, there would have been no Church to speak of today.

Why is that so? That is because they are called to follow in the example of the Lord, the Good Shepherd, Who loves us all His people. It was God’s love for us that had allowed His Church to exist and flourish, and it was God’s love, that He did not destroy us outright for our sins, but instead He gave us the opportunity to be forgiven and to be reconciled with Him.

All of the readings from the Scripture today speak of God’s love for us, which is great and its extent unimaginable. And He has often alluded to us, the love of a shepherd for the sheep, especially that of a good shepherd, the shepherd of the flock, and not of the hired men. The hired men would only care for the sheep for the money they received, and as soon as they had to do something beyond their obligations, or when they had to face danger to protect the sheep, they would flee.

On the other hand, the good shepherd would do all he could to protect the sheep, to go all the way to search for a lost sheep and to do all he could to make sure that the sheep is safe and sound. And as the Lord Himself mentioned, that a true and good shepherd knows all of his sheep, and the sheep know him. And that is exactly Who the Lord is, our Good Shepherd Who loves each and every one of us.

Obviously God loves each and every one of us, for it was He Who created us from nothingness and gave us life, for each one of us. God did not create us without a good reason, and that reason is that He wants to share with us His perfect love. God has no need for our love, as He Himself is already perfect in love and having perfect love in His Trinity, between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, united in perfect love to each other.

Yet, He wants to love us, and to show His care upon us, to all He has created, and foremost of all, mankind, whom He created in His very own image, and who are the pinnacle of His creation. God is ever loving upon us, whom He considers to be His own children. And why is that so? That is all the more because Christ, His begotten Son, has willingly taken up our existence as Man, that just as He is Son, we too are sons and daughters of God.

The relationship between sheep and shepherd is a very close one, like that of parent and child. Hence, God as our Good Shepherd is yet another reinforcement of the fact of just how great His love for us is. He is our loving Father, our Guardian, our Protector, our Shepherd and our King. And because of that, He is always concerned about us, and worried about us, just as shepherds are always wary of the threats facing their sheep.

And like all sheep, which sometimes like to wander off on its own, all of us, God’s sheep also like to wander off the path that God has shown us. We have disobeyed the commands and laws that God has given us, and preferring to follow our own path. This is where the devil tries to come in, to prey upon us, just like wolves preying on sheep. And he is always ready to snatch those who are lost and separated from the rest of the flock, leading us to our downfall.

That is why the devil is never at rest, constantly trying to get his hands on us, especially those who are most vulnerable to his tricks and lies, to the temptations and persuasions with which he had swayed countless souls from their way to heaven, into the path leading towards hell. The devil is ever active, sending out his agents, demons and evil spirits, to harass us and to drag us into the depths of hell with them.

Of course, the Lord in all these does not stay silent or inactive. If we think that He has done nothing to help us, then let us remind ourselves by looking upon He Who was crucified on the cross. He, our Good Shepherd, above all else, laid down His very life for us, enduring the worst sufferings and pains, far beyond what we mankind can ever imagine or comprehend, so that by those sufferings and by His death, He could save us from a certainty of death and damnation.

He has become the fulfilment of His own words, “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep.” A good and committed shepherd would do everything in order to protect his sheep, and if necessary, they might even put themselves in harm’s way in order to protect the sheep from danger. That is what a true and good shepherd would have done, as he loved the sheep as much as himself.

God, Who is our Good Shepherd, has done exactly the same thing, and as all of us are His beloved sheep, who have been scattered and cast away from Him because of our sins, He came between us and damnation itself, by accepting the punishment for our sins, that though He died, all of us may live because of His ultimate sacrifice. And that is not the end, but instead, a new beginning, because He conquered death and sin, by His glorious resurrection.

Now Christ, our Good Shepherd and Risen Lord has shown us the way forward, and He appointed His disciples, from the Apostles to their successors, all the way to the priests and bishops of our present time, to be shepherds of His flock. And these shepherds model themselves after the Good Shepherd Himself, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of them have worked tirelessly, all throughout the ages, to serve the people of God and the Church, caring for the needs of God’s people, the flock entrusted under their care, as shepherds.

And it is important that today, we remember to pray for our priests and bishops, all those who are our shepherds, that they will remain strong in their faith, conviction and commitment to the vocation into which God had called and confirmed them. And not just that, we should also help them and take part in the activities of the Church together, as our shepherds cannot do their works alone. And there are many threats facing them that we need to be aware of.

Just as the Lord, our Good Shepherd, gave His life to protect us and to bring salvation unto us, many of our priests and bishops had to devote themselves, even to the point of suffering and laying down their lives as martyrs, just so that more and more souls of man may be saved from eternal damnation. That is why we need to pray for them and assist them in whatever way we can.

Remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, Satan knows that if he wants to gain access at us, God’s flock, he must first strike at the shepherds. That was exactly what he has been trying to do, and what he will continue to do. Assaults after assaults, temptations after temptations await our priests and bishops, all those whom God had called and chosen. Now, let us all help them, and help each other, united as one Church, that we strive and persevere through these challenges together.

May the Lord continue to watch over His servants, especially those whom He had made shepherds over His people, our priests and bishops. And may He call even more young men who are destined for a life of service and shepherdhood, that they may discern well and take up the cross, to continue the good works which the Apostles and their successors had done, in shepherding God’s flock and finding their way to Him. May God be with all of our priests, our bishops, and with all of us. Amen.

by

Sunday, 15 April 2018 : Third Sunday of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, as we continue to progress through the season of Easter, we recall God’s great deeds by which He has brought us from the brink of destruction, into a new life where we are in safe condition under good hands, as God Himself took care of us, His people, and would not let harm to come upon our way.

The Apostle St. Paul, as he visited the faithful in the city of Antioch in Pisidia during his apostolic ministry, encouraged the faithful and the Jewish community living in that city, by relating to them how God had done great deeds for them, beginning with the time of the Exodus, a time when the people of Israel was oppressed and made to suffer great humiliation in the land of Egypt, and God brought them out by His great power, guiding them through the desert, and finally made them to dwell in the Promised Land given to them and promised to their ancestors.

St. Paul preached about the salvation of God, which came into this world, in the person of Jesus Christ, Our Lord. He is God’s only begotten Son, Who has willingly taken up our human existence, that He has dwelled among us and walked among us, entering the history of man. In the Gospel passage today, we heard again of the tale of the resurrected Christ, Who after His resurrection has appeared to His disciples.

In that same Gospel passage, the Lord mentioned that everything that the Laws and the Prophets have mentioned, the promises God had made and everything He had uttered from the beginning of time have to be fulfilled, and indeed, He has fulfilled them all to perfection in Jesus Christ, by His works, and most importantly, by His Passion on the cross, His suffering and death, and His glorious resurrection into life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what all of us as Christians need to do today, is that we need to remember how God has done so much in order to save us, and to bring good to all of us. He has bore all of our sins, and all the punishments due for our sins, and all the consequences and the sufferings intended for the shortcomings and mistakes we have committed. He has willingly taken up all these upon Himself, so that, all of us may live and not perish.

Yet, many of us do not realise or appreciate this great love which He has for us. And in reality, many Christians are not aware or appreciative of this great boon which they have all received. For many of us Christians, our faith can even be said as merely a formality, as merely on paper alone, and not one that is truly built upon the solid foundation of love and zeal for God.

For example, how many of us say or think that we believe in God, and yet, in our words, we cause harm to others, or even profane God and His Name? How many of us, by our words and by our actions, we scandalise our Christian faith, and ultimately, the good Name of God? How many of us, because of our words and actions, we make people to shun our Christian faith and refuse to be saved?

Then, how many of us said that we are God’s people, and yet, we barely even have the time to think about Him, and less still, spending quality time with Him? Surely, there are even many among us Christians, who think that coming for the Mass on Sundays, or even for many others, on Christmas and, or Easter alone is enough. And still, for many of us, when we come to the Mass, we cannot wait for the Mass to end, as we cannot wait to continue whatever business we have outside of the church, and go back to our daily habits.

And, even in our churches, in our parishes and in our Christian communities, many of us call ourselves as Christians, and yet, we do not behave as what Christians ought to be. We are jealous when others get something that we do not have, and we squabble over positions in the Church, or for things to go according to our way. When someone else does things in ways different from our own, or not meeting our expectation, we become angry or displeased at that person.

The worst of all, is how we often behave as Christians, in our gossiping and in our slanders, and this is not limited to the laity alone, but even towards our priests. We bicker among ourselves for the most trivial of things, but in all of these, are we not forgetting what we are truly supposed to be doing as Christians? Have we forgotten what it means for us to be followers and disciples of Christ?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, at our baptism, we have made the solemn promise to reject Satan and all of his evil teachings and ways, and we renew this promise every year at Easter. But are we truly meaning what we are saying, brothers and sisters in Christ? Or are we only making empty promises and meaningless words? Our actions and words, our deeds and interaction with one another are often filled with the works of the devil, and sometimes not just that we do not shun them, but in fact we even embrace them.

Hence, from now on, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to commit ourselves anew to the Lord? Are we able to really mean what we say, when we promise Him that we are faithful to Him and that we reject Satan and all of his false promises and persuasions? Therefore, let us all seek to be more devoted to the Lord in all of our ways, in all of our words, actions and deeds.

Let us all lead a new life, no longer filled with arrogance, jealousy, slanderous attitudes and hatred, but instead, be filled with love, with compassion and tenderness that God has shown us. If we are Christians, then we are truly obliged to replicate and follow the examples that Christ has set for us. He Himself has loved us when we hated Him, He forgave us when we sinned against Him and wronged Him, He showed us compassion and mercy when we are suffering.

And because God has shown us so much love and been so kind to us, then we, as His people, should be doing the same as well with our lives. Remember, brethren, that the works of the Apostles, in preaching the Good News and testifying their faith in the Lord are still work in progress, and now it is our obligation to continue their works. And the best way that we can take part in these works, is by living a true and genuine Christian life for each and every one of us.

Why is that so? That is because if we ourselves do not act in the way that God has taught us to do, then would that not make us hypocrites? Then, who will believe in hypocrites? No one will. So, if we want others to follow us and be saved, as is our obligation, then we must first be good and faithful Christians in the first place. Let this be our Easter resolution, that from now on, we will try our best to do what God has commanded us to do.

May the Risen Lord be with us always, and may He bless all of our endeavours and works. May He continue to guide us in our path, that we will always be faithful to Him, throughout our whole lives. May all of us do our very best to serve Him, and to dedicate ourselves to Him, from now and unto forevermore. Amen.