Lenten sermon

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Sunday, 2 April 2023 : Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday, also known as Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord marks the beginning of the Holy Week and the entry into this most solemn and important period of time when we commemorate the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the whole world, the moment when He suffered for us all, bearing all the burdens of our sins and mistakes, our faults and iniquities, all the wickedness and evils we have committed, so that by His most generous and selfless love, shown to us in His loving sacrifice on the Cross, all of us may be saved and be brought into the assurance of eternal life and glory with Him. The Lord has willingly done all of these, in obedience to the will of His heavenly Father so that by His sacrifice offered most worthily on our behalf, each and every one of us may find the path to eternal life by the full reconciliation and the New and Eternal Covenant that He made, as our Eternal High Priest, all of which we commemorate during this most Holy Week.

In our Gospel reading today, which was read at the beginning of the Holy Mass, we heard the passage from the Gospel of St. Matthew detailing the time when the Lord was about to enter into the city of Jerusalem for His upcoming Passion as we all certainly well know of, that moment when the Lord rode on a donkey and welcomed into the city of Jerusalem with the people waving palm branches and putting their clothes for Him to pass through, as if He is the King that came in glory to enter into His City. This is why we call this Sunday’s celebration as Palm Sunday in the first place. It marks first of all the commemoration of the glorious entry of the King of Kings and the rightful King of Israel, the Son and Heir of David, entering into the City of His glorious inheritance and dominion, as the Lord has revealed in advance through His prophets and messengers, like that of the prophet Zechariah, who prophesied that the King and Messiah would come to His City riding on a humble donkey.

All of that had been fulfilled in the actions of the Lord Jesus that day, Who chose a donkey with its colt, or its young one, which had not borne any burden before. The donkey that had been tied on the pole itself is rich in symbolism, as it represents the first-called among God’s people, the Israelites, that had been burdened by many of the sins of their ancestors and by their enslavement in the hands of many rulers and oppressors, and the Lord freeing the donkey from its bondage has the symbolic meaning of His coming that is meant to bring true freedom to the people of God, beginning with the descendants of Israel, and then the colt, which represents the Gentiles, or the non-Jewish people, who followed along as the Lord rode on the donkey, representing His dominion and rule over not only the Jewish people, the descendants of the Israelites, but also over the Gentiles and hence over the whole world. His Kingship is Universal and inclusive, and all encompassing instead of just ruling over the Jewish people only.

Then, there is the symbolism of the donkey itself, as a humble beast of burden typically used as the means to carry the weight of cargo and objects that were not usually meant for carrying a human being, less so for One Who is a King, and less still supposedly for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the King of all the whole Universe, coming upon His City and people. Yet, the fact that the Lord rode into Jerusalem on a humble donkey and not on a mighty warhorse or other extravagant rides that other worldly rulers often rode on, highlighted the true nature of His Kingship and His mission in this world. He did not come to this world to conquer and to destroy, unlike what earthly and worldly kings usually do, and He did not come to lead His people in a war of liberation and resistance against the Romans or any others, unlike what many of the Jewish people in the past often mistakenly believed.

Instead, He came into this world and into our midst to bring His Peace upon us, to show us the love that He has always had for us from the very beginning, real and tangible in the flesh. He came into this world to serve and not to be served, to reach out to the least amongst us, and to every single one of us without exception. He does not discriminate against us, and He wants each and every one of us to be reconciled with Him, and that is why He came into our midst, to dwell and walk amongst us, and to show us His most generous love, so much so that He was willing to pay the ultimate price in order to do so. And that leads us to the second part of our celebration today, that as we proceed triumphantly with Christ to the Altar, entering with Him to the Holy City of Jerusalem, we then enter into a new phase of this Sunday’s events, as we remember what would take place within merely days after that glorious event.

That is when we remember how it was likely that many of the same people who have cried out with great joy and enthusiasm, ‘Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord’, were the same ones who later on cried out on Good Friday, ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ and ‘We have no King but Caesar!’. Through that we can see just how the mood and the attitude of the people so quickly changed within just a matter of a few days, from one of jubilation and adoration to one of disgust and rejection. No doubt that there must have been some coercion, persuasion and jockeying going around back then, as the members of the Jewish High Council or the Sanhedrin, which were mostly against the Lord and some were even openly hostile, must have encouraged, coerced and persuaded many of the people that the Lord Jesus was the False Messiah and a traitor to the Jewish nation and people, for His supposedly blasphemous teaching and actions against God.

All of these had been predicted beforehand by God Himself as He revealed it through His prophets, in what we heard from our first reading today, as we progress from the glorious procession of palms into Jerusalem towards the true nature of our Lord’s ministry and what He would do for each and every one of us. The prophet Isaiah spoke curiously on the Suffering Servant, the One Whom God would send to be with His people, and how this Servant of God would suffer and endure grievous beating and hardships, torture and trials, as He obeyed perfectly the will of the One Who had sent Him to us. He would be humiliated and made to suffer for the sins of the people of God, a reading that we shall further explore on Good Friday, in which that passage refer to the same Servant, Who would be lifted up high and exalted, that by His wounds and stripes, all of us would be healed, a clear reference to what the Lord Jesus Himself would do for our sake.

We heard how the Lord humbled Himself and emptied Himself of all glory, as we heard from our second reading passage from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Philippi. The Apostle St. Paul spoke of how the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, obeyed His Father’s will so perfectly, and humbled Himself such that He was willing to endure a most humiliating and painful death on the Cross, so that by His most selfless offering of Himself, and by His obedience, He became the Source of Hope and Salvation for all of us mankind, for the whole entire world. Through Christ, all of us have become sharers and partakers in the New and Eternal Covenant that He has established with all of us, as He is the Mediator of this Covenant, through which He has brought us into full reconciliation between us and the Lord God, our loving Father and Creator.

This is what we have essentially heard through the long Passion narrative this Sunday, reminding us all of everything that Our Lord had done for our sake, in Him enduring the worst of punishments for us. He has not ignored or abandoned our plight and suffering, and by His ever enduring love and compassion towards us, He willingly took upon His shoulders and embraced us fully, and in His sharing of our human nature and existence, He took it upon Himself to offer on our behalf a most worthy offering, the offering of His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, as the Paschal Lamb of God, crushed and sacrificed for us, that He offered Himself on the Altar of His Cross at Calvary, He brought upon us the certainty of salvation and eternal life. All of us who believe in Him and in the truth that He has revealed to us, will receive from Him the gift of everlasting grace and life.

Thus, this Sunday as we mark the beginning of this most Holy Week, the Week celebrating and commemorating the most important events in the history of our salvation, let us all therefore immerse ourselves more deeply into the Lord’s Passion and all that He had done for us, as we remember how He began the final week of His most important mission, that is to offer and sacrifice Himself for our sake. Let us all remember the actions of our great and most loving King, Who has come into our midst to be with us, and to redeem all of us. Let us remember how He came humbly riding on a donkey into Jerusalem, hailed and adored by the people only to be cast out and rejected just barely a few days later, betrayed by His own disciple and condemned to death for sins and faults that He Himself did not commit. Yet, He had borne all of that upon Himself because He loves each and every one of us, and He wanted that by His selfless offering and sacrifice, and by His suffering and death, all of us may be saved, and has sure path to eternal life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore as we enter into this most solemn and important week, the holiest of all the weeks of the whole entire year, let us all spend some time to reflect on our Lenten journey thus far and how we have lived our lives in this world. Lent is a time for us to rediscover our true path in life towards God and to recalibrate and reconnect ourselves with God and His path especially if we have erred and wandered down the wrong path. And as we enter into this Holy Week of Our Lord’s Passion, each one of us are called to remind ourselves why our Lord has done all these for us, and that again, first of all, is because of His love for us. We have sinned against the Lord, and we should have deserved damnation and destruction for our faults and sins, and yet, God willingly came to us, and through His Passion, He showed us the path to a new life with Him, and by His sufferings, He shouldered the punishments of our own sins meant for us.

Let us all remember how God has been so patient with us and how much He has loved us, that He came into our midst to live amongst us and to suffer with us and for us. Let us all no longer harden our hearts and minds, and be no longer stubborn as many of our predecessors who have frequently and constantly rejected the Lord and His generous offer of love and mercy. Let us all look upon the Crucified Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, and see His loving gaze, ever always directed at us, so that we may indeed be ashamed by our many sins and wrongdoings, all of which had inflicted the many injuries and wounds that He had to painfully bear for our sake, and yet which He bore willingly and lovingly nonetheless because He truly and really loves us very much. Therefore, let us all deepen our appreciation of everything that Our Lord and Saviour had done for us, and deepen our relationship with Him.

May the Lord, our King and Saviour, our High Priest and our Paschal Lamb, He Who has done so much for us for our salvation, continue to be with us and guide us patiently as He has always done, so that we may grow ever more in faith in Him, and learn to love Him more and more, especially as we enter into this time of most solemn commemoration of His Passion, His suffering and death during this Holy Week and the upcoming Easter Triduum. Today, let us not just acclaim Him with our words and mouth only, but let us all acclaim Him from deep within our hearts. May He help us all to remain focused on Him and may He empower each every one of us so that we may persevere ever more against the many challenges, trials and temptations in life. May God bless us all in our every good works, efforts and endeavours, so that in everything we do, we may truly be ever more faithful to Him and be exemplary role models and good examples for others to follow, that through us and our actions, many more may come to believe in God and be saved. Wishing all of us a most blessed, holy and fruitful Holy Week. Amen.

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Saturday, 1 April 2023 : 5th 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, preparing us and reminding us of what we are about to celebrate in the upcoming Holy Week and Easter Triduum starting tomorrow on Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord. We are about to enter into the most solemn and important moments in the story of the salvation of the whole world and all of mankind. Therefore, that is why we are reminded again and again these days of what we are about to commemorate and celebrate, in this holiest and most important moments of our whole liturgical year, and we should understand it all that we may truly benefit from the celebration and commemoration of Our Lord’s Passion, His suffering, death and resurrection. We should prepare ourselves well, physically, mentally and spiritually for these that we may grow deeper in faith and appreciation of our Christian faith.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, we heard the reassuring words that the Lord has spoken to His people through Ezekiel, that He would give them the fullness of His grace and blessings once again. He would gather them back from their scattered places among the nations and restore them once again to glory and joy, as how it was during the days of King David and King Solomon. The Lord has promised His people Israel that He will always be faithful to them and to the Covenant that He has made with them and their ancestors, and He will never break the promises He had made even when the people had frequently disobeyed Him and disregarded the many reminders that He has given them through His messengers and prophets. God still cared for all of them and loved all of them nonetheless, and sent Ezekiel to them for the purpose of reminding them of this love.

Ezekiel was sent to the people of Israel in exile in the distant lands of Babylon, where many of them had been exiled after the destruction of their homeland in Israel, in the northern kingdom of Israel and in the southern kingdom of Judah alike. They had been bereft of their homeland, their identity and their honour, cast our from their ancestral lands and cities, forced to wander off in distant places, humiliated and crushed, all because of their sins and disobedience against God. They had abandoned and rejected Him for pagan idols and false gods, and scandalised themselves and their faith by following the ways of their neighbours instead of remaining faithful to the path that the Lord has taught and shown them, persecuting His prophets and messengers, all the servants of God that had been sent to them to remind them of their calling as God’s people.

Ezekiel reminded them of the Lord’s promise that He will establish the rule of the House of David forever, and this rejuvenates the hope in the hearts of the people who were downtrodden and in despair, because God reminded His beloved ones that His salvation will come, and everything will be good again. All of these would indeed come true in Christ, the Lord Jesus and His coming into this world. For He was born as the Son and Heir of David, becoming the great King to sit on the Throne that has remained empty for many centuries since the destruction of the kingdom of the people of God, restoring the union that God has with His people, acting as the Mediator between us and God, our Heavenly Father, the One through Whom God would renew His Covenant, into a new and everlasting Covenant, through which He shall gather all of His faithful ones to be His flock and His one people once again.

In our Gospel passage today, we are reminded then of how the Lord would do all of these which He had planned from the very beginning, as we heard how the Jewish authorities, the Jewish High Council or the Sanhedrin, headed by the chief priests led by Caiaphas, the High Priest then, plotted against the Lord Jesus. They wanted to arrest Him and accuse Him falsely of faults and crimes that would make Him a scapegoat for the Jewish people, with the excuse that what the Lord had done would eventually lead to the Romans ending whatever privileges and autonomy that they had granted the Jews back then. As we can see here, those people were mainly concerned about protecting their own privileges and status, their special grants and property, among other things, rather than to listen to reason and to the truth that God Himself had brought before their very own eyes.

As He Himself said and predicted, the Lord had to suffer grievously at the hands of His enemies and those who opposed Him, much as how His own prophets and messengers had been treated previously. He would be rejected and condemned to death, and yet, He would then become the great Cornerstone, the One through Whom the salvation of the world would come through. He would become the Source of the world’s Hope, the Light of the world and the Saviour of all. By His wounds and by His suffering, we are to be healed and strengthened and made whole once again. Through Christ’s Passion and death, by His willing and most selfless embracing of each and every one of us, all of us have received the assurance of eternal life and true joy and hope, by the most generous show of love that God Himself has made evident and tangible through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour.

That is what we are going to commemorate in this upcoming Holy Week and through the Easter Triduum, as we enter into this most solemn and holy occasion. Are we all ready to enter into this celebration and commemoration of the Lord’s Passion, His suffering and death, remembering everything that He had done for each and every one of us? Have we made good use of the time and the preparation that we have been expected to do during this season of Lent, so that we may draw closer to the Lord and come to better realisation of what God had done for each and every one of us? Have we done what we can so that we may help one another in our journey of faith and to help inspire each other to persevere against the challenges and trials that we have to face as faithful and devout servants and followers of God? As the Lord Jesus had said, that if we are to be His true disciples and followers, we have to pick up our crosses and follow Him. Can we do that, brothers and sisters in Christ?

Let us all therefore commit ourselves anew to the Lord and let us all do our best to walk faithfully in God’s Presence, dedicating more of our time and attention, our efforts and commitments to do the will of God and to glorify Him by our lives and actions in our respective communities. Let us all be great beacons of faith and God’s Light amidst the darkness of this world, and inspire more and more people to break free from the chains of sin. May the Lord continue to bless us all and guide us in our journey through life, that we may ever be strong and courageous to resist the temptations to sin and disobey Him, that we may not falter like how the people of God had done in the past. May God be with us always and may He empower us all in each and every moments, and may all of us have a great and blessed Holy Week ahead. Amen.

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Friday, 31 March 2023 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we come ever closer to the end of the season of Lent and the coming of Holy Week, through the Scripture readings we have received, all of us are reminded ever more each day of the need for all of us to turn towards the Lord and place our trust in Him, so that we return to Him and being faithful once again, resisting the temptations of worldly desires and attachments, and embracing wholeheartedly the Lord Who has always provided us with whatever we need and with all the protection and guidance along our path and journey. Each and every one of us are reminded of the hope we have in God that will be our path towards salvation, amidst a world filled with darkness and evil, trials and challenges, hardships and difficulties. As long as we keep our focus in the Lord and trust in Him, our path forward is clear.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah in which the persecutions and hardships that the prophet Jeremiah faced were highlighted and detailed to us. Jeremiah was sent to the people of the southern kingdom of Judah, to minister to them and to pass to the people the words of the Lord during the last years of that kingdom’s existence. He had to bear the hard work of telling those rebellious and hard-hearted people to repent from their sins and to warn them of the impending disasters and sufferings that they would have to endure because of their continued sins and wickedness. Jeremiah often spoke of the upcoming destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, and hence was often ostracised, hated and persecuted although he was really telling the truth. There were many false prophets and false guides who tried to spread their falsehoods and steer the people to their own agenda, who were also likely the same ones that plotted against Jeremiah.

They made the people to resent Jeremiah for his usual tirades and speeches, which kept on calling out the people for their sins and wickedness, while those same false prophets used sweet words and lies to mollify and persuade the people of God to continue in their sinful way of life. They sought worldly glory and satisfaction, and chose to mislead the people for their own advantages and benefits. Those who were faithful like Jeremiah were persecuted and oppressed instead, but God never forgot about all those who faithfully believed in Him and trusted in Him. He cared for all of them and provided for them, guided and strengthened them with His Spirit and strength. Although they had to suffer for being God’s true disciples and followers, but He kept reassuring them of His ever present love and grace, and that He was with them through all those difficult moments and times.

That was what the Lord Himself has experienced as we heard ourselves in our Gospel passage today, detailing the moment when the Lord Jesus was confronted with resistance and opposition from many of the Jewish people living in Jerusalem. Back then, those Jewish people were those who followed the precepts and laws of the Lord as passed down to them from Moses and their ancestors most rigorously and devotedly, particularly the Jewish elites of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, the chief priests and the scribes. Many among those people often criticised and opposed the Lord and His works as they saw what He taught and did as in opposition to their own interpretation and understanding of the Law and the ways of observing the commandments of God. They hardened their hearts and minds against Him such that although the Lord had taught and revealed the truth with such clarity and Wisdom, they still refused to believe.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s reflection, many of the Jews still could accept the fact that this upstart, the Son of a mere carpenter originating from the remote village of Nazareth in Galilee, which itself was at the periphery of the Jewish world then, could be the Holy One, the Messiah and Saviour that God had promised them, despite all the signs and wonders they themselves had witnessed pointing towards such a conclusion. That was why they rejected the Lord and persecuted Him, made His life, work and ministry to be very difficult, and the Lord had to hide Himself from their anger, as not a few amongst those people wanted Him dead and destroyed. Then, we heard how the Lord retreated to the wilderness, and it was there that many of those who were more open-minded and willing to listen to God’s truth and words, came to the Lord in droves.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard it earlier on, we can see how persecution, hardships and challenges are often part and parcel of our lives and ministry as Christians, in whichever manner and area that we are moving in, and in whichever era and time, just as our many holy predecessors and ancestors can easily testify, by their own lives and also sufferings. Not few suffered grievously for their faith, and many even suffered martyrdom, most painful death and trials in their journey of faith. Yet, many if not most of them endured all of those sufferings with faith and trust in the Lord, committing themselves ever more to the Lord, and persevering with patience and grace, following the examples of their own predecessors, and not least, the Lord Jesus Himself, Who has also been cast out, rejected and persecuted, and condemned to die a most humiliating and painful death on the Cross.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we draw ever closer to the Holy Week and the momentous events of Easter Triduum, let us all deepen our understanding of all those events and everything that the Lord Himself had done for us and on our behalf. Let us all remind ourselves of the great and ever enduring love that God has shown each and every one of us, that He gave us His own beloved Son, the Divine Word and Son of God Incarnate, that we may see and reach out to His love, made tangible by the Incarnation of Christ in the flesh, and that by uniting His humanity to our own humanity, He might deliver us all from the certainty of damnation and destruction due to our many sins and wickedness, by showing us the example of perfect obedience and faith, and by bearing upon His own shoulders, all the burdens and punishments that should have been ours. He chose to be punished Himself, that through Him we may gain forgiveness and grace, and find the path to eternal life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore reflect carefully on our way of life and actions, especially as we continue to progress through this Lenten season and as we are about to begin Holy Week this Sunday. Let us all spend some time with the Lord, to reconnect ourselves to Him and grow ever more in love with Him. Let us all dedicate ourselves to the Lord with renewed zeal and love for Him, and let us all draw ever closer to Him, with each and every moments we have. May the Lord continue to bless and guide us in our journey of faith and life, and help us to lead a life that is truly holy, exemplary and worthy of Him. May all of us have a blessed upcoming Holy Week and Easter Triduum, and be ever prepared to welcome the Lord into our hearts. Amen.

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Thursday, 30 March 2023 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we heard the words of the Lord contained in the Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the Covenant that God has established with each and every one of us, the Covenant that He has always kept and renewed with all of our predecessors and ancestors. God never broke His promises and Covenants, and He has always ever been faithful to whatever He has told and revealed to us. It was always us mankind who have disobeyed Him, betrayed and abandoned Him for many worldly temptations and attachments, all sorts of things that kept us away from truly being united with Him. God loves us all nonetheless and He has ever always patiently reached out to us, calling on us to repent from our sinful ways and to return to Him once again with sincere love and devotion.

In our first reading today, all of us heard from the Book of Genesis of the story of the moment when God made His Covenant with Abram, His servant, whom He had called from the land of his forefathers. Abram obeyed God and followed Him to wherever He had led him to, leaving those comforts he knew and went to a future that was unknown to him. Yet, he trusted the Lord wholeheartedly and let Him to guide him in all things, and hence, God, Who knows everyone’s hearts and knew of Abraham’s great and enduring faith in Him, chose him to be the one with whom He would make His Covenant with. Through Abram, whom God named Abraham as a mark of the Covenant that they had made between them, God made a great people that He had chosen to be His first called people, the Israelites. There were also many other nations that sprang forth from among the descendants of Abraham, and hence, he was known as the ‘father of nations’.

All of those things were in fact proof that God was indeed truthful to His Covenant, and had kept His words and promises. The Lord has promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, so many people that they will number more than the grains of sand in the shores and more than the stars in the universe. That was made at the time when Abraham was still yet childless and his wife Sarah was barren, and after many years, there had not been any child born from them yet. God would fulfil the promises He made, as Abraham had the promised child and son, and from his bloodline, came forth many people of many nations. Not only that but He still cared and kept His Covenant with all of those descendants, to the people whom He had called and chosen to be His own. He still cared for them and loved them even after they had frequently rebelled against Him and disobeyed Him.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the continuation of the confrontation between the Lord Jesus and the Jewish people in Jerusalem. The Jewish people assembled were angry against the Lord because of what He had done and taught, and revealed before them, especially as He referred to God as His own heavenly Father, which was indeed the truth. They refused to accept the fact that this Man before them, the Son of a mere carpenter from the backwater village of Nazareth, in Galilee at the periphery of the Jewish world could be anyone special, less a Prophet, and even less so as the Son of God, the Messiah and Saviour of the whole world. They took offence at the Lord when He said that He had known Abraham and existed before Abraham ever was. That was the truth, and the Lord has patiently revealed and explained it all to them, but in their pride and arrogance, those people closed their hearts and minds to Him.

Back then, those Jewish people were those who were especially particular about the Law of God and His commandments, as those who kept strictly the various rules, precepts, rites and various customs of their ancestors. They took great pride in their inheritance and the efforts they placed in their piety and observance of the Law of God. That was why they were unhappy and angered by the Lord Jesus and His teachings, His revelation and words which challenged their traditional understanding of the world and way of life, and threatened the influence that the elites among them, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law held. That was why they hardened their hearts and minds, refusing to listen to the truth and wisdom that God had revealed to all of them through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we are reminded today of all these things by the Lord, we are all called to remind ourselves of the Covenant that He has made and renewed with us, and which He had renewed for once and for all, for eternity through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour by His Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross. It was by His selfless and willing sacrifice on our behalf, in caring for us and loving us that God has extended His ever generous love and grace towards us, in embracing us like a most loving and caring Father. He is always faithful to His Covenant and He remembers all the promises that He had made with us, and wants only our well-being and reconciliation with Him. For without God and separated from Him, there can be no life and true joy within us. We shall have no hope at all without the Lord by our side.

That is why, as we are soon about to enter into the most solemn and important moments of our whole entire liturgical year, the upcoming Holy Week and Easter Triduum, all of us should spend the time well to reflect on our way of life and our actions. We should think of whether our lives and actions have been reflecting well on our Christian faith and identity, and whether we have listened to the Lord and Him calling upon us all to follow Him. Have we placed the Lord as the centre and focus of our lives and existence? If our answer is no then the question is, ‘Why have we not done so yet?’ And if we allow ourselves to be swayed by the temptations of worldly glory, fame, attachment to worldly pleasures and desires like how those Jewish people at the time of the Lord’s ministry and what their leaders had done, then I am afraid that we may find it difficult to be truly faithful to God.

Let us all therefore embark on a journey of rediscovering our faith in God and our love for Him, filling our hearts and minds with God’s ever wonderful presence and grace. Let us all be like our father in faith, Abraham, the most faithful servant of God, in how he devoted his life to the Lord and followed Him with great trust in everything that He has promised him. May the Lord continue to bless us in our every efforts and journey, and guide us that we may be strengthened and encouraged amidst the many trials and challenges that we may have to face in our path forward as Christians. May God be with us always and be our Hope, Strength and Inspiration as we continue to follow Him in our lives, walking in the footsteps of Abraham, our father in faith, and our many other holy predecessors. Let us all prepare ourselves well especially for the upcoming Holy Week and Easter Triduum, and strive to be ever closer to the Lord, our most loving God and Father. Amen.

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Wednesday, 29 March 2023 : 5th 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, we are called to remember our calling as Christians to be truly faithful to God and not to be only superficially faithful to Him. This means that in our way of life and dedication to Him, in our every actions and deeds, we have to be truly committed and be truly full of faith in all things, and not doing things merely to fulfil our obligations and faith to the Lord without true and genuine love for Him, and without true desire to seek Him and serve Him. If we do not truly love God then we are no better than hypocrites and all those who have no place in God’s grace and salvation, which He offers freely to those who have true and genuine faith in Him. Our Scripture passages today remind us that being faithful to the Lord entails more than just having a superficial faith.

In fact, just as we heard from our first reading today, taken from the Book of Daniel, we are brought right into the great challenges and trials that our predecessors had faced in the past just for being faithful to God and for standing up for their faith. We heard the confrontation between the three friends of Daniel and the great King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. As we all may be familiar with, back then, the people of God, the descendants of the Israelites had been scattered and cast out from their homeland by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, who crushed the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah respectively, carrying many of the people into exile in faraway lands. That was how Daniel and his friends, Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah ended up in the land of Babylon. They were bereft of homeland, honour and any semblance of worldly anchor, being homeless and without bearing in that ever changing world they lived in.

Then, in that particular occasion, as they were assembled by the King of Babylon, who had just built a great golden statue in his own image, they faced the great quandary and trial of having to obey the king’s order to everyone, for them to worship that golden statue, in the likeness of the king, who was known for his great megalomania and prideful personality, likening himself to a divinity, making himself essentially like a god. All of the people save for the three friends of Daniel bent their knees and bowed down, worshipping the golden statue under the pain of certain suffering and death if they did not obey the orders of the king. But those friends of Daniel refused to obey the king’s order and remained standing, refusing to betray the Lord their God and worship that false golden idol even if that meant endangering their own lives. They did not want to save their lives by turning their backs on the Lord.

They could have chosen to worship superficially and pretended to obey the king’s order, but in doing so, even if they did not intend to worship the idol, but their action could bring scandal to the Lord and to their faith in Him. Others who saw their actions would then see the fickle nature of their faith to God, and how easy it was for them to give up their faith in Him, at least from what was discernible through their actions. That is why, all of us should note how Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah all chose to suffer and die rather than betraying the Lord through their actions, and they chose to remain truly faithful and not just being superficial in their faith and way of life. This is why they remained unshaken in their commitment to God and did not obey the king’s commands, even under the pain of certain suffering and death. The king was angered even more by their answer to his question and demand on them to obey his will, as he threw them into the great furnace made even hotter than before.

Yet God did not abandon them, and kept them from harm, as He sent His Angel to guard them and to protect them from the flames. Thus, the friends of Daniel were spared from the dangers of death and suffering, and that so amazed the proud and haughty King of Babylon, that he tore down the great golden statue that he himself had built. The Lord showed His love for His faithful ones, and protected them, and showed that He is truly the One and only True God worthy of worship. And the faith and commitment which the friends of Daniel, Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah should be sources of inspiration and strength for each one of us to follow, so that we may also walk in the path that they had trodden, and that we may also have the courage that they had, in remaining truly faithful to God and in being truthful in how they lived their lives, in obedience to God, in all things.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord being confronted by the Jewish people, many of them adhering to the ways of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who spent a lot of time and effort enforcing a particularly strict version of the Law of God, and yet, in their excessive pursuit of religious purity and in being extra rigid in their way of observing the Law, they ended up forgetting most of the time why they practiced their faith in the manner that they had lived them. They became proud and haughty like that of the King of Babylon, and took great pride in their way of observing the Law, and condemning all those who disagreed with them, or those who did not practice the Law in the way that they had done it. This was them building up their own ‘idols’ in their hearts and lives, namely the ‘idol of pride’, the ‘idol of fame and worldly glory’, among the other ‘idols’ that they had made.

Essentially, their faith had become mostly superficial in nature, and there was barely any space or focus on the Lord in their hearts and minds. They were all too busy with observing the multitudes of precepts and details of the Law, the many fine details and rites, that they forgot about loving God and putting Him as the focus of their lives in the first place. They became proud and arrogant, and self-righteous in nature, condemning instead of helping all those whom God had actually entrusted to them as leaders and guides. They kept these away from the Lord’s grace and love, and from His salvation, instead of bringing them closer to the Lord as God Himself has intended. That was why the Lord chided and rebuked them for their lack of true and genuine faith in God, and He told them that their way of living their faith was truly wrong.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore reflect on our way of life and ask ourselves if we have been faithful to the Lord as we should have. Let us all discern carefully our path forward in life, making good use of the opportunities and the time provided for us in this season of Lent, that we may lead a life that is more attuned to the Lord, and be ever closer to Him, in each and every moments of our lives. May God continue to guide us and inspire us all to live ever more worthily of Him, by doing whatever we can to glorify Him by our lives and actions. May God bless our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 28 March 2023 : 5th 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, all of us are reminded of the love that God has always patiently shown upon us that even though we have often sinned against Him, but that did not prevent Him from continuing to reach out towards us with love, as He continued to care for us and shower us with His kindness and love. He still looked upon us with forgiveness and the willingness to be reconciled with all of us. No one can be excluded from His love, and unless we ourselves have rejected God’s love and grace right to the very end, there is always a path for us towards redemption and reconciliation with Him. We shall gain justification and strength through Him, and will be forgiven our sins if only that we repent from them and sincerely desire to turn away from the wickedness of our evils. But if we sin against God and continue to do so, we have to face the consequences for those sins, as the Scriptures had shown us today.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Numbers how the people of Israel, those whom God had rescued and led out from the land of their misery and enslavement by the Egyptians, rebelled against the Lord and complained against Him, despite having been shown such great care and love from God. They committed vile deeds and hardened their hearts against God, and thus they have sinned against God. Then, for their stubborn attitude and behaviour, the Lord sent fiery serpents to strike at those who have persistently disobeyed against Him and refused to listen to Him. This is representative of what sin entails, that is because sin leads to separation from God and hence death, since without God, we can have no life. Those who disobeyed God and sinned against Him essentially had to suffer the consequences of their own sins and wickedness.

But it did not mean that God despised His people, as in truth, God still loved His people very much, and still cared for them regardless. That was why He showed them His mercy and compassion as He gave them the path out of their predicament when they showed repentance and regret over their sins, as He told Moses to make a great bronze serpent standard, lifted up high on a pole before the people, so that all those who were bitten and then saw the bronze serpent would not perish but live. This was a prefigurement of what the Lord Himself would do through His own Son, Whom He would send into the world so that He might save us all, that by looking upon Him Who has been crucified for us, we may all find forgiveness and true reconciliation with God. Yes, what we have heard in our first reading today, is a prefigurement for our Lord’s Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross for the salvation of the whole world.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the words of the Lord Jesus as He spoke to the Jewish people who assembled and gathered in order to listen to Him. He told them all more of the truth about Himself, proclaiming about what He Himself would do for the salvation of all and the whole world. He told them all how He would have to suffer and be raised up for everyone to see, the Son of Man, raised up like the way the bronze serpent of Moses was lifted up for everyone to witness. Thus, again, what we have heard today from the Gospel is one important moment when the Lord revealed that He was about to suffer for everyone’s sake, to gather all of the Lord’s scatted people and all those who loved Him to Himself. He went through all the humiliation and sufferings so that all of us may have the assurance of new life and existence with Him.

He has revealed God’s love in the flesh, that everyone may see the Love of God personified and made clear in this world. The Lord has given us His own Son to us as the clear sign of His love, just as He has given the bronze serpent to Moses as the means for the Israelites to escape from their predicament of being bitten by those terrible serpents. The Lord gave His Son to us so that by Him bearing upon Himself all the sins and faults that we have made, which bore down heavily on His shoulders as He lifted up His Cross, we may all be redeemed and freed from the bondage to sin, to the tyranny of evil and death. This is what we are all reminded of today, as we listened to these Scripture passages. We are reminded both of the dangers and threats posed to us by our sins, and how God has most generously provided us with the means to get away from all those threats.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to come ever closer to the beginning of Holy Week, and we progress ever deeper into the mysteries of Lent and of God’s love for us, let us all therefore spend some time to reflect on our own lives and actions, particularly in everything that we have said and done in the past year. Have we been truly good and faithful disciples of the Lord in all those things, in being good and exemplary, faithful and inspirational in showing our faith through our way of life? Or have we instead lapsed and fallen away from the path of righteousness, as we allowed ourselves to be swayed and tempted by the many temptations and allures of worldly glory and pleasures around us? Have we been stubborn and obstinate just like the Israelites who frequently and repeatedly rejected God’s most generous love and compassionate mercy? Can we spend more time to focus our attention on and turn towards the Lord, Our Hope and salvation?

This season and time of Lent, let us all make good use of the opportunities and time provided to us so that we may remind ourselves of our calling as Christians, that is to be holy and worthy of God, and to distance ourselves from the wickedness of worldly attachments and sins. Let us all be good role models, examples and inspiration for one another in how we live our lives, in everything we say and do, even in the smallest and the seemingly least significant matters, so that all of us may be the true and faithful beacons of God’s light and love, and be the faithful witnesses of Our Lord’s truth in the midst of our respective communities in our today’s world. This Lent should be a time for us to reexamine our focus in life so that we may turn away from the wickedness of the world and from the falsehoods of the devil, and instead, embrace wholeheartedly the loving and righteous ways of the Lord, our God and Saviour.

May the Lord therefore be with us always and may He empower each and every one of us with the strength and the courage to be able to stand up for our faith, and to do what is right and just according to what He has shown and taught us to do. May God bless us all in our every endeavours and good efforts, in everything we do for His greater glory. May God bless our Lenten journey and perseverance through life. Amen.

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Monday, 27 March 2023 : 5th 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, all of us are reminded first of all to be mindful of the dangerous temptations of sin and evil all around us, the allures of worldly desires and the lust for the pleasures of the flesh among other things. Then we are also reminded that each one of us are all sinners and we should not think that any one of us are better than the others and we should not take pride or be haughty because we think that we are somehow superior due to our actions and piety in life. Instead, each one of us as members of God’s Church, all of us are called to be charitable and to be caring for one another, showing genuine love for our fellow brothers and sisters and reaching out to those who have been lost from the Lord, taking part in the Church’s outreach and mission in proclaiming God’s Good News and salvation to those who seek the forgiveness and grace of God.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Daniel, of the story of Susanna, a faithful Jewish woman living in the land of exile in Babylon, like that of Daniel and many other descendants of the Israelites. At that time, the community of the Israelite exiles were likely centred on communities they established in those foreign lands, with elders to lead and guide the community of the faithful people of God. Thus, it was then that Susanna, who was married to a Jewish man, both of whom were God-fearing and faithful, was accused falsely by two of the community elders who lusted of her and desired to commit sin with her. As we heard in that long story from the first reading, Susanna refused the advances of the two elders, and when the two elders attempted to silence her to hide their own sins by accusing her of adultery and sin, God sent His intervention and help through Daniel, whom He inspired and guided to rescue the faithful Susanna from threat of certain death.

Those two elders were entrusted with the guidance and leadership over the people of God, and were highly respected for their position and leadership. Yet, they chose to allow themselves to be swayed by the wicked temptations of the world, the temptation of the flesh, the desire for the beautiful Susanna to cloud their judgment and sound mind, that they ended up falling into those temptations and the traps of sin, committing grievous sins against God. Not only that they attempted to violate the honour and purity of Susanna, a faithful servant and fellow child of God, but they then committed even more sins in trying to hide their sins and faults. That is why we should not even let sin to tempt us in the first place, as unless we are vigilant and careful, we can be easily dragged further and deeper into the trap of sin, and end up committing more and more vile things against God and against our fellow brethren.

Those two elders lied and heaped false accusations upon Susanna in order to keep themselves safe and abused their own position and power to gain things for their own benefit. But God would not allow them to have their way, and through Daniel, He broke apart their falsehoods and lies, and by His Wisdom, He saved Susanna from certain death, and justice was imparted well that day. Those who are righteous shall be saved and protected by God, while those who are wicked and evil, unless they repent from their sins and wickedness, they will have to face the consequences and the punishments for those sins that they have committed. That was exactly what happened to them, as they were unrepentant, and continued to commit sin and even endangering the life of another person in their attempt to mask their own faults.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the well-known story of the Lord Jesus and a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. The Lord Jesus was tested by a group of Pharisees and teachers of the Law who gathered a crowd with a woman who was caught in the midst of her sinful action, and through that, those people wanted to gauge His reaction and response to the woman, as the Lord had often reached out to those whom these people deemed as sinful and unworthy of God, like the tax collectors and the prostitutes, those who were suffering from various diseases and illnesses, and also those possessed by demons and evil spirits. They wanted to find the opportunity of accusing the Lord of tolerating sins and not following the precepts of the Law of God as revealed through Moses, so that they could persecute Him.

That was why, the Lord was in fact caught in a difficult situation there and then, as if He were to respond that the woman ought to be stoned to death according to the strict interpretation of the Law of Moses, then those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law could then claim that He was following what they themselves had taught, and perhaps discredit Him in some way or form, and if the Lord said that the woman should not be stoned and freed, then they could accuse Him of breaking the Law and disobeying the Lord’s commandments, both of which placed the Lord in a disadvantageous position, as if He had chosen either choices, those would have provided His opponents with ways to strike at Him at the first possible opportunity. But the Lord thoroughly outmanoeuvred them as He told them that those who had no sin ought to be the first to pick up the stone and throw it at the woman.

This answer stunned everyone, as no one could claim that they have never sinned before, and thus, we heard how everyone, beginning from the oldest, who have lived the longest and hence had committed the most sins, to those who were youngest among them, until no one else was left. And this is where it is notable that the Lord Himself was in fact the only ‘Sinless One’ present, untainted by sin in whatever form, and yet, as He Himself said to the woman, ‘Neither do I condemn you’, and telling her to sin no more, change her ways and turn once again towards the Lord. The Lord has not condemned her because He could see the good that was still present within her and the capacity that she had towards reconciliation with Him, and the opportunities that she still had in finding her way back towards God’s most loving and compassionate embrace.

It is therefore an important reminder to all of us that, after hearing everything from our Scripture passages today, that we should always be mindful of the dangers and the allures that sin may have on us, and how we should resist the temptations of those sins so that we will not end up falling into the path towards damnation. That is why we are reminded today to resist the temptations to sin, to control our desires and the many other emotions we have that we do not end up like the two elders, and remind ourselves that we should first and foremost keep our focus on the Lord, His way and His truth, and keep ourselves away from selfish desires and pursuits, be it for worldly pleasures, or for glory and fame, or for material wealth and goods among other things. We should not allow ourselves to be swayed and tempted by all these, and instead, as the Lord had told the woman, we should distance ourselves from sin and do our best to be faithful to God in all things.

Let us all also not be judgmental on others, or think that we are better and superior in any way to others around us. After all, each one of us are all sinners and we are all equally in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness. Instead of looking down on others and condemning them, let us all be kind to one another and help instead of being condemning and harsh on others. Let us all help each other to persevere through the difficulties we may face in life and the challenges and trials that we may have to face as Christians, in each and every moments. May the Lord be with us all and may He empower us all to be always strong and committed in our lives, in everything that we say and do, for His greater glory. May God bless us in our every good efforts and endeavours. Amen.

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Sunday, 26 March 2023 : Fifth Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we mark the occasion of the Fifth Sunday of Lent and therefore we are reminded that it is just another one week from the beginning of the Holy Week and two weeks from the glorious season of Easter. As we come closer to the most solemn and important parts and celebrations of our whole entire liturgical year, each and every one of us are reminded at this point and juncture, of what we have to do as Christians, in living our lives in accordance with the way of the Lord and in having His Presence in our lives, to be filled with His Spirit and His love. Each and every one of us have been blessed with many great and wonderful gifts from God, and it is truly up to us whether we want to live our lives in a way that is worthy of the Lord or not. This Sunday, as we enter into this time of deeper reflection, all of us are reminded that if we have not yet done so, we should make good use of the remainder of this time of Lent to reexamine our path, our actions and way of life.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel in which we heard the Lord’s words to the prophet Ezekiel and to His people, the Israelites and their descendants, of how He still truly loved them and cared for them, and how through Him they would have life once again. The Lord told them all that He would put His Spirit in them again and they would live, as a reference to the earlier part of the same chapter of the Book of Ezekiel, in which the prophet Ezekiel saw a vision of a valley filled with many dry human bones, and how suddenly right before his very own eyes, all those bones began to reassemble themselves and becoming humans once again, becoming covered with muscles and sinews, and then the Spirit of God coming down upon them all, and before Ezekiel was laid a huge throng of the people of God, all living and breathing.

This was a symbolic representation of how God would restore His beloved people, and how He would grant them new life and restore them to grace and happiness with Him. He would gather all of them and give them His Spirit, to rejuvenate them and bring them back from their land of exile into the land that has been promised and kept for them, the land of their home and the land of their ancestors. God would save them all just the way He has once saved their ancestors from the land of Egypt. Back then, the people of Israel at the time of the prophet Ezekiel had been scattered away from their homeland, exiled in distant lands and had their cities, towns, villages and land ransacked, destroyed and crushed. Their great Temple of God, long defiled by their wickedness and evils, the worship of idols by their ancestors, were destroyed and the great Ark of the Covenant disappeared.

Therefore, this was akin to some kind of ‘death’ in the psyche of the people of God, and God therefore was revealing through Ezekiel that He would restore them back to a new life through Him, when He would rescue them and bring them all back to their homeland. The Lord revealed what He would do in allowing them all to return to their homeland, as how it would indeed happen, when several decades later, He moved the heart of the Great King of Persia, Cyrus the Great, to allow the whole people of Israel to return back to their homeland and even to rebuild their cities and the Temple of God in Jerusalem. The Lord reminded His beloved people that He would not abandon them and leave them behind despite the rebellious attitude that the people has shown Him, and despite them having abandoned and rejected Him first. He did not want them all to perish but live forever with Him, as He has always intended.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the well-known story of the Lord Jesus resurrecting one of His friends, Lazarus, from the dead. In a similar theme to the first reading we heard from the Book of Ezekiel, we heard how God restored life to His beloved ones, and in this case to one of His own close friends. Lazarus was the brother of the sisters Mary and Martha, who were also good friends of the Lord and often followed Him in His ministry. Back then, as we heard from the Gospel passage, Lazarus fell really ill and was on the verge of death when his sisters sent a message to the Lord telling Him about their predicament. The Lord truly loved and cared for Lazarus, but at the same time, the events had also likely been preordained by His heavenly Father, to be the example and showcase of the truth behind the true identity of the Lord Jesus, as the One sent into our midst to be our Saviour, and to rescue us from destruction and death.

Thus, the Lord intentionally delayed His departure for Lazarus’ place near Jerusalem until eventually, the latter passed away before the Lord arrived. The Lord was indeed struck deeply by the passing of Lazarus, and that was the origin of the famous shortest sentence in the entire Gospels and Scriptures, ‘And Jesus wept.’, which highlighted the love that He has for His beloved friend, and the love which He also has for each and every one of us. That sentence, though short, delivered to us the very powerful meaning and revelation that God truly loves us, from deep within His heart, and He does not want any one of us to be lost to Him through death, which is an echo of what we heard in our first reading today. God’s love was made manifest to us in His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, Who came into our midst to show the perfection of this Love incarnate in the flesh, and which was made even more tangible to us, by the tears that Our Lord Himself has shed.

This was one of the several occasions that the Lord shed tears, the other one being the Lord weeping over Jerusalem, and lamenting all the sins and wickedness that the people had committed, which would have led them into the path towards damnation. God does not want any of them to fall into this path precisely because He loved all of them very much, and does not desire to see their destruction. The other occasion that some Biblical scholars argued as the occasion when the Lord shed tears was when He was in agony in the Gardens of Gethsemane just before He was to be betrayed and condemned to death during His Passion. At that time, the Lord agonised over the great responsibility and burden that He had to bear for us, but He bore it all with love, and some experts said that it was likely that the Lord might have shed tears too at that time, when He remembered each and every one of us and willingly took upon Himself the burdens of our many sins.

Thus, this is where all of us need to realise just how blessed and fortunate all of us are, to have been beloved so much by the Lord, Our God and Saviour, our loving Father and Creator. He Who loves us so much certainly does not want us to be lost from Him or to be separated from Him, and as mentioned, He gave us all His only begotten Son, the Son of God, incarnate in our midst, for this very purpose. He, the Master of Life and Death, the Lord and the Giver of Life, endeavoured to lead us all out of the darkness of our current existence, just as what He has proclaimed to the people of Israel back then through the prophet Ezekiel. We have sinned against God, disobeyed Him and refused His love and mercy many times, but He still cared for us and loved us very much nonetheless, and sent us His many servants, messengers and reminders to help us in our path, that hopefully His words may touch us and lead us to repentance and reconciliation with Him.

Through what we have heard in our Scripture passages today, we can see that not even death can part us from the love of God. God loves us all and He desires to lift us all up to Himself, freeing ourselves from the bondage of sin and death. And since death is the just consequence and punishment for sin, He sent His Son to us, in order to break the chains of sin holding down us once and for all. This is what we have been preparing ourselves for this whole season and time of Lent, which is to bring our attention back towards the Lord and everything that He had done for us, in everything He did, by leading us out of the darkness and bringing us by His own hands to the path towards righteousness and eternal life. We look forward to the celebrations of the deepest mysteries and aspects of our faith in the Holy Week of Our Lord’s Passion, His suffering and death, and ultimately glorious Resurrection from the dead, to remind ourselves firstly of God’s love for us, and also that in Him alone we can have true life and joy.

That is what St. Paul reminded the faithful in Rome in his Epistle to them in our second reading today, and which is also an apt and timely reminder for all of us as well. The Apostle spoke of how those who have life ought to have the Spirit of Christ within them, or else, they will not have any part with the Lord, and hence, on the day of Judgment will be cast out and destroyed. This means that we must receive the Spirit of God, the Spirit that renews and rejuvenates us in the same manner as how God turned that valley of dry bones into a vast multitude of living and breathing people, and how He has raised Lazarus from the dead. He had put His Spirit into us, and we have been restored into life, a new life and existence that is blessed by Him, and by this reconciliation and renewed unity we have with the Lord, all of us may enter into the glory of the kingdom and eternal life promised to all of those who have remained firmly faithful in Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we enter into the period known as the Passiontide, beginning on this Fifth Sunday of Lent, traditionally known as the Passion Sunday, let us all therefore deepen our immersion into the penitential nature of this season of Lent, a time of preparation of our hearts and minds such that we may come into deeper understanding of the mystery of our faith, the love that God has for each and every one of us, and the acuteness of the sins and the wickedness that have afflicted us deep within our beings. Sin comes from our disobedience against God, from our rebellion against His will and the rejection of His love, and God has given us all the freedom to choose our path in life. Now, it is really therefore up to us whether we want to embrace God’s path and love, or whether we prefer to follow the path of sin and evil that many of us have often walked in all these while.

Let us remember that the path of sin and evil leads to nothing but eternal damnation and destruction, and while that path may seem to be easier or much more convenient than the path that God has shown us, we have been given the Wisdom, knowledge and revelation of what awaits us should we continue to walk down that path. On the other hand, if we follow the path that the Lord has shown us and willingly lead us all by His own hands, we shall attain the perfection of His love and grace, and the new life, blessed existence with Him, that begins right here in this world, and then continuing for everlasting life beyond death. Death has no hold or power over us who adhere to the love of God and to the path of His righteousness and grace, because He, the Master of Life, will deem us worthy of Him, and deserve therefore the gift of eternal life and blissful existence forever in His Presence.

Let us therefore do our best, brothers and sisters in Christ, to live our lives well and to contemplate our choice of action, beginning from this Lent onwards, and through each and every moments of our lives so that we may no longer fall again and again into the trap of sin and the vices of the world. May the Lord our most loving God, He Who raised Lazarus from the dead, the Lord and the Giver of Life, through His Holy Spirit, grant us strength, courage and rejuvenate our spirit, that we may continue to persevere in this life and overcome the many temptations and obstacles surrounding us in our journey and path towards Him, Our Lord and Saviour. May God bless us all, in all things, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Saturday, 25 March 2023 : Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the whole Universal Church celebrates the occasion of the great Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, marking the moment when the Archangel Gabriel came to Nazareth, to the then periphery of the Jewish world and community, to a young woman named Mary, whom God had chosen to be the one to bear the Saviour of the whole world, His promised Messiah or Christ, the One Whom we would come to know as Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord, Saviour and Master. On this day of the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel came to Mary to proclaim the long-awaited Good News of salvation which the Lord had promised His people, all of us, from the very beginning of time. It was truly the end of the long wait for the coming of the fulfilment of God’s many wonderful promises and assurances that He has made through His many prophets and messengers.

This Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord must be understood as the moment when the Lord became Incarnate in this world, just as the Archangel Gabriel himself mentioned that the Lord would send the Holy Spirit to overshadow Mary, and through that, the Son of God would be conceived in her womb, taking up the nature, appearance and existence of our humanity, becoming the Son of Man, the Divine Word Incarnate. That is why this Solemnity of the Annunciation is celebrated this day, exactly nine months to the date of Christmas, signifying the nine months of the period of pregnancy that happened to Mary, as she bore the Son of God within her, as the bearer of the Messiah and the Mother of God. It is on this day that the hope and light of this world came into the world, Incarnate in the flesh, amidst still veiled within the holy womb of Mary, His mother.

It was also then Mary’s ‘yes’ to the Lord as she uttered it to the Archangel Gabriel that made it all possible and tangible, as God gave her the freedom to choose whether to obey His will and His calling or not. Mary, being full of grace and full of faith in the Lord, responded with great love, humility and grace, in accepting the very important role that she was to play in the history of the salvation of the whole world. As we heard from the exchanges between her and the Archangel, we can tell that Mary was indeed uncertain and unsure about the path that she was to embark on, but unlike those others who refused to obey the Lord or those who fled in fear away from Him and His calling, Mary chose to obey perfectly, and committed herself to the calling that she has been entrusted with, the calling to be the Mother of God’s own Son, with the simple and humble words, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me as you have said’.

Let us all contrast what Mary had said and how she responded to what we heard in our first reading today, in how King Ahaz of Judah responded to the prophet Isaiah who just like the Archangel Gabriel, came to him bearing the Good News of God. King Ahaz rejected the offer that the prophet Isaiah made to him, as the latter told him to ask of the Lord of a sign and favour, and the King of Judah told him that he would not put God to the test. Now, outwardly this might seem as if King Ahaz was being humble before God, but what he exhibited was actually false humility and more of lack of faith and hypocrisy if anything. Why is that so? That is because this King of Judah was just like many of his predecessors who had disobeyed the Lord and His Law and commandments. He was being insincere and rather hypocritical when he told Isaiah that he would not put God to the test.

That is because his actions, as well as his continued sinful acts and constant lack of faith in God, all of those had put God to the test many times, scandalised His Holy Name and spurned His kindness and love. Thus he was truly insincere and being a hypocrite when he told Isaiah that he would not put God to the test. His wickedness and lack of faith and trust in God had brought many of the people of God into sin, and he would not humble himself before God, unwilling to believe in the words of the Lord which had been delivered to him through Isaiah and God’s many other messengers. And that was King Ahaz’s sin and failure, which can be contrasted with the way that Mary, the Mother of Our Lord and Saviour, had responded to God full of faith and trust in Him. Mary entrusted herself in the Lord and committed herself to the calling which He has given to her, even when she was still unsure of what to make of the surprising news from the Archangel Gabriel.

This is what the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the second reading today also highlighted, that what the Lord truly wants from each one of us is obedience and faith, and not merely just outward expression of faith. He does not want merely just lip service and faith that is superficial, as He wants from us true obedience and commitment, faith and dedication, like just what Mary has shown us, and which the Lord Jesus Himself, in His perfect love and obedience to His Father’s will has shown us. God values our love and obedience much more than our sacrifices and offerings, just as it is possible for one to offer rich sacrifices and offerings to God and yet had little or no love for Him. In fact, that was what many of the people in the past had done, from the time of King Ahaz and before him, and up to the time of the Lord Jesus, with many among the people just doing what they thought were obeying the Law and commandments of God, and yet, without genuine faith in God or love for Him.

Instead, they loved themselves more than they loved the Lord or each other. They placed themselves more importantly than anything else, and allowed themselves to be swayed by the many temptations of worldly comfort, pleasures and ambitions, allowing their greed and desire to distract them from the path towards the Lord and righteousness. They let themselves to be swayed and misled by their own worldly ambitions and pride, and hence, faltered in their path and journey in life. The Lord has called on them to follow Him, and yet, they closed their hearts and minds from Him, and were too busy with their many pursuits and ambitions in life that they forgot about Him and His ways. That is also why at this juncture in the season of Lent, each and every one of us are reminded not to be like those people, but be inspired by the examples and the faith showed by especially our Mother Mary, the faithful one who had dedicated herself wholly to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, just as today we commemorate this Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, let us all remind ourselves of the love of God and His faithfulness, His commitment to the Covenant which He had made with us all. He has come down into this world, willingly becoming Incarnate in the flesh through His Son, Jesus Christ, so that by His coming into our midst, He may be present amongst us and touch us all, and reach out even to the least and the most wicked among us. Why He had done all these? That is because His love for us is truly very pure and great, and His desire to be reconciled with all of us, His beloved ones, is always great. He has no desire to see us destroyed and crushed by our sins, and He wants us to be freed from the bondage and domination by all those evils and sins we have committed. Hence, He gave us all the most perfect gift in His Son.

Today, let us all reflect carefully on our lives and ask ourselves whether we have listened to the Lord and His words, and whether we have paid attention to His truth and His ways. If we have been stubborn and difficult in constantly refusing to listen to Him and in being disobedient, as many of our predecessors had done, then it is perhaps time for us to reorientate our lives and see the examples that Mary has shown us, in surrendering herself completely to the Lord, entrusting her life and path to the Lord, Who has called her to follow Him and to do His will. Let us all be inspired to follow the Lord in the same way, committing ourselves, our time and effort to walk in His path. Let us all be the good role models and examples ourselves for our fellow brothers and sisters all around us. This is our calling as Christians, what we are expected and called to do.

May the Lord continue to guide and strengthen us in our faith and life, and may His blessed Mother Mary, our role model and our loving mother, continue to inspire us and intercede for us on our behalf, so that the Lord may be moved to help and guide us in our various challenges and the many trials that we may have to face and overcome amidst this journey of life we have in this world. May she continue to watch over us as she has always done, and help us to come ever closer to her Son. May God be with us always and may He bless our every efforts and good endeavours, for His greater glory. Amen.

by

Friday, 24 March 2023 : 4th 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, we are all reminded of the challenges and hardships often faced by those who are faithful to the Lord and obey His commandments. Those who remain firm in their faith in God often faced obstacles and pressures, rejection and even condemnation by the world because the path of the world often does not correlate or match with that of the Lord’s path. But we are then reminded that we have to remain strong and firm in our faith so that we will not falter in our journey back towards the Lord, and in seeking His mercy and forgiveness. Through God alone we can gain justification and grace, and by His forgiveness and mercy that we can be reconciled with Him, finding our path to the eternal life and true joy that we can only find in God alone.

In our first reading today, we heard of the story of the hardships, plotting and difficulties faced by the prophets and messengers of God as highlighted in the Book of Wisdom. That account from the Book of Wisdom showed the challenges and trials that God’s servants faced when they went up against a people that were stubborn and wicked in their ways, and we heard the author of the Book of Wisdom writing from the perspective of those wicked and stubborn people, who opposed the Lord and His servants. This then, can also be interpreted as the prophecy and the prediction of what would happen to the Lord’s Saviour, the Messiah, as the phrases from this passage from the Book of Wisdom shows us clear indication of an understanding and revelation of the coming of the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

The inner thoughts and conversations mentioned in the Book of Wisdom clearly highlighted what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law would have in their hearts and minds as they went up against the Lord Jesus and His disciples, although the book was likely written and compiled a century or more before the coming of the Lord. The writers of the Book of Wisdom must have been inspired by God and His Holy Spirit to write a revelation of the truth and the events that would come, not only to prepare the people of God of what they would witness and experience, but also highlighting the folly of the people of God who resisted the Lord’s effort in loving them and caring for them, even when He has sent His own beloved Son into their midst to be their Saviour. Their hardness of heart and attachments to worldly matters and desires became great obstacles in the path of them coming towards God’s grace and forgiveness.

That is the same sentiment shown in the Gospel passage today, as the Jewish people, used then to denote those who supported the extreme and very rigid ideas and ways of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, questioned and opposed the Lord, Who was at that time already in Jerusalem and was proclaiming His teachings and truth to the people. There were those who wanted to arrest and kill Him, namely the more hardliners among the Pharisees themselves, and there were those who were genuinely intrigue and were actually interested in whatever the Lord was teaching and delivering to them. Hence there was quite a confusion at that time, with some siding with the Lord and there were quite a few of those who stubbornly continued to resist and reject the Lord despite having heard all of His words of wisdom and having witnessed His many miracles.

Why were they all so stubborn, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because of human pride and ego, jealousy and other forms of negativities inside them which blocked their hearts and minds from receiving God’s words, Wisdom and truth. Like those who have persecuted the prophets and rejected their truth and message before, the people living in the Lord’s time also had the same issue, as especially those in positions of influence and power had accumulated a lot of worldly glory, fame and power, and hence, to them, the Lord and the changes and truth He was bringing to the people of God were seen as a great threat and challenge to their own power structure and influences, and hence, this led to jealousy as the Lord drew a lot of people to Him, particularly those who were marginalised and have been ostracised and rejected by many among the people of God because they were seen as sinners and unworthy of God.

As the Lord Himself often mentioned, it was those who were despised and rejected by others who were actually fastest in the path towards redemption, as they were misunderstood and they also had the same capacity and desire for redemption and forgiveness. This was also particularly because they understood and were aware of their many sins and failures, their faults and wickedness. Thus, that was why many of the tax collectors, prostitutes, those who had diseases and those who were afflicted by evil spirits, all came in droves to the Lord, seeking for His forgiveness, healing, mercy and compassion. They were healed in body and spirit, and God helped them on their way and path towards the true joy and eternal life which He offered us all and revealed to us, through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the same One Who was persecuted by the Jewish authorities and people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all these are reminders for us that especially during this season and time of Lent, all of us should spend some time to reflect on our own state of life at the moment. If we have not been obedient to God and His Law and commandments, and if we have allowed sin to reign over our lives and dominate our existence, then it is really up to us to make the effort to resist the temptations to sin, as well as rectifying our faults and mistakes, and by the grace and guidance of God, to come to the Lord to be healed and forgiven from those sins and evils. All of us are reminded that we should no longer our pride and ego to be serious obstacles and barriers in the path of our redemption and reconciliation with God. That is why, all of us really should contemplate to live our lives from now on in the manner worthy and acceptable to the Lord our God.

May the Lord therefore continue to strengthen us and give us the courage to persevere and remain firm in faith despite the many challenges, temptations and pressures we may face in life, in the efforts that the devil and all those forces seeking our destruction, had put into place in order to lead us astray and to tempt us away from the path towards salvation and eternal life. May God be with us always and may He empower each and every one of us to be courageous followers and disciples of His, and May He give us the courage and strength, the inspiration and the power to become true beacons of His light and truth in our respective communities and groups, that we may become good role models and sources of inspiration for others to follow as well. May God bless our every works and good endeavours, now and always. Amen.