Lenten sermon

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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.

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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.

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Thursday, 23 March 2023 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Turibius de Mogrovejo, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we heard the words of the Scriptures, we are all called to remember our many sins, faults, mistakes, and all those failures we have in living our lives in the way that the Lord has told and commanded us to do. This is especially appropriate during this season and time of Lent, during which time each one of us are called to turn away from those sins and wickedness, and return to the Lord once again with love and devotion towards Him. We should remember the failures and mistakes that our predecessors had made, and which we ourselves have committed so that we may rectify them and change our ways before it is too late for us. God has always been rich in His love and mercy towards us, but it is truly up to us whether we want to embrace His love, kindness and compassion.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Exodus in which the story of what happened during the time when the Israelites were gathering at Mount Sinai was told to us. Back then, the Israelites were just led out from the land of Egypt in a great Exodus led by God, through His servant Moses, and guided to the Mountain of God in Sinai. It was there that God made and renewed the Covenant which He had made with their ancestors, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and established a new promise and reassurance of His love, and then gave them all His Law and commandments through Moses, whom He called up the mountain, to receive the Ten Commandments and the whole precepts and the teachings fo the Law. Moses spent a whole period of forty days atop the mountain, and in that meantime, the Israelites down below rebelled against God.

Despite having seen the greatness and the love of God in person, with all the great miracles and powers that the Lord had displayed, in the ten great plagues that struck Egypt and forced the Egyptians and their Pharaoh to let them go free, and despite having been freed from the force of the Egyptian armies and chariots that chased them right to the Red Sea, the people of Israel still doubted the Lord their God and did not have faith in Him. The Lord has shown and proven His might and faithfulness to them, never abandoning them in their hour and time of need, and provided for them during the whole duration of their journey in the desert towards the Promised Land of Canaan, with the provision of manna, bread from heaven itself, with flocks of birds and also ample supply of water from the rocks, that God has given them all. Despite all these, they still failed to believe and put their trust in Him.

Instead, they built for themselves a golden calf idol, likely imitating what the Egyptians had for their idol, as one of the Egyptian gods was portrayed as a bull or calf, and then worshipped that idol as their god, claiming that it was this idol which had saved them from the land of Egypt. This was what made the Lord totally furious at His people, as He told Moses of the wicked actions of those people whom He had just saved and cared for, and then they betrayed Him for a pagan idol they built with their own hands. God wanted to destroy the whole people of Israel and spared just Moses, and promised to make him to be a great nation, but Moses interceded on their behalf and begged God to reconsider and not destroy the people for their sins. God listened to Moses and spared the people of Israel, who nonetheless had to suffer the consequences of their rebellion.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the words that the Lord Jesus said to the Jewish people, with the Jewish people here likely referring to those people who subscribed to the ways and interpretations of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, and hence, often opposed the Lord and refused to believe in Him, as they saw Him and His teachings and truth as aberrations of the Law that they practiced and kept, the same Law and commandments that God had given to Moses. They even associated the Lord’s works to demonic influences and collusions, and accused the Lord Jesus of blasphemy against God, for having claimed to be able to forgive sins and for calling God as His Father. That was why they kept on hardening their hearts and minds, refusing to listen to God and His words of truth, and continuing to believe that their way and interpretation of the Law were the correct ones.

It was the pride and hubris, the arrogance and the stubbornness of those people which prevented them from coming to the salvation in God, and from believing in His truth, just the same way how their ancestors at Mount Sinai had rebelled against God and disobeyed Him. That is because they allowed their human pride, greed and worldly desires and attachments to tempt and sway them, such that they ended up falling into the path of evil and sin, and getting further and further away from God and His path. It will be our fate as well if we continue to allow ourselves to be distracted by the worldly temptations and attachments all around us, and if we let the worldly idols in our lives to lead us astray, that is the idols of fame, glory, wealth, pleasures and many others. These are the idols of our modern day world, those idols that will distract us from the focus that we should all have in the Lord.

That is why during this time of Lent, all of us are reminded to refocus our lives and our attention on the Lord. We should not allow the many distractions all around us from pulling us away from the path of the Lord. We should therefore also follow the good examples set by one of our holy predecessors, whose feast we are celebrating today, with the hope that we all may be inspired by his life and good examples. St. Turibius de Mogrovejo was a Spanish priest that eventually became a missionary and appointed as Archbishop of Lima in the then New World, what is today Peru. St. Turibius de Mogrovejo was truly a humble and committed servant of God, whose personal piety and obedience to God, love for Him and love for his fellow men inspired many who followed in his footsteps and examples. St. Turibius de Mogrovejo spent a lot of time reaching to his flock, teaching them about the faith and catechising them, and according to history and records, baptised no less than half a million of them, including the saints St. Rose of Lima and St. Martin de Porres.

St. Turibius de Mogrovejo was also very staunch in his dedication to the reforms of the Church, and launched a campaign of reform and reorganisation of his Archdiocese, to ensure that the clergy and the members of the faithful lived their lives in accordance to what the Lord has taught them, to the Church teachings and Apostolic traditions. He spent a lot of time in prayer and reflection, and dedicated himself to the betterment and help for his flock, to his fellow brothers and sisters, especially to those who were less fortunate and who were suffering. The dedication of St. Turibius de Mogrovejo, his faith and love both for God and for his fellow men should inspire us all that we may also live our lives well and in righteous manner, that we may truly be found worthy and good by the Lord our God, and worthy indeed to inherit the great things that God has prepared for us.

May the Lord hence guide and help us in our journey of faith through life, particularly during this blessed season and time of Lent. May He empower each and every one of us so that we may always adhere faithfully to His Law and commandments. May He inspire us to follow in the footsteps of His saints, like that of St. Turibius de Mogrovejo and many others, such that we may ourselves be sources of inspiration and strength for our fellow men, and be the beacons of God’s light, truth and love. May God bless us always, in all things, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Wednesday, 22 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 Lord in the Scriptures, all of us are called to remember God’s ever generous love, compassion, kindness and mercy towards all of us, that He is willing to forgive us our many sins and wickedness, if we are to seek Him and confide in His love and mercy. God is our loving Father Who truly cares for each and every one of us, and He does not want us to be lost from Him. He chastised and punished us with the intention to help us to be more disciplined in our way of life, distancing ourselves from the path of sin and evil. He called on us all to turn away from the temptations of worldly glory, pleasures, and all sorts of attachments that we may often have, which are indeed great obstacles and barriers in our path towards Him. He provided us help along our journey so that hopefully we may end up in the path of righteousness.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah the words of comfort and assurances from God to His people in the kingdom of Judah, as He told them that He will always remember them and that He will always provide for them, and be reconciled with them, despite their past wickedness and sins. Back then, during the time of the prophet Isaiah’s life and ministry, the people of God, the Israelites had been wrecked by a lot of hardships and tragedies, especially when the northern half of the land of Israel and most of the ten tribes of the twelve of the Israelites were crushed and conquered by the Assyrians. Those in the northern kingdom of Israel had long defied the Lord and refused to obey Him, and most of their kings were wicked and sinful, leading the people further and deeper into the path of sin. Thus, the terrible end eventually came upon them, as the Assyrians destroyed and laid waste their cities, and brought many of them into exile in far-off lands away from their homeland.

Those living in the southern kingdom of Judah, where Isaiah ministered in, did not fare much better either, as they had also often been rebellious against God. They had also faced a lot of hardships and struggles, and by the time of Isaiah’s ministry, according to the events of that time, the forces of the Assyrians even came to conquer Judah and Jerusalem as well. If not for God’s timely intervention, as He smote the whole Assyrian army in rebuke of their proud and haughty king Sennacherib, the same fate that faced the northern Israelites would have faced those who lived in Judah as well. They would have endured the same fate that befell their northern brethren sooner, although they would later indeed face that fate with the Babylonians, due to their lack of repentance and continued sinful way of life. Yet, despite all of these, as God Himself has proclaimed, He still remembered His people and would not abandon them.

That was what God had patiently done for His people in a very long time, that despite their lack of faith in Him and despite their stubbornness in not listening to Him and in hardening their hearts and minds, but God still cared for them anyway like that of a loving father who still loves his children who may be naughty and difficult at times. He chastised and disciplined them, with the intention so that they may all turn up to be well. Thus, that is what He also does with us all as well, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we are all His beloved ones, those whom He favours and cares for. However, this is also a reminder that unless we behave ourselves and change our sinful ways, we may end up facing the same fate as those who have continued to rebel and disobey God’s commandments to the very end. We are reminded of this during this time of Lent so that hopefully we may change our ways and turn once again towards the Lord and His mercy.

In the Gospel passage today, we then heard of the words that the Lord spoke to the assembled people, many of whom were angry with Him because He performed His miracles and works on the Sabbath day which was a day considered sacred, and which to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law was a day free from any kind of action and work, and in which it was a taboo for anyone to do anything. And as mentioned, the Lord also referred to God as His Father, which was indeed the truth, but the people were angry as they thought of Him of blaspheming against God by claiming Him to be His Father. Hence, this led to the people rising up against the Lord. They hardened their hearts and minds against Him, and the Lord responded with the discourse in which He highlighted to them the relationship that He has with the Father, and what He has been sent into this world for.

As highlighted by the Lord Himself, He elaborated on how He has been sent into this world to be its Saviour, because God our Father has deemed it right for Him to send us the ultimate gift of His love by sending His own beloved Son into our midst. He has given us Jesus to be our Lord and Redeemer, and by Whose hands, had brought us closer to His Father, and through His adoption of our human nature and existence, has indeed united all of us to Himself and His Father so that we are also the adopted children of God, by sharing in the humanity of Christ. Hence, we are reminded yet again of the need for us to humble ourselves before the Lord and embrace His mercy and love, and not to be like those people who continued to resist Him and His truth simply because they were too proud and stubborn to admit that they could have been wrong or mistaken in their ways. The Lord came to them bearing His truth and love, only for many of them to reject Him.

In this season and time of Lent, let us all therefore remind ourselves of God’s ever present and ever patient love for each and every one of us, keeping in mind how He has generously offered us all His mercy and compassion all these while. Let us all no longer be stubborn or difficult in our attitudes, allowing ourselves to be immersed in God’s love and grace. We should spend more time in this season and time of Lent to become ever closer to the Lord, our most loving Father, and heed His call and reminders for us to repent and change our wicked and sinful ways. Let us all no longer be hesitant to follow the Lord wholeheartedly or be easily swayed by the many temptations and pressures all around us, to conform to worldly ways and abandon God’s path of truth and righteousness. This is what all of us should be doing during this time of Lent, a time of reconciliation with God.

May the Lord, our most loving God and Father continue to love us and provide us each day, and may He empower us all with the strength and the desire to reach out to Him and His most generous love and mercy. May He instil in each one of us the strong desire to commit ourselves to Him and His path, and inspire us that we may be good role models and source of inspiration to all those whom we encounter in our lives, so that more people may come to believe in God through us. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 21 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, all of us are reminded of the grace and healing that all of us receive from the Lord, Who alone is the source of all our hope and inspiration, grace and strength amidst the darkness, challenges and hardships of this world. The Lord our Saviour and our God has shown us His ever enduring love and patience with us, offering us freely and most generously the gift of His love and mercy despite our sinfulness and stubbornness in refusing His love and mercy. The Lord has always been patient and kind towards us, as we are all His beloved people and children, who are truly precious to Him. None of us can be separated from His love unless we ourselves have rejected Him and resisted Him all the way to the very end, as how some of our predecessors had done.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel about the vision of the Temple of God in Heaven, the great Sanctuary and the place of the Holy Presence of God, which represents the Lord’s glory and presence, and from which came forth a great river and flood of water that went down from the side of the Temple, which provided life for many of the things that dwell in the water, and which brought forth life to spring forth from wherever it touched. This vision of Ezekiel is a reminder that from God comes healing and hope for all of us, as we see the life-giving water of the great river springing forth from the Temple of God’s Presence. He is truly the source of our strength and redemption, and from Whom we shall once again be reconciled and be led back to His most loving embrace and to the path towards eternal life and true joy.

In the Gospel passage today, we then heard a rather similar experience and story linked to that of our first reading, when we heard of the account of the healing that came upon a paralysed man who was lying by the Pool of Bethzatha, by the Lord Jesus, Who came to him and took pity on him. That man had been paralysed for a very long period of thirty-eight years, which is a truly long time, and surpassing even perhaps the lifetime of many of us here. He had suffered all those while and no one lifted a hand to help him. The link to the spring of the healing water in our first reading today is the Pool of Bethzatha itself, which according to the tradition and belief of the Jewish people, had a miraculous healing property, that as mentioned, when an Angel of God came down upon the water, the first person to touch the water would be healed.

It was then that the Lord came to the poor man, who had no one to help him for those thirty-eight years of paralysis, and went on to heal him and made him to be able to walk again. That was another Sabbath day that the Lord performed His miracle in, and the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were quick to criticise and persecute the Lord for His continuous actions in healing and performing many good deeds on the Sabbath. Those people had misunderstood and misinterpreted the Law, treating the Law as a means for them to gain recognition and praise by others, as they imposed very difficult terms and tenets on the people of God, forcing them to practice the Law in the way that they had done. They prohibited every single actions on the Sabbath, even those deeds and actions that are good in purpose and can help others.

The Lord made it clear that in His actions in healing those sick people and others who suffered other maladies and troubles, that the Law was not made to be the lord over man, but instead, it was meant to help lead mankind back towards God and to help them to discover the truth about His love and ways. The Law itself was meant to help the people of God to rediscover the love that they ought to have for the Lord and the obedience and the effort that they should be spending in building a strong and genuine relationship with Him. It is also a reminder that as those whom God had loved and cared, and as His people, we should also show the same love, kindness and compassion on others around us. We should not act like those Pharisees and teachers of the Law who often took great pride in their own piety and supposed righteousness and faith, and who looked down on others and even persecuted those who disagreed with them and did not follow their way.

This is also a reminder that each one of us are sinners in need of God’s healing and mercy, without which we cannot find our way to the true joy and eternal life that we can find in God alone. As we have heard from the readings today, the Lord alone is the source of our Hope, healing and grace, and through Him, we have received the rich grace and blessing of His love, which He poured upon us most generously, even when we are still sinners and stubborn in our constant rebellion and refusal to listen to Him. He patiently led and guided us to Himself, sending His help and guidance to us in various ways, caring for all of us and calling on all of us to turn away from the path of sin and evil, showing us the sure path forward to eternal life and true joy with Him. He has come into our midst in the flesh, in the person of His own beloved Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, so that all may be saved through Him.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to progress through this penitential season of Lent, let us ask ourselves if we are going to continue to live our lives in the way of worldliness and sin as we have often done, or whether we are able to make the commitment to embrace God and His path, turning away from sin and evil, and returning to the loving embrace of God. The Lord has freely offered us His love, compassionate mercy and forgiveness, and it is up to us whether we want to take up His offer or not. We cannot truly be forgiven unless we are willing to embrace God wholeheartedly, and to turn our backs against our past, sinful way of life. This is of course much easier said than done, but that does not mean that we should be discouraged and disheartened by the challenges and trials that we may have to face in being a disciple and follower of the Lord. Instead, this should spur us ever more to commit ourselves even more to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore make good use of the time and opportunities that we have been given in the duration of this season of Lent so that we may endeavour to listen to God’s call deep in our hearts and minds, and open ourselves to Him coming into our midst, so that like the paralysed man by the Pool of Bethzatha, He may come to heal us from our wretched condition and our sinfulness. all of us are in need of God’s healing and mercy, as there is no cure for sin apart from God’s mercy. That is why we should humble ourselves and be contrite in our hearts, in regretting our many sins and wickedness, and strive so that we will no longer continue to harden our hearts against God, and that we may embrace wholly the love that God has always generously poured down upon us. Let the spring of God’s living water continue to wash over us, encouraging and inspiring us to live our lives in the best way possible, to do what He has wanted us to do.

May the Lord continue to be with us, and may He empower each and every one of us to persevere despite the many trials and hardships that we may have to face in the journey of our faith throughout our respective lives. May God continue to help us to go forth as His faithful and committed disciples, becoming the true beacons of His light and truth, that our every words, actions and deeds may inspire many others to come to the Lord, His salvation, truth and grace as well. May God bless us all and keep us in His love, through all time and always. May God bless our Lenten observance and time, and may He remain by our side, in this faithful journey we make. Amen.

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Monday, 20 March 2023 : Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church celebrates the great Solemnity of St. Joseph, the Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and who was also the Foster-father of the Saviour of the world and Son of God, Jesus Christ, Our Lord. That is why St. Joseph was accorded with such a great honour by the Church, as one of the important member of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and as the one who had taken care of the Lord in His early age, and was a great father figure to Him and a devoted husband to his wife, Mary, the Mother of God. That was why, over a century and half ago, St. Joseph was declared the Protector of the Church by Blessed Pope Pius IX, as the patron and intercessor for the whole Universal Church, the one we can look up for guidance and inspiration in the way how he himself had lived his life with great faith and dedication to God and also to his family.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Samuel in which God spoke to the prophet Nathan the words that he was to deliver to King David of Israel, detailing what God had intended for him and his family. King David was one of the most righteous and greatest among the kings of Israel, and he was full of love for the Lord and was also a great shepherd, guide and leader for the people entrusted to his care by God, just the way how he cared for his sheep when he was still a shepherd in his youth. God therefore reassured David that his rule and reign over Israel, and that of his descendants, the reign of the House of David will last forever, and the descendants of David will always sit on the Throne of Israel. God had blessed David and his house, his descendants, and as long as they were faithful to the Lord, the kingdom of the people of God flourished and prospered.

However, it was not always that the kings, the descendants of David had been faithful to God. Many of the kings beginning with Solomon himself, the son and successor of David, and the kings of Judah were unfaithful to God and were wicked in their way of life and actions. Thus, the fortunes of the kingdom of God’s people waned and eventually, as many of them remained unfaithful to God and committed great sins against God, the kingdom was destroyed and crushed, and the people of God scattered to many places. Yet, God still provided for those whom He loved, including even those who have sinned against Him. He gathered back the Israelites and preserved the descendants of David, through whom eventually St. Joseph was born, as the heir of David. It was through St. Joseph that the Lord Jesus became known as the ‘Son of David’ or the ‘Heir of David’. Despite them not biologically related, but the legal marriage of St. Joseph to Mary, the Lord’s Mother, made Jesus to be the legal heir of David.

Then we heard in our second reading today from St. Paul and his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Rome, of the Lord’s promises made to Abraham and his descendants, of the Covenant that He has established with all of them. The Lord called Abraham from the land of his ancestors and for his faithfulness, righteousness and commitment to Him, He established a Covenant with him and his descendants, promising that he would become the father of many nations, and everything that God had promised did come true in the end. This was just like what He has promised to David, and God showed His promises coming true in all occasions, of which Christ is the culmination and fulfilment of all those promises. How is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because through Christ, Who has come into this world as the Son of God born in the flesh and adopting our human nature, all of us have been made children of God by adoption as well, and every one of us through this spiritual link to Abraham, have made the latter our father in faith as well.

Not only that, but God also fulfilled the promises He made to David, for Jesus Christ came to be the One to sit on the Throne of David for eternity, to be the one true and eternal King over all of God’s people, and hence, the House of David does indeed last forever as God had intended it. Yet, it was their righteousness, those of Abraham and David, as well as St. Joseph, that brought about this justification and grace in the first place. God saw what was inside man’s heart, even to the deepest parts within us that we may not even be aware of. He saw in all of these faithful predecessors of ours, a strong and dedicated love for Him, and the love for righteousness and justice in all things, and the desire to follow Him wholeheartedly, as they had done in their whole lives. St. Joseph in particular was known to be an upright figure, righteous and hardworking, dedicated and committed to God much in the same way as his ancestors, Abraham and David had lived their lives.

In our Gospel passages today, the two Gospel choices we have both highlighted the actions of St. Joseph in the brief mention of his story in the Gospel narratives, as much of the Gospels are focused on the later ministry of the Lord Jesus rather than on His early life. From the Gospel of St. Matthew we heard how St. Joseph took care of the Holy Family, of the Lord and Mary, His mother, when danger was about to come for the Holy Child. Back then, King Herod the Great wanted to kill the Child Jesus, having seen Him as a rival and danger to his own hold on the throne of Judea and his other lands, which was then tenuous at best. King Herod did not even hesitate to order the slaughter of all the innocent children in Bethlehem aged two and below, in order to eradicate this potential threat to him and his rule. St. Joseph was therefore warned by God to bring the Child Jesus and His mother to Egypt, in order to hide there for a while until those who sought His death had passed on.

St. Joseph obeyed this dutifully and carried on his role as the Protector and the father figure of the Holy Family with genuine dedication and commitment. While details are very scant of what happened in those years, St. Joseph must have taken good care of both the Lord and Mary, his wife, and cared for them, bringing them back to Nazareth after everything had stabilised as the Lord commanded it. Then in the other Gospel passage today from the Gospel of St. Luke, we heard of the account of the moment when the Lord Jesus stayed behind in the Temple of Jerusalem at the age of twelve. St. Joseph was there together with Mary, His mother, as they searched for Him and found Him in the Temple. It was mentioned how the Lord obeyed His parents and went back with them to Nazareth, and how He grew in stature and wisdom in the world, in the eyes of God and man alike.

This must have been contributed by St. Joseph, which in the face of the lack of details of what exactly happened, but he must have brought up the Lord Jesus well, and taught Him what he knew of the Law and commandments of God, guiding and teaching Him in the same path of righteousness and justice that St. Joseph himself had allowed all his life. The lack of mention of St. Joseph in the later parts of the Gospels during the Lord’s ministry and according to the Apostolic traditions suggest that St. Joseph had passed away before the Lord Jesus embarked on His ministry, but his role in bringing up, caring and taking care of his foster Son, is something that all of us as Christians should very well take heed on, and remember as we ourselves carry on living our lives in this world. All of us are called and reminded particularly during this season of Lent, to be faithful and committed to God, and to be righteous and just in our way of life, just as St. Joseph and our other holy predecessors had done.

Hence, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect how we can be better disciples and followers of the Lord from now on, by following the inspirations and examples from our holy predecessors, like that of Abraham and King David, but especially in particular from that of St. Joseph, so that we may also be truly worthy of being called God’s children, His holy people. Let us all make good use of the time and opportunities provided to us, particularly during this season of Lent, so that we may redirect our focus and attention in this life to the path that God has shown and taught us to follow. Let us all ask our patron and protector, the great St. Joseph, our great role model and guide to intercede for us and to help us so that we will always strive to be righteous, good and faithful in our way of life, and remain firm in our commitment to the Lord, the way that St. Joseph himself had done in his life. May God bless us all and be with us in our journey of faith throughout life. Amen.