Lenten sermon

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Tuesday, 15 March 2022 : 2nd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded to be righteous in all of our actions and deeds, in each and every moments of our lives. We have to be humble and attuned to our sins and faults, all the wickedness we have committed, and endeavour to overcome them, replacing them instead with righteousness and virtue. We are reminded to turn away from sin and to embrace God’s path, His love and grace.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard the words of the Lord speaking clearly to His people through Isaiah calling on all of them to remember what they are meant to be as the chosen people of God, as those whom God had called to follow Him and to be role models for all of the other people of this world. They were all reminded of the fates of the wicked, all those who have not obeyed the Lord’s will and committed sins against Him. Hence, that was why Sodom and Gomorrah were mentioned, the fate of those two cities destroyed because of the sins of its people.

At that time, the people of Judah had seen what happened to the northern kingdom of Israel, the ten tribes that rebelled against the House of David and which for most of its history, rebelled against God as well. The northern kingdom had been overcome, overthrown and conquered by the Assyrians, who crushed their kingdom and cities, destroyed their capital of Samaria and brought off the entire people into exile in far-off Mesopotamia, in exile away from their homeland. This was the fate of those who had disobeyed the Lord, persecuted His prophets and refused to believe in Him.

The same fate would be faced by the people of Judah as well, in due time, as after the time of the prophet Isaiah, the people fell again into sin after a brief return to the way of the Lord, and they would abandon and betray Him, resulting in them also losing their kingdom, their homeland, defeated and humiliated, crushed and conquered by the Babylonians, and brought in shame to exile in the far-off lands of Babylon and beyond, sharing in the fate of those who have disobeyed God earlier on.

Yet, God has always been full of mercy and compassion for His people, and just as He has patiently loved all of them for a long time, despite all that they had done to Him, in abandoning and rejecting Him, the Lord still wanted them all to be reconciled to Him, and He called on them all to return to Him, being penitent and humble, willing to abandon their old ways of sin and evil, and embrace the new path of life that God has shown us, the virtuous and righteous way of life that God has presented and taught to us.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord speaking to the people regarding the pride and hubris of the elders and the leaders of the people of God, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, all those who were greatly respected in the community for their intellect, guardianship over the Law and the community, and which they then reciprocated with great arrogance and hubris, as they demanded a lot of honour and respect, to be treated with favour and given glory and fame.

That was exactly why many people failed to return to the Lord and remained in rebellion and disobedience against Him. It was the sin of pride, of ego and hubris that had brought many people down into sin, and they were the same ones that had kept people sinning again and again, and falling deeper and deeper into the path of sin and evil. This is why, as Christians, all of us are called to resist these temptations of our pride, ego, our hubris and ambition, all these desires we have for power and worldly glory, for wealth and fame among other things.

Therefore, let us all make great use of this Lenten season to be the good members of the Church and the Christian community. Let us all turn towards the Lord with renewed faith and commit ourselves in each and every moments of our lives, from now on, to face the world with the sight of faith, with the determination to carry on living our lives with genuine faith and trust in the Lord, living our every moments with courage and hope, as great role models of God’s path amidst our fellow brothers and sisters. May God bless us all and may He empower us all to live ever more courageously in His presence, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 14 March 2022 : 2nd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all called to show kindness and compassion in our lives, in each and every moments of our daily living, in all of our actions, words and deeds, so that through us Christians, God’s love and mercy may be shown to the whole world, and more people may come to believe in Him and know Him. That is because we model ourselves based on the love and compassion which He Himself has shown us from the beginning.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Daniel the words of that prophet on behalf of the people, as he declared their love for the Lord, their dedication, faith and commitment. Daniel spoke abashedly and humbly regarding the sins that the people had committed before the Lord and all that they had done for all those years they spent in disobedience and rebellion against God, and the people regretted for their failures and shame, seeing all that they had endured because of the sins they committed and that of their ancestors’.

The people of God had sinned against God greatly, betraying and abandoning Him for the pagan idols and gods, disobeying His Law and commandments, persecuting and even killing His prophets all because they refused to believe in Him and all the things which He had revealed to them. The people preferred to trust in worldly matters and concerns, and as such they began to veer away, further and further away from the path of the Lord and into the path of sin. That was how they were overcome, conquered, and evicted from their lands into bitter exile.

Daniel represented these exiles who had spent quite a long time in exile, chastised and humbled, reminded of the folly of the actions of their ancestors and how they had wasted the great love and the patience that God has shown His people. The Lord had patiently loved the people despite all they had done to Him, sending them messengers, prophets and leaders to help them to return to the right path, and Daniel himself was one of those leaders whom God had appointed to lead the people whom He had chosen and loved from the nations.

And Daniel was instrumental as one of the leaders of the Israelites and their descendants who encouraged and called on them all to return to the Lord, seeking God’s ever generous mercy and forgiveness. For it is God alone Who could forgive their sins, and as such, the people were all called to repentance, to reject the evils of their past ways and the sins of their ancestors, and once again to remember the deeds that the Lord had done for their sake, that they might once again place their full trust in God, and no longer following the paths of the world and sin.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard the Lord’s words speaking to His disciples and therefore to all of us as well, that we all have to be merciful, to show mercy to one another, being filled with love and compassion on others just in the same way that God has shown the same compassion and mercy, even though our sins and faults against Him were much greater and far more numerous than any one of our sins and faults against each other. As Christians, all of us are challenged to be merciful and loving just as our Lord, our God and Father is ever so merciful and loving towards us as well.

In this season of Lent, brothers and sisters in Christ, have we lived our lives in the manner as Christian-like as possible? Have we grown closer to God through our Lenten observances, by our fasting and abstinence to restrain our human desires, ego and greed, and by being more loving and generous in giving, imitating the same love that God Himself has shown us? Have we all drawn closer to God in this manner, or have we instead continued to live in the state of sin, ignoring the constant calls that the Lord had made to us, calling on us to return to Him?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in this blessed season of Lent, let us make good use of this time and opportunity which we have been given so that we may come to realise just how weak and fragile we are, and how easy we are in falling deep into the trap of sin. Unless we put ourselves strongly and anchoring deeply in the Lord, we will easily be swept away by the great waves of worldly temptations and sin, and we will end up getting further and further away from our destination in Christ. Is this what we want? Certainly not.

That is why, let us all make great use of this opportunity given to us that we may be ever more truly faithful in life, and no longer just remaining idle as Christians. Let us spend more time with the Lord and do what we can as Christians to reach out to others with love, care, affection and mercy. Let us also be ever more forgiving and let go of the anger and fears in our hearts. May God be with us all, and may He guide us in this journey, that we may find our way to Him, and receive the glorious inheritance He has shown us. Amen.

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Sunday, 13 March 2022 : Second Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we celebrate the Second Sunday in the season of Lent, reminding us that it has been about ten days now since the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Today as we listened and remembered the words of the Sacred Scriptures, all of us are called and reminded by God to look upon what it is that each and every one of us are expected to do as Christians, as God’s followers and people. We are all the children of God and therefore our way of life ought to be a reflection of God’s ways and truth.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis, of the moment when God made His Covenant with Abram, the one who would later be known as Abraham, the father of many nations, and progenitor of the Israelites. God had chosen Abram to be the one with whom He would make a new Covenant with His people, with mankind, as He had seen in Abram the true and genuine faith that is unparalleled and unmatched by anyone else, the desire to love God and to obey Him and His Law wholeheartedly.

Abram was then already a man of relatively advanced age, with a barren wife, Sarai and no son or any child at all. He had answered God’s call in following Him to the land that He had shown him, the land of Canaan, uprooting himself from the land of his forefathers and leaving his family behind to follow God. God then made this Covenant with Abram, promising him that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on earth. At that moment, Abram was transformed into Abraham, the change in name signifying this new status as the progenitor of God’s chosen people. His wife, Sarai, also then changed her name to Sarah.

Abraham trusted in the Lord and followed Him wholeheartedly, devoting his life to God and followed wherever the Lord led him to go. He became the father of Isaac and Ishmael, and through them, became the father of innumerable nations to this day. Not only that, but because of the Covenant that God had made with him, his faith and righteousness, Abraham has also become our father in faith as well. He is our role model in faith and our inspiration, as the one whom we can look upon for inspiration for our own path in life.

In our second reading passage today, the Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians relate to us that as Christians, all of us are called to be like Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, and remember that we are truly called to the glory of heaven, our ultimate destination in life. All of us are truly the citizens of Heaven, God’s beloved ones who have always been intended for greatness and eternity of happiness, perfection and glory with God, our most loving Father and Creator. And because of this, our attitudes and way of life have to reflect this nature, our true nature that is righteousness, justice and full of Christian virtues.

In the Gospel today that is why we heard the reading of the account of the Transfiguration of the Lord, in which we heard of how the Lord was glorified and revealed His true divine nature to His three disciples, Peter, James and John on Mount Tabor. The Lord revealed that He was indeed not just the Son of Man, but also the Son of God, the two natures of Divinity and Humanity distinct and yet inseparable in His one Person, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world and the Lord of all. And by Him sharing in our humanity, the Lord wants to show us that we too ought to share in this glory to come.

Essentially, through His Transfiguration, the Lord has shown us what our future state is going to be, when our bodies and existences are glorified much in the same way as the Lord has been glorified. It is reminiscent of what will happen when at the end times, our bodies will be reunited with our souls, to live perfectly with God forever in a blissful eternal existence, full of grace and happiness. This is what the Lord has always intended to us, for us to live happily ever after with Him, in His presence, and why He created us all in the first place.

Unfortunately, mankind succumbed to the temptations of the devil and their desires, and they allowed those desires and temptations to cloud their judgment, leading them to disobey God, His Law and commandments. And because of sin, we have been defiled and corrupted, and our glorified and perfect nature has been tarnished. When God created us mankind, He never intended for us to suffer in this world, and if we recall the Book of Genesis, all that God had created and made were all perfect and all good, including us mankind, made in image and likeness of God Himself, the most beloved of all His creations.

It was by our conscious rejection of God’s love and truth that we have ended up in this fallen state, losing our perfection and true nature due to sin. And through sin we have been separated from God and we have to endure these sufferings in the world because we have not yet fully reconciled ourselves with God. And yet, God gave us His only Son, to be our Saviour. Through Him, not only that He gave us hope through His Transfiguration, reminding us of who we truly and actually are, but He also took it upon Himself to offer on our behalf, during His Passion and death, the most worthy offering for our salvation.

We are reminded that our true nature is to reflect the light of Christ within us and to show forth the truth about that nature, to all the people. We are all called to overcome the temptations of sin, the corruptions of those wickedness and the allures of evil. We are all called to resist those temptations and rediscover the light within us, the light of Christ long hidden by the darkness of sin and evil. We are all called to uncover these truth about our nature, by our pious observance of Lent.

In our observance of this Lenten season, when we fast and abstain, from meat or from any other of our usual pleasures in life, we are all called to turn away from our desires and the darkness of our world, turning towards the light of God, following the examples of our forefather, Abraham in his faith and dedication to the Lord, as well as our many other holy predecessors who have gone before us, the glorious saints and martyrs, who even now enjoy the beatific vision and experience of Heaven, while waiting for the final Day of Judgment, the end of time. We are reminded through the Transfiguration of the Lord in our Gospel today, that we too will enjoy this one day, should we remain faithful and committed to the Lord, to the very end.

God has made a New and Eternal Covenant with us through Jesus Christ, His Son, Who gave His life, poured our His Most Precious Blood and broken His Most Precious Body on the Cross, to be the Mediator of this New and everlasting Covenant, as the One through Whom all of us can finally be reconciled fully with God. By His suffering and death, He has brought us to share in His humanity, freeing us from the tyranny of sin and death, as by His glorious Resurrection He has unlocked the gates of Heaven to us. Through Him we have been given the sure means of coming free from our fallen state and to be restored to our graceful existence as God had always intended.

Now, the question is, are we all willing to make the sacrifices for this to happen? Are we all willing to embrace the Lord wholeheartedly with faith from now on, and rejecting the temptations of the world and the corruption of sin? To be Christians we are never called to remain idle in life, but instead we have to always be ever active in each and every moments, to be ever closer to God, to reflect His light and truth, His ways and love in our lives, to be righteous and just, virtuous and good in all things just as He is all good and virtuous, perfect and full of love. And we can show this through our actions, by being more generous with our love and giving for others.

Let us all therefore seek the Lord with a renewed faith, with contrite heart full of desire to be forgiven from our many faults and sins. Let us draw ever closer to God and put our trust more in Him, be ever more generous in showing our tender care and love, especially to the less fortunate, to those who are unloved and with no one to care for them, those who are oppressed and ostracised. Let us do our best as Christians to reach out to them, just as Our Lord Himself has reached out to us first, we wretched sinners deserving not of God’s grace and love, and yet He has always loved us without fail. He reestablished and renewed the Covenant He had made with us, because He never ceased to love us, and neither should we cease to love Him.

May the Lord continue to awaken in us the love that each and every one of us ought to have for Him, strengthening our resolve and courage to walk down His path despite the challenges and trials that we may have to face as His disciples. May God bless all of our good works and our Lenten observances, that they may not be just spiritually beneficial to us, but also that they may become great inspirations for our fellow brothers and sisters, to follow us together in our journey towards God and His salvation. Amen.

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Saturday, 12 March 2022 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the Lord speaking to us through the Scriptures in which we are all called to fulfil His Law and commandments, to live our lives wholeheartedly according to the way that He has shown to us. The Lord has called on us to follow Him and in order to do this, we have to listen to Him and to the teachings that He has shown us and passed onto us through His Church, through His Apostles and disciples, from whom we have been called to be true servants and followers of God.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Deuteronomy in which Moses, the leader of the people of Israel in their Exodus from Egypt, told the people to follow the Lord, His Law and commandments, for they had been chosen by God to be His own people and to be counted among His blessed ones, as God Himself has made a Covenant with them, renewing the Covenant that He once made with Abraham, their forefather. And as part of that Covenant, just as God would bless them and keep them safe, caring for them, therefore the people had to keep their part of the Covenant, which is to follow the Law and commandments of God.

At that time, the people of Israel had journeyed for a long time in the desert, for about forty years after they had disobeyed the Lord and distrusted Him in His love and providence, not listening to Him or trusting Him when He reassured them that He would be with them as they entered into the promised land, and instead rebelled against Him in fear. That led to the whole people having to endure that journey of penance for the entire forty years duration, as they wandered in the desert while waiting for the time that the Lord would once again lead them into the land He has promised to them.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the Lord telling His disciples and the people who were gathered to listen to Him that they were all called to love one another generously and unconditionally. This means that we cannot just love those who love us or give us happiness and benefit, but love has to be universal and unconditional. This was just exactly how the Lord Himself has loved us, as Jesus pointed out that God still loved and cared even for the wicked and for the greatest of sinners, blessing them just as He had done for the good ones.

The Lord still loved all of His people, all of us mankind, even from the moment when we began to sin against Him. He could have just crushed and destroyed us, annihilated us by there mere power of His will alone. Yet, He did not do so. He reached out to us and patiently sought to gather us back into His presence and embrace once again. The Lord has shown us this generous love, His compassion and mercy all the time, always ever patiently waiting for us to be reconciled to Him, when we realise our sinfulness and our fallen state, and make the concrete steps to return to Him.

But the Lord also reminds us therefore that in order to be His true disciples, hence we need to make the effort to follow Him in the way that He has taught us to do, to turn away from our sinful path, rejecting the temptations of our ego, pride, desire, ambition among other things, the pursuit of the pleasures of the flesh and many other distractions that are often found around us. As long as we do not make the conscious effort to go down the path that God has shown us, we will likely still remain separated from God, His love and grace.

That is why, during this blessed season of Lent, all of us are called to rebuild this relationship with God, the forty days of Lent and our fasting, abstinence and other observances recalling the forty years of the journey of the Israelites in repentance for their sins, their disobedience and refusal to believe in God, His love and His truth. This season of Lent, all of us are called to purify ourselves from the ravages of sins and evil that had corrupted and afflicted us for so long all these while. We are called to renew our faith and trust in the Lord, to know that it is in God alone that we can find true healing and salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore make great use of this time and season of Lent to seek the Lord with contrite hearts and minds, willing to humble ourselves, we sinners who are in need of God’s forgiveness and compassionate love. Let us rediscover the love that we ought to have for God, and let us turn once more towards Him with genuine faith. May the Lord continue to be with us in this journey of faith and life. May He encourage and strengthen us to be generous in loving one another too, to all men and to all people, even those who have not loved us back or even hated us.

May God be with us all and may He bless us in all the things we say and do, that through our Lenten observances, we will be purified and renewed, drawing ever closer to God. Amen.

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Friday, 11 March 2022 : 1st 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 to be righteous and good in all of our actions and deeds, and to be truly faithful to God. Otherwise, we will be judged by whatever wicked and evil things we have committed, by whatever sins we have done, just as our good deeds will also be weighed in our judgment. In the end, those who are truly faithful to God will flourish while those who are lacking in faith will fall into damnation and eternal suffering. The Lord has reminded us of this as we enter into this season of Lent for our own benefit.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel in which the Lord told His people through Ezekiel that He did not desire the death and destruction of any one of His beloved children, that is all of us. The Lord has expressed the truth that His love for us is enduring even despite all the disobedience and rebelliousness that we have often displayed all these while, and He has always been willing to be reconciled with us, calling us to return to Him with contrite hearts and repentant attitudes, desiring to reject our sins and evils.

He also reminded all of us that all of us will be judged by our deeds and all that we have done in this world, whether by words or real deeds and actions. And no one is truly beyond God’s salvation and grace, as He mentioned how even the sinners will be saved should they repent and turn away from their sins, just as much as the righteous will perish and be judged against by their evil deeds, if they persist in doing so. What the Lord wanted to point out is that there is truly no limit to His love, mercy and compassion, and each one of us are called to share in this love.

At the same time, we are reminded not to be complacent in living our faith and lives so that we do not end up falling into the temptations of sin or thinking that we are better than others and holier in any way. Even if this is true, we are called not to compete about this or attempt to discredit and undermine each others’ journey towards salvation, but rather, to help each other in our journey and way towards God. The Lord wants us all to show love for our fellow brothers and sisters, and not be selfish, thinking only about ourselves.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the words of the Lord saying to His disciples of how they ought to be faithful to God, in all the things they do in life. They are all called to be truly faithful and not just being hypocritical or self-serving in their attitudes. In order to follow the Lord wholeheartedly, we have to be ready to forgive each other, to be reconciled with our fellow brethren, for if we cannot even forgive our brothers and sisters for their smaller faults and mistakes to us, then how can we expect to be forgiven for our comparatively much greater sins?

That is why, during this season of Lent, all of us are called to reach out to one another, to show love to our fellow men, and to be merciful and forgiving, letting go of our pride, our ego and stubbornness, opening our hearts and minds, our entire beings to God’s love and grace. We should allow God to work His wonders and love through us. That is why we are all called to turn back towards the Lord and to repent from our sinful ways, and help each other in this respective journeys of faith we have. It is not a competition, for in the end, what awaits us in God is the same result and outcome.

In this season of Lent, let us all spend more time in prayer and contemplation, deepening our relationship with God and building a genuine connection with Him. Too many of us do not even have a superficial connection and relationship with God, less still a good and vibrant one. We are often too busy to even recognise God’s presence in our lives, ignoring His love and attention to us. He has always watched over us and patiently guided us towards Himself, but it is we who often neglected our responsibilities and abandoned our faith in God.

Let us all therefore strive to do our best to be better Christians in each and every moments of our lives, and this Lent is the best time for us to begin charting our path forward in being faithful to God and in living our lives to the best we can as Christians in our respective communities and places. May the Lord be with us all, and may He empower each and every one of us to walk with Him faithfully each day, living virtuously, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 10 March 2022 : 1st 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 called to seek the Lord, His loving kindness, help and providence, knowing that He is always paying attention to us, caring about us and He is constantly putting His mind on our well-being, just as we are all His beloved children, His beloved people, the ones whom He cherished and loved from the very beginning of time.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Esther in which we saw how Queen Esther of Persia, an Israelite who became the Queen of Persia, came before the Lord in prayer and supplication on behalf of her people, which at that time was under threat of annihilation and utter destruction. Contextually, at that time, Haman, an Amalekite, Israel’s old enemy, plotted for the destruction of all the descendants of the Israelites especially because of the favour that the King of Persia showed Mordechai, Haman’s rival and Esther’s relative.

Mordechai sought help from Queen Esther, who therefore contemplated the course of action that she would take in order to help her people. In order to do so, it was likely that she had to come towards the king and begged him to save and spare her people, the people of Israel. However, in doing so, she risked losing everything she had, as she would be disobeying the king by coming to the king uninvited, and as her predecessor as queen, Vashti, had experienced, she could have been banished and exiled.

But Esther turned towards the Lord for strength and courage, for His help and aid on behalf of His people. Esther prayed, asking God to remember the love which He had for His people, the kindness that He has always shown them despite their constant rebelliousness and disobedience. She asked Him for the strength and courage when she was going up to see the King of Persia, the ‘lion’ and king of kings in the known world at that time, that she might persuade and convince the king to help her people.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the words of the Lord Jesus speaking to His disciples and to the people, as He told all of them that they should ask of the Lord, their God and Father for whatever they needed. They should come and seek the Lord, and listen to Him, instead of listening and depending on worldly pursuits and means as we have often done. If we do not ask the Lord and knock on His door, then how can we know that what we ask will be possible or not? There is nothing impossible for God, but at the same time we also have to realise that everything happens through God’s will and not ours.

That is why it is very important that we do not think that we have no need for God in our lives. It is crucial that we remember how God is always by our side and He will always provide for whatever we need. We have to trust in the Lord and put our faith in Him, much as Queen Esther had done, and in how our predecessors had entrusted themselves to the Lord with faith. The Lord has provided for them in their hour of need, their time whenever they have the need of God’s help and guide.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called and reminded to grow in our faith in the Lord, and trust Him more. Let us all be worried less and be less preoccupied and concerned regarding our fears and many desires in life, and instead let us grow ever more in our hope and relationship with God. And how are we going to do that? That is why we are called to spend more time with God, and not just any time, but more importantly, good quality time with Him, through prayer and other means.

All of us should make good use of this season of Lent as a time of good spiritual preparation and rediscovery, to be more attuned and connected to God in all things. All of us should do our best to deepen our connection and relationship to God, hold back for a while from our usual busy schedules in life, and instead, learning to spend this precious, quality time with God. It is important that we do this so that we will not end up falling further and further away from God.

May the Lord continue to be with us, and may He strengthen each and every one of us in living courageously in His presence, as He had done for Queen Esther, that all of us may draw ever closer to God and find our way to God and His salvation. May God bless us all, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Wednesday, 9 March 2022 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Scriptures in which we are all reminded to have faith in the Lord and to trust in Him, believing in all that He has done for us and shown us. We must be strong in faith and do not waver amidst the trials and challenges, the many temptations we may be facing in this world. And through what we have heard from the Scripture passages today, we have to believe in the Lord and turn towards Him with heart full of love and contrition especially during this time and season of Lent.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jonah in which we heard of the moment when the Lord sent His servant Jonah to the city and the people of Nineveh, then the great capital of the mighty Assyrian Empire. Contextually and historically, as the Assyrians had conquered numerous nations and peoples, they were a very proud people and nation, and their glory and power unparalleled. Yet, they had also committed great atrocities and sin before God, and the Lord sent Jonah to them to warn them of this and the retribution that they were to face.

Immediately upon hearing the news of the revelation of their impending destruction, the king and the whole entire people of Nineveh believed in the Lord and in His words, and they immediately humbled themselves before the Lord, went into mourning and contrition, dressed in sackcloth and regretting all the sins which they had committed before God and men alike. And seeing the actions and the sincerity of the people of Nineveh in believing in Him and in repenting from their sinful ways, God spared Nineveh from destruction.

From what we have heard, the Lord truly loves His people, all without exception. He loves all, including even those who have sinned against Him. No sinner, no matter how great, can be excluded from God’s love. They all still enjoy God’s love as always, which is even more powerful than our sins. Unfortunately, it was our own rejection of God’s love and mercy, generously given and offered to us, which had kept us in the state of sin. Many of us proudly stood by our own actions and refused to admit our faults and sins, as contrasted with the attitudes of the people of Nineveh we have heard just earlier on.

That was exactly the attitude showed by the people of Jesus’ time, especially by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law during the time when they demanded to see signs from Him. This was the context of what we heard in our Gospel passage today, as many among the people still refused to believe in the Lord and His works, despite having themselves witnessed in person all the wonders, miracles and hearing the great wisdom with which the Lord had spoken His teachings and parables, all of which clearly indicated and showed that He was the One sent into the world to be its Saviour.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord spoke of Jonah and what the Lord had done through him, as compared to what He had Himself done as He came into the midst of His people. While the people of Nineveh, a pagan people who had no obligations and ties to God whatsoever even believed in Him and in His prophet when he came to their midst, the contrast between those people of Nineveh and those who were supposedly the descendants of the Israelites was really stark, as the latter, who ought to have been faithful to the Lord had faltered in their faith and refused to see and believe in His truth.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to these words of the Lord we are all reminded this Lent to be more dedicated to Him, to walk ever more faithfully in His path and presence. We are reminded to realise how we need God and His love, His compassion and mercy, and how we are all far from being perfect. Instead, all of us have often kept our pride and ego, our greed and desires, keeping ourselves separated from God and remaining in the state of sin as we have always been thus far. The Lord has called us to Him, but we have often been deaf to His call.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we have the good role model and examples of St. Frances of Rome, a great and dedicated woman, a faithful servant of God, whose life and inspirations should be our encouragement to live according to God’s will. St. Frances of Rome was born to a rich noble family and wanted to be a nun at an early age, but she was for ed to marry and although she did have a happy marriage, she remained committed to her desire to love the Lord and to serve Him, through her love for her fellow brethren, her fellow brothers and sisters.

She often visited the poor and the sick, and she has often showed compassion, love and care for those who needed it. She cared for the many of the sick, the poor and the less fortunate in her community, just as much as she also loved her husband, children and family. She led a holy and devout life, full of faith and contemplation, of chastity and righteousness. St. Frances founded the Olivetan Oblates of Mary as a confraternity of women dedicated to serve the Lord, among her many other contributions to the Church and the faithful.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord has called on all of us to follow Him, and all of us should seek Him wholeheartedly and turn towards Him with great faith, and devote ourselves much as how St. Frances of Rome and many of our other holy predecessors had done. Let us all follow the Lord and spend all of our efforts to walk in His presence, glorifying Him and loving Him, at each and every moments of our lives. May the Lord be with us all and may He empower each one of us to walk with Him, especially through our Lenten observances and works, our fasting and abstinence, and our almsgiving and generosity among others. May God bless our Lenten observance and works, and be with us always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 8 March 2022 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to the words of the Scriptures today, we are all called to pray more and to spend more time in quality moments with God, which we can achieve through that prayerful time and silence, as we come to Him with a contrite and loving heart, remembering His most generous love and compassionate mercy, all that He had done for us, all these while. The Lord has shown us His great willingness to welcome us back to His embrace and to love us once again, and we are all called to remember this love and mercy at all times.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord has shown us all the model prayer that He Himself had made, in praying to His heavenly Father, the model prayer that we all definitely know too well. The Lord’s Prayer, also known as Pater Noster or Our Father, after the very first words in that prayer is a model for all of our Christian prayers, in how we make our prayers and how we can make sure that those prayers help us in deepening our relationship with God, as they should have. Prayer is the way for us to communicate with God, to speak with God our loving Father, and to listen to His speaking in our hearts and minds.

The Lord is indeed Our Father, the One Who created us all out of love, and through Christ, His Son, Who has willingly embraced our humanity and taken up the existence in the flesh, we who share in His humanity has now therefore shared in having the Lord our God as our loving Father. And if God is our Father, then why do we hesitate to communicate with Him and spend quality time with Him? Through what He Himself had done, the Lord reminded us that we have to spend time in prayer to the Lord and pray in the right manner, and with the right disposition in our heart and mind.

First of all, prayer must first be about giving thanks to God, thanking Him for all the wonderful things that we have received, no matter how all they might have been. And least of all, we have to give Him thanks for the continued gift of life that He has blessed us with. We have to thank Him for all the opportunities that He had provided us with, all the people whom He had blessed us with, our families, friends and other loved ones. We have to thank Him for everything He blessed us with despite us having often betrayed Him for false idols in life.

Then, prayer is also about listening to God and not just wanting or even demanding God to listen to us. It is about opening our hearts, minds and our senses to allow for genuine communication between us and God. If we only want God to listen to us and we are not willing to listen to Him, then it is not a communication at all. Our prayer has instead become a litany of demands that we make to the Lord and we are forcing our will on God. How can this be, as we are only a mere creation, daring to make demands on our Lord, Master and Creator?

And then, prayer is also the means by which we also seek the Lord’s forgiveness and mercy, as we ask Him to forgive us the multitudes of our sins. It is by God’s grace alone that we can be forgiven, and we who are sinners are in need of God’s forgiveness, that we may be reconciled to Him. The Lord will forgive us our sins, as long as we have ourselves learnt to forgive each others’ sins and faults to one another, just as mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer. We humble ourselves as sinners, all needing that much needed reconciliation with God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to cultivate in us the habit of good and true prayer, prayer that is genuine from our hearts and not prayer that is merely recited without meaning or understanding. This season of Lent is a time for us to reflect deeply on ourselves and our path in life. We have to remember that we have with us now the opportunities for us to return to the Lord and reclaim our positions of honour, filled with the grace of God through our reconciliation with Him. This season of Lent is the perfect time for us to redirect our focus and attention once again at God.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. John of God, a holy servant of God, who dedicated his life to the works of God. He was a young man who became a soldier and later on, disillusioned with the betrayal he experienced and all other matters, he eventually followed the path of God, committed to serve the people of God. And based on his earlier experiences, his journeys in places like Africa and among enslaved Christians and other less fortunate people, he became inspired to work among the poor and the less fortunate, dedicating himself to the service of God.

St. John of God founded the religious order known as the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God with the emphasis and charism in caring and reaching out towards the sick, the poor and the less fortunate in the community. He dedicated his life to serve the Lord and His people and many people flocked to follow his examples and his order flourished in numbers and their works. The Lord has guided St. John of God who responded passionately to His call. And he did this to the very end, even at his own expense, when he eventually died of pneumonia after rescuing a drowning person in a cold river. He did not hesitate to jump into the river to save that person.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in St. John of God we have seen a great role model for all of us, a role model that can and should inspire us in this season of Lent, as a model of virtue and faith, and of selflessness and charity, care and compassion for our fellow brothers and sisters. This is what we have been called to do this Lenten season, to draw ever closer to God through prayer and also through our charitable actions, our giving and love in almsgiving, in loving others more, in sharing more of our blessings with those who have less or none.

Let us all make great use of this ample opportunity during this blessed season of Lent to come ever closer to God. Let us all be inspired by the great examples of our predecessors, to walk in the path of Our Lord and His saints. Let us all make this Lent a truly meaningful and good one for all of us, that we may each and all come to God’s presence, and be worthy of God and His love and grace. Amen.

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Monday, 7 March 2022 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Perpetua and St. Felicity, Martyrs (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 that as Christians, we are all bound by God’s Law and Covenant, through which we are all expected to live in accordance with the path that He has shown to us all, through His Church, His Law and commandments. And everything that we have done, or fail to do, will be judged upon us at the moment of the Last Judgment as we have been reminded of today.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Leviticus, we heard of the words that God spoke to His people through Moses, as He instructed them all to be faithful and obedient to Him, to follow His Law and commandments, to be truly devoted to His path and be genuinely faithful in all things and not merely paying lip service to Him. They are all called to be righteous and full of virtues in life, not to be selfish and instead be loving and selfless in all of their ways, caring for others who are in need and be committed to be good brothers and sisters in the same Lord.

The Lord reminded His people not to be oppressive, manipulative and exploitative to others, to enrich and make oneself feel good on the sufferings of others. That was what we mankind have often done, and many of us have acted in ways that strive to preserve our own selfish needs and wants, ignoring the needs of others, and actually abusing the freedom given to us to cause others to suffer for our own benefits. God was saying that if we are all to be His people and His followers, then this cannot be the path that we are walking on, as His disciples, followers and people are those who are just and loving, lacking in hatred, anger and vengeance.

In our Gospel passage today, this sentiment is echoed and emphasised again to us as we heard of the Lord speaking to His disciples and the people gathered to listen to Him, regarding the time of the final or the Last Judgment, when the Lord Himself, as the great Judge of all the living and the dead, from all time and existence, will judge all of them, all by their deeds and merits, by their actions and virtues, as well as by their wickedness and evils, and by their failures to do what is good and virtuous whenever they could have done so.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us are called to do what our Lord Himself had taught us to do, to be good Christians in all things, and to do whatever we can to help our fellow brothers and sisters, to be kind and loving to them, showing them compassion and care, attention and the genuine affection that we should show our fellow brethren. The Lord has called on all of us to reach out to others and to show them our love and concern. For it is not only by our wickedness and evil acts that we will be judged against, but also by our failures to do what is right and just, good and worthy for us as Christians.

We are reminded today that just as there are sins of action, there are also sins of omission. These sins are caused by our deliberate and conscious refusal to do what is right, in showing love, compassion and care, or help to others when one is perfectly able to do so. And all these shall be judged against us on the Day of Judgment. To be Christians means that we have to be active in living our lives with faith, and to be dedicated in loving God and in loving our fellow men and women, our brethren, and to do what we can to help one another whenever we can. We cannot be idle in living our lives and faith.

Today, we should also be inspired by St. Perpetua and St. Felicity, whose feasts we are celebrating. Both St. Perpetua and St. Felicity were great and faithful servants of God who according to the Church traditions were catechumens who held onto their faith in God despite the threats and the sufferings that they had to endure for being faithful to God. St. Perpetua was a noblewoman while St. Felicity was a pregnant slave at that time, and both were imprisoned at the order of the Roman Emperor, who endured great physical sufferings before they were eventually martyred for their faith. Through their actions, both saints had shown their great faith in God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard today from the Scriptures and from inspiring lives of St. Perpetua and St. Felicity, all of us are called to be more faithful to God and to dedicate ourselves to Him and to our fellow men. This season of Lent is the perfect time and opportunity for us to do so, as this is the time and moment for us to deepen our relationship with God, to rid ourselves off the excesses of worldly corruptions and the sins that have weighed us down all these while. We are all called to remember the Lord and our faith in Him, to turn back to Him with contrite hearts and sincere desire to be reconciled with Him.

Let us all therefore, through our Lenten observances, continue to draw ever closer to God and His presence. Let us all through our Lenten practices, through our fast and abstinence, resist the temptations of sin and evil, and through our charity and almsgiving, be ever more generous in giving and sharing not only material goods and help to others in need, but even our love, care, time and attention to those who lack them. Let us walk ever more faithfully in the Lord’s presence, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 6 March 2022 : First Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we celebrate the first Sunday in the season of Lent, as we enter more deeply into this time of reconciliation and call to repentance that is characteristic of this season of Lent. On this Sunday, we are all reminded that God is our refuge, our salvation, our hope and the light amidst the darkness that surround us in this world. In Him alone lies our true happiness and freedom, and it is for this purpose that we observe this blessed season of Lent. All of our fasting, abstinence, almsgiving and other actions during this Lent are meant to lead us ever closer to God.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, we heard of the words of Moses, the leader of the Israelites, who at that time in the later part of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, exhorted all the people of God to remember everything that God had done to them and to their ancestors. He reminded them all how God had loved and taken good care of their forefathers from the time of Abraham, his descendants and all who went to Egypt and where they prospered greatly as a nation, and where they were later persecuted and oppressed, enslaved and maltreated.

Yet the Lord showed His continued love for them, rescuing them all from their predicament and leading them out from the land of Egypt, as He led them by the might of His hands, crushing the Egyptians with ten great plagues and many other deeds, opening the sea itself to allow the people to walk through them without harm. These were all that the Lord had done for the sake of His people, and Moses was therefore reminding the people that they have to remain faithful to the Lord and renew their commitments to Him, rejecting the path of sin and evil.

The Psalm today echoed this sentiment as we heard its opening part, that those who come to rest in the shelter of the Lord, who entrusted themselves to Him shall always be provided for and will not be disappointed. For God has indeed shown us again and again His boundless love and compassion, and He has reassured us that no one who trusted in Him and placed their faith in Him would be lost to Him in the end. Sufferings and trials may come for the people of God, but they will triumph in the end with God.

Then in our second reading we heard the words of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in Rome, through his Epistle to the Romans. In that passage we heard the affirmation of the salvation that has been given to us freely through Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. As long as we believe in Him, trust in Him, and focus our attention on Him, our true and living faith will bring us towards God, regardless of our background, our history and our differences. We are all God’s one flock and people, all called to return to Him and be reconciled with Him.

In our Gospel passage then we heard the famous encounter between the Lord Jesus and Satan, His great enemy, as the latter tried to prevent the Lord from doing His mission in this world. At that time, just right after the Lord was baptised by St. John the Baptist at the River Jordan, He fasted for forty days in the wilderness, and Satan came to Him in order to tempt Him. Satan had dominion over the world through sin, because sin has held onto the hearts and souls of the children of man, enslaving them and keeping them chained just as how the Israelites was once enslaved by the Egyptians.

We may be wondering if Satan actually knew what the Lord was about to do and what His mission was. As the evil spirits in the occasions when the Lord performed exorcisms on the possessed testified, that they recognised Him as the Holy One of God, it was unlikely that Satan did not know Who the Lord Jesus truly was. Although He was in the form of Man, the flesh of the descendants of Adam and Eve that he once tempted and corrupted, but the devil must have recognised the Lord’s true Divine nature that was concealed within His person.

But the devil clearly knew that whatever the Lord had intended to do for mankind, it would not be a good one for him, for the Lord loved all mankind, all of His children and people, and He would surely not let the devil and all of his fellow demons, the fallen angels and wicked spirits from having their way and dominion over His beloved ones any longer. Thus, Satan must have attempted to tempt the Lord through His human nature and flesh, to manipulate the usual human weaknesses and desires in the manner that he had done towards Eve and countless other sons and daughters of man.

In the first temptation, we heard the devil tempting the Lord with food to eat, as He has been fasting for forty days without food or any sustenance. He must have been really hungry, for He is truly Man just as He is Divine. Hunger is a part of our human existence, one of the things that we can feel whenever we have not consumed any food. The devil told the Lord that He could just turn the stones there into bread and food for Him to eat, testing Him by saying that if He was indeed the Son of God, He could have done so easily. However, the Lord refused to listen to the devil and pointed out that one’s true sustenance came from the Lord and His words, and obedience to those words.

In the second temptation, we heard how the devil brought the Lord to a very high mountain and showed Him all the glory and wonders of the world, and told Him that He could have everything if only He bowed down in worship, worshipping Satan, for all the glory and wealth of the world. This was immediately rebuked by the Lord, Who told Satan off and clearly spoke that the Lord alone is worthy of worship, nothing and no one else is worthy of that, clearly not Satan or any other beings. This was the temptation of desire and greed, for worldly wealth and material goods.

Then finally, the last temptation is often the most dangerous of all, as the devil brought the Lord to the peak of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, telling Him that if He were to fall down from that height, according to the Scriptures, the Lord would not let Him to be hurt, and He would send His Angels to save and protect His Son. But in doing so, one would then test the Lord, testing Him whether He would really say what He had said He would do, and also, most crucially, in doing so, that would have revealed His great wonders and majesty before the many people gathered there, and would have therefore suited someone’s ego and pride in doing so. He rebuked Satan, and the latter, knowing that he had been defeated, went away.

Essentially, the devil was trying to tempt the Lord to be selfish, to be filled with greed and ultimately to succumb to pride, all of which would lead anyone to sin against God, disobeying His will, His Law and commandments for one’s own personal ambitions, desires and ego. Satan knew it all too well, for he himself had fallen into that state because of his pride and ambition, as Lucifer, the most brilliant and mighty among God’s Angels, who fell into the sin of pride, in desiring to rule over the Angels of God and in desiring the Throne of God for himself. He was defeated and cast out from Heaven, and then he tried to bring down man, God’s most beloved creation.

Satan himself fell, the many other fallen angels followed Satan to his rebellion, and he also tempted Eve and through her, Adam, and many other people, all the sons and daughters of man, who had fallen into sin. But the Lord showed us all, that we must not let sin to have any more hold on us. Unfortunately, as long as we allow ourselves to be swayed by pride, by our desire and greed, by our attachments to the world, we will fall again and again into sin. And the Lord then showed us that we do not have to remain bound by those things, as He resisted and rejected Satan’s temptations one by one.

What is important, as the Lord had said and mentioned, is that we must put the Lord at the centre and as the clear focus of our lives. He must exist at the centre of our lives and be the reason and emphasis of our every actions, words and deeds. We have to put our trust in Him and strive to walk in the path that He has shown to us all. And in doing so, we have to be more humble, rejecting pride, and to temper our desires and ambitions, rejecting the temptations of greed and desires, and to train ourselves to resist those temptations, and this season of Lent, we are given the perfect opportunity to do so if we have not yet done that.

That is why, during this season of Lent, all of us are called to practice our Lenten observances and actions with great and genuine faith, with clear understanding of whatever it is that we are doing, so that in all the things we do, we will always do it for the sake of the Lord, and not for our own selfish ambitions, our pride, ego and desires. Through fasting and abstinence, done right and focused on the Lord, let us restrain our human and worldly desires, for glory, power, fame and other material wealth and goods, resisting the excesses of worldly attachments and pleasures, and instead, learn to grow more in our faith and trust, in our love for God.

Then, we are also called to be more generous in loving one another, as Lent is the time for us to show God’s love even more to others around us. We are encouraged to be more generous in almsgiving and in caring for the less fortunate, not necessarily just in material terms only, but also in caring for those who are unloved and uncared for, those who have been ostracised and rejected by others. Let us extend our caring hands and hearts to them, and let us show each other what God’s love for us truly means, through our own genuine Christian love.

Let us all make the best use of this time that we have been given in this season of Lent, so that each and every one of us can draw ever closer to the Lord, and that we may grow ever more in our faith and dedication to God. May He continue to watch over us and strengthen us all in faith, and may He empower each and every one of us so that we may remain ever more deeply attuned to Him, and be ever more courageous to say no to Satan and all of his temptations and all the falsehoods he presented to us. Let us help one another to walk ever more faithfully in God’s presence, now and always. Amen.