Lenten sermon

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Sunday, 15 March 2020 : Third Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Third Sunday of Lent, all of us as Christians are called to remember the love that God has shown to us all despite the rebelliousness, disobedience and stubbornness which we had shown Him all these while. Beginning from the story in our first reading today, taken from the Book of Exodus of the rebellion of the Israelites against God at the place called Rephidim, where they complained against God and became angry at God as they thought that God had abandoned them and left them thirsty and hungry in the desert.

We have to understand that the truth is, God has been blessing them, providing for them and protecting them all through the challenging journey that they had gone through, starting from calling all of them through Moses, who confronted the Pharaoh with his brother Aaron, and sent ten great Plagues against Egypt and the Egyptians while the Israelites were protected from harm. Since then, God had led them out of Egypt, destroying the armies and the chariots of the Pharaoh sent after them, opening the sea before them to walk on the dry seabed.

And God also gave the people water to drink, water that is good to drink, plentiful and crystal-clear in the middle of the vast and dry desert. He gave them food in the form of manna, the bread sent down from heaven itself, every morning without fail, and also large birds to supplement what they have already had in the manna. For God to provide His people with sustenance and everything they needed in the middle of the lifeless and dry desert, He has done so much for the sake of His people, and yet we saw how the people complained and grumbled against Him.

While not specifically mentioned in today’s reading passage, the Israelites also complained because in Egypt although they were enslaved by the Egyptians, they were not short of food and good things to eat, complaining that all that they had to eat were the ‘tasteless’ manna when in another part the manna were actually described as being sweet and good-tasting. All these alluded to the fact that the Israelites were tempted and swayed by their own greed and desire for worldly sustenance and pleasures rather than to obey God.

As the Israelites put a lot of focus and emphasis on what they were missing and lacking from, this caused them to forget that they already had what they needed, all provided by God Who still continued to love them and was still patient with them despite their constant and repeated disobedience, complaining and grumbling against Him. And in what we heard of the rebellion of the Israelites at Rephidim, God still asked His servant Moses to give the people what they have asked for, which is drinking water, despite having been doubted by the very same people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must indeed count ourselves to be very fortunate to have such a loving God and caring Father, Who has always been so patient and good with us despite all of our disobedience, our pettiness and stubbornness, our sins and all sorts of wickedness we have done before Him, as the Israelites themselves can testify to us through their long history of rebellions and disobedience against God, both what we have heard in today’s reading from the Book of Exodus, and many other occasions.

The Lord has always been patient with His people, sending prophets and messengers, one after another to remind the people to turn away from their sinful ways and to embrace once again His laws and precepts. But more often than not, the people refused to listen and hardened their hearts, preferring to follow their own desires and paths, in disobedience against God. They worshipped the pagan idols and offered sacrifices to them, followed the wicked customs of their pagan neighbours among others. Yet, the Lord was still willing to forgive them and was willing to be reconciled with them.

Now, let us bring our attention to the Gospel passage today in which we heard about the Lord Jesus and His encounter with a Samaritan woman at a place named Sychar, in the land of the Samaritans. At that time, the Samaritans were at odds with the Jewish people in Judea and Galilee, and this enmity has occurred for several centuries by the time of Jesus’ ministry. The Samaritans were the descendants of the people who were settled in the region named Samaria after the old capital of the northern kingdom of Israel after the Assyrians destroyed that kingdom and brought most of its people into exile.

The Samaritans were therefore a mixture of peoples, with both descent from the Israelites through the people of the northern kingdom of Israel and those people who have been resettled from various origins by the Assyrians. The Jewish people, to whom the Lord Jesus and His disciples belonged to, were the descendants of the people of Judah, the southern kingdom which had been in conflict and rivalry against the northern kingdom of Israel. Therefore, the enmity and troubles between the Samaritans and the Jews had originated for many centuries.

The Samaritans and the Jews argued that they were the righteous and chosen people of God, as mentioned in today’s Gospel, the differences in viewpoints as the Samaritans argued that their ancestors’ practice of offering sacrifices on the mountains of Bethel or Ephraim was the right and legal way of worship, which had originated since as early as the earliest days of the division between Israel and Judah, over a thousand years earlier. the Jews argued that worship must be conducted at the Temple in Jerusalem, in the tradition of Solomon’s Temple which King Solomon built in that city.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how are all these linked to what we have heard about the disobedience of God’s people earlier on? This is because the Jews at the time of Jesus often looked down and were very discriminatory against the Samaritans. The Jews were very proud of their status as the direct descendants of the Israelites of old, those same Israelites who were led by God out of Egypt in their Exodus. They saw the Samaritans as pagans and people who were unworthy, ungodly and wicked, and henceforth, ought to be despised and ostracised.

The Jews thought that they were guaranteed salvation and God’s inheritance because of their heritage, but they failed to realise that being the sons and daughters of Abraham and Israel alone were not good enough reason for them to become worthy and righteous before God. And the Lord Jesus showed it all through His words and interactions with the Samaritan woman, whom, in the terms of that day’s society, was among the lowest of all people. She was a Samaritan, prejudiced against as I elaborated earlier on, and she was also a woman, who was regarded as inferior to men. And her background of not being legally married, and having cohabitated in the past would have made her to be even less respected.

As the disciples of Jesus showed us, it was most bewildering to them that Jesus, their Master, a Jew, would be in such close proximity to a Samaritan, less still a woman, and being engaged in such a deep conversation with her. That was why the Lord revealed to them that the Lord does not distinguish His people in the manner that they have been divided against each other, being prejudiced against other people and thinking of themselves as being better than others based on their own prejudices and narrow mindsets.

The Lord loves all of us equally and He treats us all equally without any prejudices. As long as we are willing to embrace Him and His love, He will give us all the blessings intended for us, and through Christ, His Son, make us all to be His adopted sons and daughters. This is because Christ, the Son of God, has willingly entered into our world and assumed our human existence in the flesh, born as the Son of Man, and by sharing that humanity with us, we also share His connection with the Father. We call God, our heavenly Father because of this.

Our Lord Jesus showed us all that God’s love and forgiveness are extended to all of us mankind, and even to the worst of sinners, like that of the Samaritan woman, to whom the Lord Who knew her sins, offered the living water found in Him, essentially offering her forgiveness and reconciliation, and the fullness of grace by her faith in Him. And now, the Lord wants us all to reflect carefully on our way of living our lives, and how we live our lives together with all those who are around us, whether we want to be like the Jews and the Samaritans, who were prejudiced against each other, or whether we want to work together to be more faithful and help each other to be more committed to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called to renew our love and devotion to God, just as He has loved us all so much all these while despite all the terrible attitude, doubts, disobedience, and rebelliousness we have showed and committed in our lives. We must remember how God still provided for His people, the Israelites, for a total of over forty years throughout their time journeying towards the Promised Land. Despite all their constant actions in angering God and in betraying Him, God still sent them manna and food without fail, and provided drinking water in the desert.

If God loves us all so much despite our imperfections and sins, then why can’t we also do the same to our fellow brothers and sisters? Whenever we look down on anyone, or are prejudiced or biased against anyone, or whenever we think that we are better or more worthy than others, or when we are angry against certain people or are unhappy and even hating them, then we should keep in mind what the Lord has done to us, forgiving and loving us sinners, as St. Paul said in our second reading today, even when we are still so wicked, imperfect, terrible and in such a corrupted state.

This season of Lent, as we go forward in living our lives, let us all discern and strive to be more like God, to love the way He has loved us, to be more forgiving upon one another just as He has forgiven us, to be more patient with each other, with our spouses, children, parents, family members, friends and even those who we disagree and are unhappy with, just as the Lord has been so patient with us all these while. Let us all make this blessed season of Lent meaningful and fruitful to us all, and be closer to God, through our deeper appreciation of His love, through healthy prayer life and deepening of our spiritual life, and through our charity and acts of love to our fellow brethen. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 14 March 2020 : 2nd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the passages of the Scriptures, our attention and focus are brought on the mercy and compassionate nature of Our God. This we heard first of all from the words of the prophet Micah who spoke of God’s love and guidance for His people as their Lord and Shepherd, and then followed by the famous parable of the prodigal son in our Gospel passage today, a story that all of us are certainly familiar with.

In the first reading we heard of the prophet Micah who spoke of the Lord as the Shepherd of the people of Israel, as the One Who guides the people through and provides for them all throughout their history, reminding of His great deeds and wonders especially when He brought out the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt, protecting them from their enemies and destroyed all those who opposed and wanted to defeat them.

The prophet Micah was also speaking in the manner of a prayer, asking God to be merciful on His people just as He had been merciful with them in the past, forgiving them their sins and turning them over a new lease of life when they regretted their sins and repented from those wickedness they have committed. The prophet also spoke to God of the promises and the Covenant which He had made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all of His faithful servants, to turn away from His anger and be merciful on their descendants.

Through all these, and linking to what we certainly know in the parable of the prodigal son, we can see how God indeed is not an angry and fearsome God that many of us often thought, but rather, a loving, compassionate and merciful God Who wants each and every one of us to be reconciled to Him. The prodigal son in the parable, which represents us as the sinners, separated from the father’s love, as the father represents God, shows us that no matter how worried or scared one may be to be reconciled to our loving Father in heaven, the truth is that He loves us even greater than He despises our sins.

Yet, this is where we must understand that unless we make the effort to return to the Father, even in shame and humiliation, we can never find the path to reconciliation with Him. The younger son had squandered off his portion of inheritance, and did all sorts of vices and wicked things during his time in the foreign land, and when he ran out of everything, he resolved after consideration and deliberations, to return to his father even though he had to swallow his pride and lose his face, to be humiliated and even to beg his father to treat him just like one of his father’s servants.

In all of that, we can see how the prodigal son summoned the courage and the strength to journey back to his father in repentance and regret, willing to humble himself that he might be reconciled to his father. And this is what all of us must also do as we journey towards God, our loving Father and Creator, and embrace His generous offer of love and mercy. Just as the father of the prodigal son welcomed his long lost son so passionately when they were reconciled, so is our loving Father as well. God is truly joyful to have us reconciled with Him, when we are sincere in our desire to turn away from our sins and to embrace fully once again, His love and grace.

Now, let us all reflect, brothers and sisters in Christ, on what our lives have been thus far. Have we allowed our pride and ego, our greed and desires, our attachments to sin and the various wickedness of this world to prevent us and become obstacles for us in our journey to be reconciled with God? Have we allowed ourselves to continue to sin because we are too afraid to admit that we have been wrong and that we have been defiled by the sins we committed? Or have we allowed ourselves to fear God and His anger and retribution just because we failed to recognise His genuine love and desire to forgive us?

Have we allowed the devil to tempt us to continue to sin by indulging in all sorts of things that go against God’s will, because they pander to our desires, our ambitions and wishes? Have we become too attached to the lures of power, worldly glory and fame, of pleasures and satisfactions of our bodies among many other things? Let us really carefully discern on all these as we progress through this blessed penitential season of Lent, so that we truly may follow the example of the prodigal son in returning to the love of his father, that we ourselves may be reconciled with God, our loving and ever merciful Father.

Let us all realise that God despises our sins, not us as the sinners. After all, He created us all in love, for the reason of sharing His love for us, and His love endures so much that He was willing to give us His ultimate gift of love in Christ, His own Beloved Son, to be our Saviour, redeeming us all through the most painful and bitter pain of the Cross, making the ultimate sacrifice of love for our sake. And this is indeed for us to remember, that with every sins we committed, we inflict those blows and injuries on the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all sin no more and strive to be upright in all of our dealings and actions, to be good to our fellow brothers and sisters, that we show love and compassion to those who have wronged us, to forgive them their faults and mistakes just as we also should ask to be forgiven our own mistakes and faults, which we may not even realise that we have committed unto others around us, even to our family members, our friends and our loved ones. And it is important that we are merciful just as God our Father is merciful so that through our own mercy and forgiveness, compassion and love, we too are open to accept God’s offer of compassion, love and mercy.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us therefore strive to be merciful as the Father is merciful, and to love as the Father has loved us. Let us all be sorry for our sins and faults, to seek forgiveness through our genuine desire to repent and turn away from our sins and from all sorts of wickedness in our lives. May the Lord help us and may He give us the courage and strength to walk faithfully in this path that He has led us through, that we may truly find consolation and true happiness in Him, through the forgiveness of our sins and by being reconciled to our loving Father. Amen.

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Friday, 13 March 2020 : 2nd Week of Lent, Seventh Anniversary of the Election of Pope Francis, Vicar of Christ and Bishop of Rome (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard from the Scriptures the story of the sons of Israel or Jacob, namely Joseph and his brothers, and we heard how Joseph was treated by his jealous brothers, betrayed and almost killed if not for the intervention of one of his brothers, ended up being sold to slavery and eventually was brought to Egypt. In the Gospel we heard a kind of parallel and similar story in the parable of the wicked vineyard tenants as told by the Lord Jesus to His disciples.

Through these readings we heard about the plots and the wicked acts which people acted against their own fellow brothers, as we heard first of the treatment of Joseph by his brothers. The brothers were irritated and angered, jealous and prejudiced against Joseph because of Joseph’s dreams and God’s vision that He has revealed through those dreams, in which the brothers misunderstood as Joseph trying to lord over them, which was compounded by the favouritism which Jacob showed to Joseph and his brother Benjamin.

The brothers desired to have that attention and the treatment which Joseph had enjoyed from his father, and that was why, they were angry at him when he recounted to them the contents of his dream. They plotted against him and threw him into a well, eventually sold him to the slavers and lied to their father that Joseph had been killed by wild animals. Yet, in the end, we all know that Joseph went to Egypt ahead of his family as part of God’s greater agenda and plan for His people, despite the plots of Joseph’s brothers.

In the Gospel we heard the peculiarly similar story of a vineyard owner who sent his servants to collect the dues and rents of the tenants whom he had entrusted with the care of the vineyard he leased out to them. Those tenants were wicked and desired to keep everything they gained to themselves, and hence persecuted and killed the servants sent to them. The tenants also then killed the son of the vineyard owner, whom the owner sent to them thinking that the tenants would respect his son.

In the end, the owner came down himself and crushed all those wicked tenants, punishing them all for the wickedness and the evil things which they had committed for their greed and ego. They lost everything and were punished justly by the owner. And all these is a parable used by the Lord to describe the relationship between God and His people, as the owner of the vineyard represents God, while the son of the owner represents none other than Christ Himself, the Son of God sent into the world. The vineyard represents the world itself while the wicked tenants represent all those who refused to believe in the Lord and in Christ.

What all of us ought to learn from all these which we have heard from the Scriptures today is that if we allow ourselves to be swayed by the temptations of greed and desire, of pride and ego, we will likely end up like those wicked tenants who acted with such evil against their fellow men and even against the son of their master and landlord. It would also just be like the despicable act which the brothers of Joseph committed to gain for themselves favour and inheritance.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is very important during this season of Lent that we reflect on our own lives and think carefully how we have lived our lives thus far, and how we want to proceed from now on. Are we going to seek worldly glory and honour, human praise and fame, or pleasures of all sorts, or are we instead going to focus our attention on God and put our effort to live our lives according to His ways and obey His laws?

The choice has been given to us, and through the passages of the Scriptures today we are shown just how dangerous the temptations of worldly desires and our greed can be, in leading us into sin and from there, into an ever deeper trap of sin and malice, wickedness and evil. Are we going to follow these temptations and allow ourselves to be tempted, especially by the devil and all of his evil forces who are always out and about trying to pull us down this path?

Let us all strive therefore to be more committed and to be more faithful as we progress along this season of Lent, renewing our faith in God and growing in our relationship with Him. And today, as we also celebrate the seventh Anniversary of the Election of Pope Francis, our Vicar of Christ and Supreme Pontiff, the leader of the whole Church, let us all also unite our prayers for him, that God may help him and guide him in leading the Church, together with all of us Christians, all growing in faith as God’s one united Church.

May God bless us all, bless our Pope and may He strengthen His Church and all of us in our conviction and desire to love Him and to serve Him more, through our righteous and virtuous actions, and by distancing ourselves from the many worldly temptations all around us. Amen.

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Thursday, 12 March 2020 : 2nd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are presented with a choice to be followed in life. We are presented with the choice between serving and following the Lord, putting our trust and faith in Him, or whether we prefer to serve and follow our own ways and paths, trusting in our own strength, indulging in all the temptations of this world. This is a choice given to all of us, which we may freely choose, and this is why we should reflect closely on what we have heard in the Scriptures today.

In our first reading, taken from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, the prophet spoke of the curse against those who followed the path of disobedience against God, namely those who trusted in themselves and in worldly matters more than they trusted in God. While those who trust in God will have the assurance of God’s providence and blessings, His promise of eternal life and glory everlasting, which we cannot gain unless we have faith in God.

This then leads us to our Gospel passage today which recounts to us the famous parable of the Lord Jesus, which is about Lazarus, the poor man and a rich man at whose house’s doorstep Lazarus always dwelled, hoping for the rich man to give him even the scraps of bread and food that fell from the table. But no one would give anything to Lazarus, and the poor man died in suffering and agony, abandoned and unloved by anyone. The rich man as mentioned in the Gospel, also then died.

We heard how Lazarus the poor man ended up in Paradise, in the presence of God in heaven with Abraham, enjoying the fullness of God’s inheritance and grace, no longer suffering the pains and torments that he had once endured while he was still alive in the world. Meanwhile, we heard of the rich man who descended into the depths of hell, suffering in agony for eternity, without any hope of respite or escape, and even when he begged Abraham to send Lazarus for help, it was impossible for that to happen.

The Lord used this parable to show us that it is very easy for us to be swayed and tempted by riches and by the other pleasures of the world. When He used the example of Lazarus and the rich man, we must be careful not to think that the Lord condemns the rich or despises them, for fundamentally we must understand that God loves all of us, His beloved children and people, regardless of our background, our material well-being, our race or any of our worldly distinctiveness. He loves all, regardless whether they are poor or rich, weak or powerful.

But what He wanted to point out through this parable is that we as sons and daughters of men are weak and easily tempted by the many worldly riches, pleasures, all the pull of desire of the flesh, the temptation of money, of fame and glory, of gluttony and greed. And the more we have with us, the more susceptible we are to those temptations, like that of the rich man who was swallowed up by his desires that he ignored and forgot all about Lazarus, who was suffering by his doorstep.

What the rich man sinned from was from the sin of omission, that sin of neglecting his fellow brother when he was obviously in the position to help Lazarus and provide for him through the excess in material goods and the provisions that God has blessed him with. And this is an important reminder for all of us Christians in this season of Lent, that we ourselves must also not be ignorant of the needs of those around us, who have been neglected and less fortunate than us.

We are all called to love one another more generously and to share the many wonderful blessings that God has given us with each other. If we truly have faith in God and trust in Him, then we should not be worried in sharing what we have with one another, as ultimately, as we show our love for our fellow brethren, we truly are blessed by God and He will remember us for our love and for our faithfulness at the day of judgment. Lazarus’ fate will be ours and we will enjoy the fullness of God’s providence and love.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, starting from this season of Lent and beyond, let us all be more charitable in giving, be less selfish and be less consumed by our desires for worldly sustenance and temptations. Let us make use of the observances this Lent of fasting and abstinence, to control our urges and desires so that we may open our eyes and see the plight of our less fortunate and suffering brethren all around us, and share our love and blessings with them.

Let us all be true Christians and disciples of the Lord from now on, being more faithful to God with each passing days. And let us all seek to be ever more faithful and deepen our relationship with God in this season fo Lent. May God bless us all and our good efforts in faith. Amen.

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Wednesday, 11 March 2020 : 2nd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we progress through the season of Lent and draw closer to the time of Holy Week, we focus our attention today on the suffering of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which had been foretold by the Lord Himself, as He repeatedly mentioned before His disciples how He would be betrayed and handed over to His enemies, Who would then persecute Him and condemn Him to death, a most painful and humiliating death on the Cross.

And this is echoing what we have heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah in our first reading today, in which we heard the anguish of Jeremiah before God, as he spoke of those who plotted against him and sought to destroy him by various means, all his enemies who disliked him and his works and messages of God’s truth. These people were trying hard to silence the prophet Jeremiah and even almost managed, on occasions, to kill him.

But by God’s grace and the help of those whom God had sent, Jeremiah remained safe and alive, although he did have to endure quite a fair bit of suffering and persecution throughout his many years serving the Lord and the people of God in Judah. He was imprisoned in a dried cistern for a number of years upon the orders of the king and the help of a friend who wanted to hide him from the attacks of those who sought after his life.

Through all of these we can see how God’s servants and all those who obey His will are often suffering all these persecutions and rejections from the world, for the simple reason and fact that the truth of God and the message which they brought to us, is more often than not, something that disturb us, make us feel terrible and bad, and many of us does not want to admit our mistakes and faults, or that we have been wrong, for we do not want to lose face and reputation before others. This is caused by our attachments to our pride and greed within us.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard yet another example of this attitude of worldliness from the two disciples of the Lord, St. James and St. John themselves, who were counted among the Twelve Apostles. They and their mother came before the Lord asking for special positions and favours beyond the other disciples, to gain favour with the Lord by means of persuasion. Both St. James and St. John, together with St. Peter often accompanied the Lord on important occasions when He was accompanied only by the three of them.

This was likely the reason why these two Apostles at that time might have seen themselves as being favoured and as the favourites of the Lord, Whom they believed at the time as the Messiah Who would restore the Kingdom of Israel. As a result, as was common at that time, they wanted to gain position, honour, prestige and glory by having even closer association with the Lord Jesus. Yet, they failed to realise that following the Lord is not the same as following any other worldly rulers and paths.

The Lord Himself told them that following Him did not bring earthly glory and satisfaction as they might have thought that they could gain. Instead, following Him meant that they would have to drink the cup of suffering that Christ Himself was to drink, the suffering of rejection, humiliation, persecution and even death that the Son of Man had to suffer. And this is the same kind of suffering and persecution that the prophet Jeremiah had to endure for being faithful to his calling and mission.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in our Scripture passages today, we are all reminded that following Jesus Our Lord is not going to be something that is easy and pleasurable, filled with all happiness and joy. Instead, for us to be truly faithful as Christians, often we may have to endure persecution and suffering, rejections and trials, even from those who are close to us and are known to us. This is what each and every one of us have to realise in our own journeys of faith and life.

During this season of Lent, all of us are called to remember the sufferings of Christ, which He had suffered for all of us, that by His suffering and death on the Cross all of us may be saved and receive from Him the assurance of eternal life and glory. But there is going to be a lot of suffering for us in various ways going forward if we are to follow Him faithfully. Some of us may suffer more while others suffer less, but nonetheless, we will likely encounter moments in our lives when we will have to choose between serving the Lord and to conform to the ways of the world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore make a good use of the time given to us this Lent that we may re-centre our lives on God and make Him the focus of our attention and lives from now on. Let us pray that the Lord may guide us along this journey of faith in our lives and strive that we may do ever better in getting closer and closer to God’s grace and love, by our Lenten observances, through our deepening of spiritual life and prayers, by our increase in generosity and charitable works among others. May God bless us all and our many good works for His greater glory. Amen.

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Tuesday, 10 March 2020 : 2nd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scriptures we heard the need for us all to be humble before God and before men alike so that we may find forgiveness for our many sins, and we need to be humble so that we may know indeed what it truly means to be Christians, in serving others and in loving one another, following the examples of Christ the Lord.

In our first reading today from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard right from the opening of the Book of Isaiah, the reminder of what had happened to the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed by God for their terrible sins and wickedness, their refusal to repent from their sinful ways despite opportunities for them to do so. At that occasion, the whole two cities perished because of their refusal to repent from their sins and their continued indulgence in sin for which they were infamous for.

The Lord then revealed to us all, just how though sinners perished because of their sins, but it was not His intention at all to bring about our destruction. Those who were destroyed and condemned suffered all that because of their own sins and their refusal to let go of their sinful ways. It was their sins that condemned them to such a state. But God wanted us all to be freed from our sins and to be released from our troubles, and He wanted to be reconciled with us, but such reconciliation can only happen if we are cleansed from our sins.

And it is important for us to take note that God wants us to be clean, and He can cleanse us from our sins, which He has already done and offered us freely through the loving sacrifice of His Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Through His suffering and death on the Cross, the Lord Jesus brought upon all of us the assurances of salvation and freedom from our sins if we put our faith in Him and believe in Him with all of our heart. And again, there is a need for us to be renewed in our lives, to change our way of life and to reject our past sinful way of life.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord Jesus Who made a reference to the way of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who always looked highly upon themselves and were proud of their status and supposedly greater piety and honour among God’s faithful ones. But they have forgotten that amidst their pride, ambition and preoccupations with their desire to be praised and honoured for their piousness and actions, they have forgotten about God and why they ought to be faithful in the first place.

To many of them, their actions became the means to gain for themselves more satisfaction from the recognition, the glory and fame which they gained from others’ praise and acknowledgements. But did they truly love God? It was doubtful that they did so, as their attentions were focused mostly on themselves. That was why the Lord criticised them, saying that His followers, that is all of us Christians, must not follow their examples and instead, be humble and be ready to serve others rather than to serve ourselves.

As Christians all of us are called today, and especially throughout this season of Lent to reflect on what we have just heard through the Scriptures, an important reminder to get rid from ourselves the excesses of pride and ego, of greed and worldly desires, of lust and gluttony, of other forms of desires and distractions that prevented us from being reconciled with God and which tempted us to continue walking down the path of sin and wickedness. It is all those things which had led sinners to their doom as these prevented them from accepting and acknowledging God’s generous offer of mercy and love.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in this season of Lent, all of us are called to open ourselves, our hearts, minds, bodies and souls, our whole beings to receive the Lord and to be welcoming of His grace of love and mercy. We have been called by God to embrace His forgiveness and His compassionate love, through which He wanted to release us from the bondage of our sins. However, we cannot be released from this enslavement to our sins unless we allow God to heal us and to forgive us our sins, which is something that God alone can do.

In order for us to be welcoming to God’s forgiveness and mercy, we must therefore ourselves be merciful and be humble, to recognise our shortcomings, our faults and sins. We have to heed what the Lord had said in our Gospel passage today, that the greater we are, the more humble we must become so that we will not allow pride to corrupt us and turn us away from God as it had done on the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. This is what we are called to do as good Christians from now on.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all make good use of this season of Lent to grow ever deeper in our faith and commit ourselves to a new life of holiness, filled with humility and with the genuine desire and love for God in our hearts and in our minds. Are we able to challenge ourselves to be more faithful, to be more charitable in our actions, to be more generous in giving ourselves and our attention to the needy and the poor all around us.

May the Lord help us and guide us in our Lenten journey that we may find it fruitful and beneficial, drawing ever closer to God and walking ever more devoutly in His path from now on. May God bless us all and may He strengthen us in faith, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 9 March 2020 : 2nd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scriptures we are all reminded of the need for us all to forgive one another just as we ourselves have been forgiven by God for our mistakes and faults, that we imitate our heavenly Father in His mercy, compassion and love just as we always pray in the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us’.

In our first reading today we heard from the Book of the prophet Daniel, the prayer which he made and addressed to God, seeking for His mercy and forgiveness for all the sins and faults committed by the people of Israel, pleading for His mercy and compassionate love. God has kept His Covenant and remained faithful to the promises He made to His people despite all that they have committed, the sins and wickedness they have done and their rejection of God.

Yet, because of their sins and disobedience, the Israelites have been scattered and humiliated by their enemies, defeated and sent into exile by first the Assyrians and then those in Judah by the Babylonians. Daniel was among those who have been sent into the exile in Babylon, enduring many trials and difficulties as a people brought low and humbled by God. But Daniel also kept faith in God and trusted in His providence and love for His people.

That is why in his prayer, Daniel sought God’s forgiveness for His people while also admitting the sins on behalf of the people, admitting their past shortcomings and all the wicked things they have done in opposition to God. Daniel presented to us this faith which we all must have in God’s ever enduring mercy and love for us. For if not for God’s ever enduring love and compassion, we would have been annihilated a long while ago because of our sins.

God has kindly extended to us His mercy and His willingness to forgive us from our many sins, provided that we are willing to accept His offer of mercy and be converted from our sinfulness to righteousness. God indeed does not despise us the sinners, but He does despise our sins and iniquities. That is why He has repeatedly tried to bring us out of the trap of sin, reminding us to change our ways and to repent from our wicked past that we may be reconciled with Him once again.

That is why it is very important for us to have humility in us and the willingness to admit that we have been wrong in our ways and that we need God’s healing and mercy. And we often need to practice that same mercy in our own lives as well so that we may appreciate what it means to be shown mercy and to be forgiven. This is why as long as we do not forgive others, keep hatred and jealousy, anger and vengeance in our hearts, we will find it hard to allow God’s forgiveness to enter into us.

Too often we are too proud in our hearts to admit our mistakes or that we have been wrong or faulty in our ways. We are too proud to admit that we are not as good as what we think we are or what we want others to think of us. This is the obstacle that we need to overcome especially in this good time and opportunity given to us in this season of Lent, to be more open to God’s loving compassion and mercy, and show that same mercy and love in our own interactions with one another.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Frances of Rome, a holy woman and saint of the Church whose life can be a source of inspiration for all of us on how we should live our own lives in a good Christian manner as we should. St. Frances was born a noble and was made to marry at an early age following her family’s wishes, ending up as a wife and the matron of her family. St. Frances however was also known for her great love and charitable acts for the poor and the needy in her community.

St. Frances turned a part of her large family estate into a hospital for the poor and the sick, and distributed much needed goods for those who have little or none to get by. Initially she encountered opposition from her in-law family, but it was told that the opposition vanished when miraculously, the storehouses were filled up through the prayers of St. Frances, after she had donated part of her goods to the poor and the needy.

She also inspired the foundation of the religious order, the Olivetan Oblates of Mary whose members carry on the charism and inspiring works of St. Frances who had given much of her life to serve the people of God despite her privileged background of nobility. St. Frances could have been like many of the other nobles of her time, living in excesses and acting with much pride and ego, looking down on the poor and the needy. St. Frances instead got rid of all that pride and ego, and reached out to her fellow men, loving them and caring for them, being patient with those who opposed her efforts and filled her life with prayer and piety.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to live our Christian faith through our lives just as St. Frances had lived it? Are we able to turn our lives into testimonies of our faith in God, and that our lives may indeed give glory to God? Let us all dedicate ourselves anew to God and make good use of this time and opportunity given to us that we may be able to open ourselves to God and allow His mercy to work in us and through us, that we may be truly reconciled to Him and be forgiven from our sins.

May the Lord continue to guide us and help us to journey towards Him in this season of Lent. May He bless us all and our good works, that we may touch even more people through our lives as we become more attuned to God with each and every passing moments of our lives. St. Frances of Rome, our inspiration and our role model in faith, pray for us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 8 March 2020 : Second Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday, the second one in the season of Lent, we are all called to listen to God’s will and heed His calling. Indeed, today’s Scripture readings are focused on one important aspect of our faith and our lives, and that is to respond and answer God’s call in our lives. God has called all of us His people to follow Him just as He has called many of our predecessors in the past, and for those who followed Him and walked in His path, God would bless them and guide them to righteousness.

In our first reading today, we heard of the Lord’s calling of a man named Abram from the land of Ur in southern part of Mesopotamia in what is today southern Iraq. This man seemed to appear from nowhere, suddenly making its appearance in the Scripture in the Book of Genesis. But this was the man whom God had called and chosen, for God Who knows the heart and mind can see that Abram had faith in Him and was a righteous and obedient person.

And God called Abram to follow Him with the promises that He swore before him, that He would make Abram to be a great nation, blessed and presented by the grace of God. God promised that the name of Abram would be blessed and great, and He would bless all those who bless him and curse all those who curse him. Such were the promises that God had given to Abram, and Abram believed in God fully and completely, leaving his ancestral family and lands behind, and walked with God to the land of Canaan.

God called Abram to an unknown wilderness and an uncertainty. Abram had a lot of property, amazing connections and things he definitely enjoyed in his ancestral homeland in Ur. But Abram chose trust in God and left his past behind him, and walked with Him to the land which God promised that He would give to him and his descendants. Abram trusted and had faith in God, committed himself and his descendants to a Covenant which God would make and seal with him.

The Covenant that God made with Abram, who was then known as Abraham, had been renewed again and again, and Abraham became the father of many nations as God has promised. Through his sons Isaac and Ishmael, many nations including the Israelites called Abraham as their father and ancestor, and ultimately, by the last renewal of the Covenant by none other than Christ Himself, all of us who believe in Christ, also call Abraham our father, as our father in faith. For like us who answer God’s call, Abraham was the first to respond to that call, and we follow in his footsteps.

In our second reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to St. Timothy who reminded us as Christians again about what our Christian calling is all about. God has called on all of us through Christ to serve Him and to be witnesses of His truth and His Gospels. We are all called to holiness to serve the Lord through obedience to His Law and to His will and commandments, and to listen to what He has called and taught us to do, as we heard in our Gospel passage today on the account of the Transfiguration of Our Lord.

Through the occasion of the Transfiguration at Mount Tabor mentioned in our Gospel passage today, as the Lord Jesus was glorified and appeared before three of His disciples, St. Peter, St. James and St. John in His fullness of glory and divinity, together with Moses and Elijah, essentially God has revealed through them to us, that by sending Jesus Christ, God’s own beloved Son into this world, He has called us all yet once again, to follow Him and to forge that new and everlasting Covenant with us.

It was revealed at the moment of the Transfiguration that Christ was not just merely a Man, but also the Son of God. In the person of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world or the Messiah, was two distinct yet inseparable natures of Man and Divine, through which Christ would then seal and make a new Covenant with all of us that will last forever. This refers to the Covenant that He made through His Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross. By this Covenant, all of us are made to be sons and daughters of God, and we are made sharers of God’s inheritance and glory.

What then happened at the Transfiguration and what is its significance for us, brothers and sisters in Christ? This is where then we need to pay attention to how the Transfiguration of the Lord revealed to us what we ought to do as Christians, in how we ought to be living our lives and our faith from now on. In that occasion, we heard how St. Peter suggested to the Lord Jesus that they ought to build three tents for Him, for Moses and Elijah, reason being that it was so wonderful and glorious to be up there in the mountain in the sight and presence of God’s glory.

Certainly, the Lord was tempted by that offer, for He clearly knew what He was about to do in order to establish the New Covenant with all of us. He clearly knew that He had to suffer terribly, bear the burdens of our sins on His Cross, to be rejected and treated terribly and humiliated by His enemies, and finally to suffer and eventually die a most painful death as a condemned and humiliated criminal on the Cross for everyone to see. Who would not have wanted to avoid such a fate?

But the Lord resisted that temptation, just as He had resisted the three temptations of Satan mentioned in our Gospel passage from last Sunday’s readings. And God then came over all the three disciples, reminding them to listen to the One He had sent into this world to be its Saviour. Essentially, through this, God has called on His people again to trust in Him and to follow Him in the path that He has shown us and which He Himself had walked.

I refer to the fact that the Lord Jesus chose willingly to descend from Mount Tabor and leave behind His glorious moments there, and walking down, heading eventually towards Jerusalem where He was to suffer and die. We can see here a clear parallel between Abraham and Jesus, in how both chose to follow the path that God has presented to them, with Abraham following God and obeying Him as he journeyed and dwelled in the Promised Land, while the Lord Jesus obeyed His heavenly Father’s will, and fulfil the mission which He has been entrusted with, through the Cross.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, now as I mentioned earlier, all of us have also been called to follow God and to obey His will. And looking from the examples I mentioned earlier, when we are called by God to follow Him, often the outlook and the path forward may seem to be uncertain and unknown to us, as compared to what we are now having in life. And the devil is always ready to strike at us, persuading and tempting us to stay put and not to follow the Lord, but instead to remain in our comfort zone.

During this season of Lent in particular, we are all called to reexamine our lives, how we have lived them thus far and think and discern of how we are going to proceed forward in life. Are we able to discern carefully what we are going to do with our lives from now on, brothers and sisters in Christ? God has called us to follow Him, but are we willing to put in the effort to follow Him and to put our trust in Him, in whichever directions that He is going to lead us to?

Let us all therefore make good use of this season of Lent, to detach ourselves from the excessive attachments we have to the many comforts in life, and to restrain ourselves from succumbing to our many desires, lusts, greed, ambition among other things that prevented us from truly living our lives as righteous and faithful Christians. Let us all spend more time with God, through prayer and through fasting and abstinence, that we may turn our attention and focus back towards Him and away from the temptations of this world.

Let us also be more generous and loving in our interactions with our fellow brothers and sisters, especially to all those who are marginalised, rejected by others, weak and poor, sick and dying. Let us all be more charitable and loving, following the examples that Our Lord Himself has shown and taught us. In doing so, we are doing what St. Paul had told us in his Epistle of our second reading today, to live our lives with holiness and to respond to God’s call with faith. For it is by showing love to one another that everyone may know that we are God’s beloved people.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we willing to follow God more closely this season of Lent going forward? Are we able to make the commitment to change our way of life that from now on we will become more faithful, more trusting in God, more obedient to His will and more loving in all of our actions in life, first of all towards God and then towards our fellow brothers and sisters, particularly those who are in need of our help and love, our care and attention?

May the Lord, our loving Father and Creator, Who has shown us His eternal and infinite love through His gift of His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ to be our Saviour, always be with us through the trials and difficult moments of our lives that we may always remain faithful in Him throughout our journey of faith, and that we may grow ever more faithful and loving towards Him with each and every passing moments in our lives. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Saturday, 7 March 2020 : 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 brought to focus our attention to the commandments and Law of God. The Lord has given us His laws and commandments, revealing to us and teaching us how we ought to live our lives in this world so that we may walk faithfully in His path and be righteous as we should have as Christians, God’s faithful ones.

From the Book of Deuteronomy, we are all reminded that the Law of God must be an important part of life which we obey, follow and practice in all aspects of our lives so that by our actions we may indeed prove that we truly belong to God and God really is the centre and focus of our lives and existence. And we are also reminded that obeying the Law and following the commandments of God must be centred on one very fundamental aspect, that is love. Without love, one cannot claim to be obedient to the Law of God.

It is the same sentiment and idea that our Gospel passage has shown us, as in that passage we heard the Lord Jesus Himself teaching His disciples and the people on the importance of love, and in fact not just any kind of love, but love that is pure, selfless, unbiased and non-judgmental or prejudiced, love that does not discriminate against anyone but one that is established and anchored on the wonderful love of God. This is what the Lord wants us to know and implement in our own lives.

In that Gospel passage the Lord said how as Christians all of us are challenged not just to love those who have already loved us, but also to love even those who have not loved us, those who hated us, those who persecuted us and are prejudiced and biased against us. He asked us all to show love even to all these people who have not been kind to us and who will likely not respond to our love in kind. That is what true love is all about, the love that expects no returns and love that is genuine and not because of desire for returns and reciprocity.

The reality is that many of us treat love as something that we expect things in return, even to the point of being transactional in nature. We often love because we feel happy because of it and we seek to gain satisfaction, joy and pleasure out of that love. The moment that challenges, trials and disagreements begin to appear, then our love fades and turns into bickering and even hatred. This was also why so many marriages ended in failure, relationships ended up being broken and divorces and broken families soared, all because of our selfish love.

Now, all of us are called to embrace God’s love, which is selfless and giving rather than selfish and receiving or expecting. And the Lord Himself had shown us this love by His own example, as He laid hung on the Cross, selflessly bearing for our sake all of our sins and their punishments, to suffer instead of us so that by His loving sacrifice, He may deliver us all from our sins and therefore bring us into salvation and eternal life.

It is what He meant when He said that God loves us all, and show His love even to those who are wicked and evil, by giving them His blessings and wonders even though those people have sinned against Him. Let us all not forget that the Lord Jesus Himself forgave all of His enemies and all those who persecuted Him and condemned Him to die on the Cross, praying that they were not to be held accountable for what they had done to Him on that day.

That is what we are all called to do, brothers and sisters in Christ, to show our pure, selfless and genuine love to one another, even to those who have made our lives difficult or even those who hated us and were prejudiced against us. Indeed, this is easier said that done, and it is important that we realise how we will definitely encounter challenges and difficulties, as well as temptations to hate and to be selfish, but as Christians, are we able to strive to be more loving as Our Lord Himself had done?

Today we also celebrate the feast of two famous saints and martyrs of the Church, two holy women, St. Perpetua and St. Felicity. St. Perpetua was a Roman young woman who became a Christian, but faced opposition from his own father who wanted her to recant her faith. Despite her persecution and being put in prison, St. Perpetua remained faithful to God and refused to recant her faith. In prison, St. Perpetua encountered a slave woman, a Christian named St. Felicity. St. Felicity gave birth to a daughter just before her martyrdom with St. Perpetua and some other Christians.

In the end, both St. Perpetua and St. Felicity remained faithful to the very end, and together with several other Christians, were thrown into the Colosseum and died in martyrdom against the terrible beasts used in the gladiatorial fights by the Romans. And we can see how both St. Perpetua and St. Felicity were filled with God’s love, love that is both selfless and giving, for they did not expect anything in return for their love towards God. Had they expected things in return for their faith, they would have abandoned their faith easily in the face of trials, persecutions and certain death.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, inspired by the good faith and loving examples of St. Perpetua and St. Felicity, and even more so, Our Lord Himself Who died for us on the Cross, let us all devote ourselves anew to God from now on, and make use of the wonderful opportunities and time given to us, especially in this season of Lent, to learn to love more selflessly and to be more faithful to God, to draw ever closer to Him and to be more righteous in His presence. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 6 March 2020 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, through our Scripture passages today as we continue to progress through this season of Lent, we are all reminded that we cannot be complacent in life and in our way of living our faith, as we can easily slip and fall into the many temptations and trials found in life all around us, and be trapped once again in the dangerous trap of sin. The devil knows this very well and he will indeed try his best to tempt us and to drag us deep into sin.

In our first reading today, as we heard of the passage taken from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, we heard God speaking to all of His people through the prophet Ezekiel revealing how He loved each and every one of us, His beloved children and people, and He wanted us all to be reconciled with Him and be saved from certain destruction because of our own sins. He revealed that He did not wish for the destruction of sinners and their damnation, but the reality is such that those who are condemned did so by their own conscious rejection of God’s righteous ways.

In that same passage then, we also heard how our salvation in God is not a done deal or assured for us unlike what some of us have preferred to believe, those who claimed that once we have been saved by faith, we will always be saved no matter what. Instead, God revealed to us all through the prophet Ezekiel that our faith and our salvation by that faith is also dependant on our actions and direction in life.

Those who are righteous, if they fall into sin and wickedness, will be judged by those same sins they committed, and if found wanting, will be condemned because of them. On the other hand, those who are wicked, if they repent from their wickedness and act righteously, they will be saved by those righteousness and faith that they have shown through their change in attitude in life. This is the essence of what we have heard in our that passage from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel today, that God loves us all and despises our sins.

God treasures us, His people though we are sinners, because He ultimately created us out of love and has that strong desire to love all of us and share His love with us. It is our wickedness and sins that made us to be unworthy and corrupted, regardless of whether we have been considered as righteous or wicked previously by others. That is why we are reminded not to be complacent in how we live our faith and our lives, that we have to be always ready and prepared to face the temptations and pressures that will come our way.

The devil and all of his wicked allies, the demons and evil spirits are always ready out there to tempt us, to sway us and to force and coerce us to go down the path of sin and darkness, and no one among us is free or immune to their corrupting influences and efforts. The more righteous we are and the better we have been in living our faith, the busier the devil and all of his wicked allies will in fact be, in trying to subvert us and to turn us into the path of sin.

That is why, we have to be vigilant all the time and strive to be righteous in the eyes of God and men alike. And it is also very important that we must have humility within us, as without humility it is likely that we will be easily overcome by pride and arrogance, hubris and the ego in our hearts and minds. And when we allow pride to overcome us, it is when it will be very easy for the devil to wrest us away from God’s path into the path of sin. After all, when we allow pride to overcome us and control our lives, we will end up focusing on ourselves more and God will be put aside and become secondary to us in importance.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we progress through this blessed season of Lent let us all make good use of the time and opportunity that God has given us so that we may rediscover our faith in the Lord once again, and allow ourselves to centre ourselves once again on Him. This is why this time of Lent is the perfect opportunity for us to reorientate ourselves and to turn away from sin, be more humble before God and admit before Him our sinfulness and wickedness, all our shortcomings and mistakes.

Remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that God alone can forgive us our sins and heal us from this terrible affliction on our souls. If we allow sin to inhabit our hearts and minds, our beings for any moment longer, and worse still, to indulge on those sins, sooner or later we will fall deeper and deeper into the path of wickedness, and in the end, be judged by those wickedness we have committed. Instead, let us all heed what the Lord Himself had spoken to us in our Gospel passage today, calling on all of us to be righteous in all things and to be truly faithful in all of our ways in life.

Let us all be more loving towards our fellow brethren from now on, and let us devote more of our time and attention to the Lord and follow His Law and commandments daily. Let us show mercy and compassion on those who have wronged us and let us be more loving and compassionate in all of our actions and deeds. May God be with us always, and may He strengthen us all that we may have the courage to carry on living our lives with genuine faith from now on. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.