Lenten sermon

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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.

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Thursday, 5 March 2020 : 1st 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 God in the Scriptures, our attentions are brought upon the wonderful love of God and His powerful deliverance and providence for us all from our troubles, as the many historical precedents and examples of the past can testify for us. And today our attention is brought to the time of the Queen Esther of the Persian Empire, who was born a Jewish exile in the land of Babylon, and eventually rose by the grace of God to be the great Queen of the Empire.

And on the same occasion, another person, named Haman, a descendant of the Amalekites also rose to great position of power. Haman despised the descendants of Israel as his ancestors had a great enmity against the people of God, and he tried with many plots trying to destroy the entire race of the people of Israel, by manipulating the King into ordering the extermination of the Israelites. As the then law of the Persian Empire was absolute and binding, and Haman had managed to put the extermination order into the law, it seemed to be the end for all the Israelites then living throughout the Persian Empire.

The Israelites needed help, and one of the prominent members of the community, Mordechai, who was also Queen Esther’s relative, came to her saying that it might indeed be because of God’s plan and will that Esther had become the Queen so that through her, God might yet intervene to save His people from certain destruction. And indeed, Esther promised Mordechai and her people that she would do her best in the situation to protect her people.

And this is how we come to the portion in our first reading today as we heard Esther’s prayer to God, asking Him for deliverance for His people Israel, who were about to be annihilated as a nation by their enemies. And Esther prayed this just before she was about to present herself before the King at her own accord, something that was expressly forbidden in the Persian customs, as that was tantamount to disobedience to the King, something which had cost Esther’s predecessor, the former Queen Vashti, her position as Queen and also getting exiled.

But Esther was ready to do anything for the sake of the Lord and for her people, and she asked God for strength, guidance and courage as she was about to face the greatest challenge of her life, risking her very life and position for what she was about to do, to plead for the safety of her people before the King. She asked for the Lord to guide her and to give her the courage to face her enemies and to soften the heart of the King, and through her prayers, the Lord guided her to triumph against Haman and all those plots he had made against Israel.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the story of Queen Esther is linked to what the Lord Jesus spoke to the people with regards to the matter of asking God and to put our trust in Him. How is this so? The Lord made a comparison of God with a loving father, and said that we need only to ask God, and God will, in accordance to His will and love, provide us with what we need. That was exactly what He has blessed Esther with, the courage, guidance and strength to intercede for the Israelites before the ruler of Persia against their enemies.

However, the sad reality is such that many of us do not ask the Lord or put our trust in Him. We did not seek Him for help, and instead we sought refuge and help through many other sources of the world. We trust our own human strength, ability, intellect and resources more than God, and we believe that we can do everything on our own. And this is why many of us fall deeper and deeper into sin, and got further and further away from God, because we have no firm anchor in our lives which God alone can provide us.

And many of us who do believe in God and place our hope on Him think wrongly that we then can impose our will on God, as we demand Him or plead to Him to give us what we wanted to have, or which we desired in our hearts and minds. But this is not right, brothers and sisters in Christ, as God ultimately is supreme and everything in this world will happen according to His will and not our will. Nonetheless, because God loves each and every one of us, He will provide for us and take good care of us, but in His way, and not in the way that we desired it.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, now as we progress through this season of Lent, let us all strive to be more faithful to God and to put our trust in Him like Queen Esther has shown us. Let us ask the Lord for His guidance and companionship as we journey along through this life, that we may persevere through the challenges and trials that may come our way. Let us also help one another to remain true to our faith, and devote our time and attention to purify our lives and make ourselves truly worthy of God once again.

May the Lord be with us all and may He strengthen us in our resolution to live our lives from now on with ever greater faith and devotion. May God, our loving and compassionate Father in heaven bless us all and all of our good works and endeavours, for His greater glory. Amen.

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Wednesday, 4 March 2020 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are reminded that we need to be humble and to have faith in God, through our Scripture passages which brought to our attention what our predecessors had done in the past. We heard first the story of the prophet Jonah in Nineveh, the mighty capital city of the Assyrian Empire in our first reading today, while in the Gospel we heard the Lord Jesus speaking in rebuke to the people who still doubted Him and asked Him to show them signs when He had done all those miracles before them.

In our first reading we heard the prophet Jonah who have arrived in Nineveh, after he tried to flee from the Lord and the mission He gave him earlier on, only to encounter a terrible storm that ended up with him asking to be thrown into the sea to spare the rest, and was saved in the belly of a whale for three days and three nights. Jonah then obeyed the Lord and proceeded with his mission to bring the message of doom and the upcoming judgment and destruction of Nineveh.

At that time, the city of Nineveh was one of the greatest cities in the world, with population as mentioned in the Scripture as being over a hundred and twenty thousand, which was a truly monumental population for the time. It was the capital and most important city of the vast and powerful Assyrian Empire, which had expanded rapidly and conquered many nations, and it was also the Assyrians who conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, destroyed its capital Samaria and brought the northern tribes of Israel into exile.

For all of these, and for all the wars and destructions that the Assyrians wrought, and the likely decadent lifestyle in the court of the King of the Assyrians, the sins of Nineveh and its people were truly numerous and terrible, well known to everyone, and it was Jonah who was tasked by God to proclaim His judgment and the upcoming destruction to the entire city and all of its people. No one in the city, from the King to the lowest slaves, even the animals would be spared.

Certainly we may remember another occasion in the Scripture where not just one but two cities were destroyed because of their sins, that is the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Both cities were destroyed with a mighty rain of fire and brimstones from the heavens, and save for the righteous Lot and his family, everyone in the two cities perished because of their sins. It was likely then that this fate would have befallen Nineveh and its people as well.

Yet, what distinguished Nineveh from the earlier case of Sodom and Gomorrah was that immediately after they heard the words and the terrible premonition of the prophet Jonah, the whole city of Nineveh went into great mourning and repentance before God. Everyone from the King, who issued the order to the whole city and its people to repent from their sins, right down to the lowest among the people, all humbled themselves, tore their clothes and wore sackcloth as a sign of penance.

God saw and knew the sincerity of their repentance and He spared the whole city and its people from the punishment they were about to suffer then. Compared to Sodom and Gomorrah, which did not repent from their sins but instead doubled down further in their wickedness, the repentance and humility of Nineveh had won for them the forgiveness and reprieve from God for their numerous, terrible sins and mistakes.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it was these signs and actions that the Lord Himself then referred to as He addressed the people who doubted Him and demanded miraculous wonders and signs from Him as described in our Gospel passage today. Jesus Himself has performed many wonders and miracles openly before the people, and many had witnessed and seen for themselves the glory of God at work. Yet, unlike the people of Nineveh who repented and believed in God, many among the people of the time of Jesus, especially the Pharisees, hardened their hearts and refused to believe.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the important lesson from this for all of us is the reminder that humility is a very important trait we must have for us to achieve forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Conversely, pride is our greatest obstacle and our greatest enemy in our fight and struggle against sin and evil. As long as we have pride in us and we indulge in that pride, we will find it difficult to seek God’s forgiveness, mercy and love.

In this season of Lent, we are called to resist that pride in us, and instead grow in humility. Today, let us all look at the good examples and virtues set by one of our holy predecessors, namely St. Casimir, a holy noble and one of the heirs of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, who was renowned for his great piety, personal humility and virtues, and for his great love and dedication to God and His Church.

Although St. Casimir was born as the heir of the two powerful realms which during that time was among the mightiest kingdoms in Christendom, but like the King of Nineveh, that did not cause him to be prideful and filled with hubris. Instead, he exhibited great piety and humility, known for his charitable efforts and works among the poor and the sick, caring for the needs of those who were less fortunate and ignored by the society.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us as Christians can also follow in the footsteps of St. Casimir, in humbling ourselves before God and in loving Him, by dedicating ourselves to the many works of mercy and love for our fellow brethren, which are indeed highly encouraged for us to do during this blessed season of Lent. Let us all then discern what we are going to do to enrich and make best use of our Lenten observation, and commit ourselves to God anew from now on.

May God bless us always, and may He strengthen our faith in us and may He help us to remain true and faithful to Him, and to be humble at all times following the humility and great piety of His servant, St. Casimir, holy prince and servant of God. St. Casimir, pray for us! Amen.

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Tuesday, 3 March 2020 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us about the Word of God, sent by the Father into this world, fulfilling His will and doing all that He has tasked the Word to do, as described in our first reading from the Book of the prophet Isaiah. And all these were part of the prophecies surrounding the coming of God’s Saviour, the Chosen One, Whom God promised His people that the Saviour would deliver them from their troubles and bring them into God’s eternal glory.

All these were then fulfilled completely in the person of Jesus Christ, the Messiah or Saviour of us all. For although He appeared to us in the manner and appearance of a Man, and indeed fully Man He is, but the truth of His nature has been prophesied to us as we heard from the prophet Isaiah, the Word of God Himself, sent into the world, the Divine Word Who is with the Father and Who is One with God the Father, sent into the world to execute God’s divine will amongst us all. He is the Son of God, the Divine Word Incarnate.

The Son of God has come into this world in order to heal us from our afflictions and to redeem us from our sins, and He also taught us more about God, our heavenly Father and Creator, and revealed the truth about Him to us all. And that is why, He taught us all to pray in our Gospel passage today, the prayer now known as the Lord’s Prayer as it was made and taught to us by Jesus Himself, or as the Pater Noster that is the Latin for Our Father, for it is a prayer address to God, our heavenly Father.

And therefore, we are called today to reflect on this matter of prayer as we progress through this season of Lent. Prayer is an essential part of our faith as we all should know, and it is important that especially during this period of Lent, prayer is something that we should do with greater devotion and sincerity, if we especially have not prayed often and regularly before. For it is through prayer that we grow in our relationship with God, and we may be more connected to Him and know more of His will and ways.

If we have not been able to discern God’s will and we have not had that close relationship with God, then perhaps we should consider whether our prayer life has been good and proper, and whether we have been praying in the right way or if we have been mistaken in our understanding of prayer thus far. As I said, prayer is very important for us and especially during this time of Lent to help us to reconnect with God and to strengthen our relationship with Him.

Many of us Christians treat prayer wrongly in the way that we see prayer as a means to achieve what we desired and wanted, and we wanted God to help us to get them. That is why some of us prayed and prayed with this kind of intention, while not entirely wrong, but we ended up being obsessed with our desire and in the end, we forgot what prayer is truly all about. Some of us prayed following the formulas and set prayers of the Church, which is again while a good practice, but we ended up spending lots of time reciting the prayers and yet we did not mean what we say.

What is a prayer, brothers and sisters in Christ? Prayer is a means of communication between us and God. And a prayer can indeed either be communal or private in nature, just as we address God and communicate with Him either as a community together or personally. And what is communication, brothers and sisters? Is communication about us speaking all the time while the other party is just listening to all of our words and speeches?

Certainly not, as we all know that in communication, both parties involved must be engaged actively in the conversation, or else it cannot be called communication but rather as ‘information’ or ‘instruction’. How can we then instruct God to do something? And yet that is what many of us often did with our prayers, as we ended up demanding God to do something for us, and we even often become angry when we do not get what we wanted.

This season of Lent, are we able to change our perspective and way of doing our prayers? Are we able to spend even just a little bit more time in prayer and connecting with God through the time we spent with Him? Let our prayers also be meaningful and be genuine from our hearts. If we pray just to achieve our goals of saying or reciting certain number of prayers or that we want to gain something with God’s help, then I am afraid that we still have a long way to go in improving the quality of our prayer life.

Let us look at Christ Himself, Who always prayed to His heavenly Father at every possible opportunities He had. And He always sought quiet and secluded places to pray. This is what we can also do with our own prayer life and practices, as if we find a good and conducive place, then the chance that we are distracted during our prayer time will be lesser, and we will have a better quality time spent with God. This is one way how we can improve our prayer and spiritual life, especially in this season of Lent.

And as I said earlier, let our prayers not be one of selfish desires for ourselves, but as Jesus did, let us begin by glorifying and thanking God for everything He had done for us, and open our hearts and minds that we may be attuned to Him and that we may be better able to listen to Him speaking in the depth of our hearts and minds. Brothers and sisters in Christ, ultimately we also have to know that God already knew all that are inside our hearts and minds, and we do not have to say it all out to Him. Instead of demanding Him to do what we desired and wanted, let us instead pray for the grace of wisdom, that we may proceed in life in the manner as faithful and true to our faith, and make our lives a shining example of our dedication and faith in God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all make our Lenten season fruitful and meaningful especially through prayer. And as far as possible, let us all share our good practices in praying to one another so that as many people as possible may draw closer to God in this special time of grace, that in this season of Lent, many more will repent from their sins and come to find God and make Him as the centre and focus of their lives once again. May God be with us always, and may He bless us in all of our good works and endeavours. Amen.

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Monday, 2 March 2020 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all continue to proceed through the season of Lent, let us all begin with the end or the goal in mind, as we recall what we have just heard from today’s Scripture readings. I am especially referring to what we have just heard in our Gospel passage today, in what we usually know as the Last Judgement narrative when the Lord Jesus told His disciples what would happen at the end of time.

In summary, at the end of time there will be a great judgment for all mankind who have ever lived, from the times of the past, from our current present and from the future times. All mankind will rise again and be present before God, Who will then judge all of them by their deeds and actions throughout their respective lives. Then they all will be separated into two groups, one that are worthy of God and the eternal life of joy they have been promised, and the other one are those who have rejected God and consequently are also going to be rejected and cast out into eternal darkness.

And the Lord spoke to all of them, one group by one group, welcoming those who have been considered worthy of God, and rebuking those who have been found unworthy and wanting in their faith. Using this, the Lord also then showed what are the way for each one of us mankind to end up in either one of the groups. Those who are welcomed and praised by God, are those who love others, cared for the need of the hungry and the oppressed, the orphans and those who have been rejected by others, essentially showing love for those who are less fortunate than them. All these support them on the Day of Judgement.

Meanwhile, those who have been rejected and cast out are those who on the contrary, failed to extend a helping hand to those who are in need, who turn a blind eye to the needs of those who are unloved, poor and weak, those who are oppressed and downtrodden. They have put themselves and their own selfishness above the need to love and care for others, or worse still, benefit in the face of the sufferings of others. All these weigh down on them on the Day of Judgement.

If all of these sound quite familiar to us, that is because today we have heard it yet another time earlier on the first reading passage from the Book of Leviticus. In that occasion, as God laid before His people, the Israelites through Moses and Aaron, His laws and commandments, He has already told and taught them how to live their lives as good, virtuous and faithful followers of God’s path and what it means to be the chosen people of God.

And it means that His people ought to act righteously at all times, shunning hatred and injustice, showing care and concern for their fellow brothers and sisters in their midst. This is the same exhortation and precepts that all of us as Christians, God’s chosen people must also take heed of. Why is this so? That is because whatever God has taught and revealed to us, has been affirmed again and again, and finalised by Christ, in His account of the Last Judgement today. Through that account, we are blessed to find out from the Lord Himself, what will be the ultimate outcome of our choices in life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are essentially presented with the choice between following and obeying God’s ways, as I have just described in great length, or whether we prefer to follow our own path, that is more likely than not, centred on ourselves and on our own self-preservation, thinking only about ourselves and causing hurt on others in the process, or being ignorant on the plight of those who are suffering all around us. I am certain that I do not have to elaborate again on what the final outcomes of our choices will be, as the Lord had explained and revealed them all so clearly.

Today, as we continue to progress through this blessed penitential season of Lent, let us all ask ourselves, whether we want to live our lives in the manner of those whom God will reject in the end, or whether we want to embrace the ways that God has presented before us. And indeed, our challenge is that we have been called to take up this way of life if we have not done so, and continue walking through it, if we have walked it earlier. It will not be an easy path, as we will definitely encounter many trials and oppositions along the way.

Nonetheless, if we remain faithful to the end, despite the trials and challenges, we will enjoy the fullness of God’s grace and love, as we have been assured by Christ Himself. Let us now therefore pray for one another and help each other in remaining faithful to God throughout our lives. Let us make our season of Lent this year be a fruitful and beneficial one, by deepening our relationship with God through prayer, and by practicing charity in our lives daily. May the Lord be with us always, and may He guide us in our journey of faith, as we continue to struggle and persevere through life. Amen.

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Sunday, 1 March 2020 : First Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the First Sunday of Lent, and as we begin the first in the series of five Sundays in this season of Lent, we are brought to focus our attention on the nature of this season of Lent as a time of renewal, rejuvenation of our faith, reconciliation with God and as a time for the forgiveness of our sins, through our repentance and forgiveness by God. The name of Lent itself came from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘Lencten’ which means ‘Spring’ referring to the coming of the season of Spring after that of Winter.

That is why Lent is symbolically very important as a time of renewal and rediscovery of oneself, after the bitterness and darkness of our spiritual ‘Winter’ due to our sins and shortcomings, as a chance for us to reconnect with God, to be reconciled with Him and to find our place once again in God’s grace and loving embrace. It is a time for us to turn away from the excesses of worldly desires and greed, from the many temptations we find in the world, and focus our attention instead on God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today on this First Sunday of Lent as we remember again what we have just heard from our Scripture passages today, we focus on the theme of sin and temptation to sin, and then the freedom from those sins. We heard first of all the account from the Book of Genesis which showed us the moment of mankind’s fall into sin, when our first ancestors fell to the temptation of the devil, and then up to the Gospel, when we heard yet another temptation story, this time the devil tried to tempt the Lord Jesus as He went for forty days right after His baptism to the desert to prepare Himself for His ministry.

In the beginning of time, God created everything all good and perfect, and He made the first man, Adam and his companion, Eve, to live in the wonderful Garden of Eden. This means that mankind, all of us were actually meant to live with God in the fullness of God’s grace and love, to enjoy the wonders of God’s providence and blessings forever. However, this was not to be because we fell into sin as we were unable to resist the temptations to sin, which the devil, disguised as a snake, brought upon Adam and Eve.

What did the devil tempt them with? As Satan first approached Eve, he tempted her with the temptation of desire, the desire for the forbidden knowledge that God has expressly forbidden for man to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And Satan reasoned very cunningly that the fruit of the tree did not seem to be harmful, and how eating from the tree would bestow great knowledge upon man and made them to be like God. Through this temptation, Satan planted the seeds of pride and greed in mankind’s hearts.

Thus, according to the Book of Genesis, that was when mankind fell into sin, and therefore consequently were banished from the Garden of Eden to wander on this earth and suffer the consequences of our disobedience, which led to sin. Sin came forth because we did not obey God and in our failure to do so, we fell short of what was expected of us, and sin came forth. In the Greek language, the word sin is known as hamartía, which means failure to reach or grasp a target, or in summary, meaning of falling short of what one is expected to do.

God has blessed us and meant for us to enjoy forever the fullness of His grace and love, and He has set precepts and rules for us to follow. Yet, tempted by the devil, we succumbed to the temptations, and not just Adam and Eve, but all mankind ever since then, have fallen into all these temptations in various forms, and came short of our expectations in life to live a virtuous and good life as God’s beloved people, and thus we sinned. Sin has been with us since that moment when Adam and Eve fell, and it has corrupted innumerable sons and daughters of man since.

And the consequences of sin are dire, brothers and sisters in Christ, as sin is a defilement, imperfection and tarnish upon our humanity, and since God is all good and perfect, no impurity, imperfection and defilement can be present before Him. Our sins and shortcomings will end up destroying us if we dare to come before God with them in us, corrupting us and making us unworthy of God. Our shame and regret of having sinned before God would literally destroy us and prevent us from true reconciliation with our loving Creator.

This has been Satan’s plan all along, for he, once known as Lucifer, was once the greatest, brightest and most brilliant among all the Angels of God. Yet, in his brilliance and excellence, which should have been the showcase of God’s wonderful Light by his name of the ‘lightbringer’, he became proud of his own marvels and brilliance, and instead of shining with God’s light, he rebelled against God as he desired to overthrow his own Creator and rule over all instead. From his pride came greed and all other sins that we now know of, and he gathered many other Angels who supported him. But they were defeated and cast out of heaven.

Satan was unable to accomplish what he wanted, for he knew that he was no match for God, and he knew of his eventual ultimate defeat at God’s hands. But the least then he could do was to drag as many of God’s beloved ones, mankind, His pinnacle of creation into damnation and destruction with him. And that is why he brought to us the same defilements and sins he had with him, beginning with pride, and from there all the other forms of deadly sins we are familiar with, such as greed, lust, sloth among others.

And it seemed that Satan had achieved what he wanted, causing men to be sundered and separated from God. It seemed that mankind would perish altogether in hellfire with Satan, for they have sinned, and as the snares of sin were powerful, they would not have been able to be free of their bondage and therefore, would eventually fall into eternal damnation and endure the eternity of suffering with Satan and his fellow fallen angels.

But this is where we must not lose hope, for God ultimately loves us more than even the might of our sinfulness and wickedness, and all the efforts of Satan. His love for us has opened the path to redemption and salvation, by His sending of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and God into this world to be our Saviour. Through Christ, all of us sons and daughters of man have received the full promise of pardon, forgiveness and reconciliation from God.

Satan knew this very well, and that is why he tried to tempt Jesus as well, which we have heard in our Gospel passage today. He tried to stop Him from achieving and fulfilling the mission which God the Father has entrusted to Him to save mankind. And Satan used the same old tricks and temptations to tempt Jesus as well, which we heard being elaborately put into place throughout the Gospel today. When Jesus went to the desert for forty days to prepare Himself to begin His ministry proper, Satan came to tempt Him right there and then.

He began with tempting Jesus with food asking Him to turn the stones into bread, knowing that He was hungry after many days having not eaten any food at all as He fasted for the forty days He was in the desert. But the Lord resisted and told Satan off, saying that ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every words that come from the mouth of God’. This is a common temptation that we all usually face, the temptation of gluttony and greed, desire and want in our hearts, the weakness of our body and flesh to worldly desires that often made us to fall into sin.

The Lord Jesus obeyed His Father’s will and resisted the temptations of Satan, and He showed us that there are indeed things more important than worldly desires and the desire to satisfy our physical bodies and flesh, and that is to listen to the word of God and to follow Him wholeheartedly. It does not mean that food is not necessary or important for us, as we do need to eat and drink to sustain ourselves, but we must not be indulgent and obsessive over them. It is the attachment and excessive desire that we have for worldly things and pleasures that led us to sin.

Then Satan tried to tempt Jesus with his ace card, that is the sin of pride. He brought Jesus to the top of the Temple, using Scriptural quotations to tempt Jesus to show Himself off by jumping down from the Temple, and God would send His Angels as He Himself said to prevent Jesus from falling down and injuring Himself. This temptation was truly very cunning effort by the devil, who played on our pride, ego, ambition and desire, the desire for acknowledgement, praise and affirmation by others.

Again, the Lord Jesus resisted and said that we must not test the Lord by doing such things, by purposefully trying to test if God would fulfil His words, as this is tantamount of doubting God and His providence, and not having faith in Him. Satan was trying to use this as a leverage to gain control by playing into exactly that strong desire in us for recognition, power and glory, twisting into the pride and ego within our hearts and minds.

And last of all, we heard how Satan tried one last time by showing all the glories, wonders and riches of the world by offering them to the Lord Jesus if only that He would bend the knee to him and worship him. Jesus rebuked Satan sternly and commanded him to go away, saying that only God alone is worthy of worship. He resisted this last temptation, which again is a difficult temptation to be overcome, as it pulls upon the same desires within us that crave for worldly goods and pleasures, for worldly glory, power and wealth.

In what we have seen from our Scripture readings, which is also summarised nicely by St. Paul in our second reading today in his Epistle to the Romans, we can see the clear contrast between what happened to Adam and Eve, when mankind first fell into sin, and Christ, Who resisted all the efforts of Satan to tempt Him and sway Him to prevent Him from fulfilling His mission. Christ is indeed the New Adam according to St. Paul, as He showed us that it is not necessary that sin has the power over us. He showed us that it is indeed possible for us to overcome sin and the temptations to sin, as He Himself has showed us by resisting the three temptations of the devil.

But many of us continued to sin, and to fall into sin because first of all, we do not have enough faith in God, and the devil knows this very well. You can already see from today’s readings alone just how adept he can be in using even Scriptural quotes to twist our minds and perceptions to lead us further down into the path of sin and focusing on ourselves and our desires more rather than on God. And many of us are even unaware of our sins and faults, as for various reasons we refuse to acknowledge them.

We often fear sin because we may think that sin made us to be despised by God and God would condemn us into hell because of our sins. However, the truth is actually such that it is precisely by our refusal to repent from our sins or to seek God’s forgiveness that our sins cause us to fall into damnation. Brothers and sisters in Christ, God alone can forgive us our sins and unless we allow God to enter into our lives and forgive us our sins, how can we then be saved?

There is a saying by St. Augustine of Hippo that goes like this, ‘there is no saint without a past and there is no sinner without a future’. This is a reminder for us that even saints were once sinners, and some of them were even great sinners, like St. Augustine himself. But what is important is the fact that they all turned away from their past, sinful ways and allowed God to work through them, forgiving them their sins and making them to be great instruments of His will. God despised not us as the sinners but the sins which we have committed all these while.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we progress through this season of Lent, the forty days of preparation time before the celebrations of Holy Week and Easter, let us all reflect on the preparation that Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself undertook, in the forty days He spent in the desert, and the other ‘forty’ which is the forty long years the Israelites spent in the desert to atone for their rebelliousness before they could enter into the Promised Land. All of these show a time of purification and a time of struggle and challenge-filled journey that we ourselves are facing now.

We should not see the season of Lent as something that is dreadful and gloomy but rather as a time of renewal and rejuvenation as I mentioned earlier. Let it be the ‘springtime’ of our lives and our faith. The season of Lent is a God-given wonderful opportunity for us to renew ourselves and to be reconciled with God. God has always offered His mercy and forgiveness freely to us, but it is often us who ignored and rejected Him all these while.

That is why we should model ourselves on Christ, the New Adam, and break free from the chains of our sins through Him. Like Christ, we should be humble and obedient to God, shunning all forms of pride and ambition. He is the King of Kings and Lord of all lords, and yet, He rejected the glories of the world, resisted the efforts from the people and from His own disciples to make Him their King, and He humbled and emptied Himself to die a most humiliating death on the Cross for our sake.

And Christ did not allow pride to prevent Him from humbling Himself before God, to open Himself up as we all know how He agonised during the night at the Garden of Gethsemane, as He awaited the moment of His suffering and crucifixion. He prayed and prayed very deeply in communication with His Father, and this is a reminder for us that, we too, need God’s help, and the best way for that is through a deepening of our spiritual life through prayer.

Let us all make our Lenten season meaningful and fruitful, brothers and sisters in Christ, by spending more of our time in meaningful prayer, opening our hearts and minds to God, and allowing Him to speak to us that we may truly know what His will is for us. And let us also learn to be more humble and to get rid from our lives the vestiges of ego and greed, pride and ambition, and instead imitate the humility of Christ and His obedience in everything we do in our own respective lives.

May the Lord guide us through this season of Lent, that we may grow ever stronger in our Christian faith and that we may resolve to live in a more Christian like manner with each and every passing moments. May the Lord be with us always and may He grant us the courage and strength to resist the devil and all of his lies and falsehoods. May God bless us all and may He bless all of our Lenten observances and endeavours. Amen.

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Saturday, 29 February 2020 : Saturday after Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are called by God to leave behind our past lives of sin, of disobedience against God, of rebelliousness and waywardness in life, of all sorts of temptations and things that have separated us from the fullness of God’s love among other things. We are called to embrace instead the fullness of God’s love and mercy as we continue to progress through this blessed season and time of Lent.

The Lord has given us this wonderful opportunity through His Church in the institution of the time of Lent to precede the glorious season of Easter as a reminder that all of us are sinners and are in need of purification and change in our way of life. God will guide us in this journey of reconciliation and forgiveness, if we allow Him to guide our path and open our hearts and minds to welcome Him into our midst. On the other hand, if we are stubborn and refuse to change or be open to God, then we will not have any progress in this regard.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us now take a closer look at what we have just heard in our Gospel passage today. In that occasion, the Lord Jesus called a tax collector named Levi to follow Him, and Levi readily obeyed, leaving everything behind, his work and all, and followed Jesus. Then, before he was to proceed, Levi’s fellow tax collectors had a dinner with the Lord, which was frowned upon by the Pharisees who considered the tax collectors as traitors and sinners.

Tax collectors had always been reviled and hated during the time of Jesus because not only that they were the ones who collected the much hated taxes that saw people’s incomes being diminished due to the tax for the state, but even more so because at that time the Roman Empire reigned supreme in the Mediterranean region and including over Judea, Galilee and all the lands of the Israelites, those taxes were levied by the Romans and the tax collectors were seen as traitors to the nation and as collaborators of the Romans.

To that extent, the tax collectors faced not just intense hatred and dislike but also plenty of prejudice and bias against them. They were seen as dirty, unworthy, wicked, corrupt and evil and were generally shunned by the rest of the society. And this is precisely the sentiment made popular and spread by the Pharisees, who saw themselves as the antithesis of those tax collectors, being pious, good and obedient to the Law, as role models for the people and worthy inheritors of God’s promise.

The Pharisees looked down on the tax collectors and they severely criticised the Lord for His willingness to eat in the house of the tax collector and with those tax collectors no less. But they forgot a very important fact, that just like the tax collectors, they themselves were sinners, but unlike the tax collectors who were willing to listen to the Lord Jesus and accepted His truth, the Pharisees instead hardened their hearts and minds and refused to believe in Jesus.

In what the Lord Jesus then spoke before all of them, that He came into this world seeking those who are sick and troubled, as sins are truly the sickness of our deepest beings, corruptions upon our souls, thus, comparing the attitudes of the tax collectors and the Pharisees, we can easily see which of the two would in the end reap the benefit and wonders of God’s mercy and love. The tax collectors though sinners, they wanted to be healed by God and opened themselves to God’s mercy. And one of their own number, Levi, later to be known as Matthew, became a great saint, one of the Lord’s own Twelve Apostles and one of the Four Evangelists.

Meanwhile, the Pharisees, though also sinners, they did not see the depth of their sins and refused the healing that God has offered them. They kept themselves in their pride and refused to allow God’s healing to work in them. Nonetheless, the Lord continued to be patient with them, and we can see how He even forgave them all at the moment of His ultimate suffering on the Cross, asking His heavenly Father to forgive them their sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what can we learn from all these? It is the fact that all of us are sinners who have been privileged to have such a loving, caring, compassionate and merciful God, willing to embrace us and to heal us from our afflictions of sin. And we are sinners who have been called to a new existence with God, to embrace a new life filled with God’s grace and free from the corruption of sin. God despises our sins, but not us sinners, and therefore, we should make use of this opportunity especially during this season of Lent, we should draw ourselves closer to God.

May the Lord continue to be with us and watch over us as we journey through life and through this penitential season of Lent. May the Lord bless us and our many good endeavours of faith, and may He strengthen our faith and help us to love Him more and more with each passing moment. Amen.

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Friday, 28 February 2020 : Friday after Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are brought yet again to the topic of fasting as a practice that we commonly do during the season of Lent. Especially our brothers and sisters in the Eastern Rites traditions practice fasting throughout the season of Lent, and while we in the Roman Rite are required to fast only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, it will be good for us to discern deeper on the significance of fasting to us.

Fasting is meant for us to remind us of the limitations of our physical bodies and also to restrain our ever-present desires, for the nourishment and satisfaction of food. We know how easily we succumb to the temptation to snack and to gobble as much good food as we are able to lay our hands on. Whenever our eyes look upon good food, naturally we will crave and desire for them, and we want to satisfy ourselves with them.

That is why fasting as a practice trains us in our endurance to resist the many temptations present all around us that are threatening to drag us deeper and deeper into sin. All these temptations distract our focus and attention from God and make us to carry on our lives following the wrong path that is the path of sin and darkness, the path of selfishness, greed and pride that will lead us even further down into the trap of sin.

That is why today we are reminded to fast with the right intention and purpose, and not just fasting but also all sorts of our observances and practices for this Lenten season. It is important that we have the right disposition and direction as we move along through this time of purification and repentance. This Lenten season is a good time for us to reorientate ourselves and our lives, as we seek to redress our sins and our past wicked ways of life, and embrace once again God’s love and embrace His mercy.

However, it is very easy for us to end up falling into the trap of following the laws and practices of the Church as mere formality and customary, as we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah when the Lord spoke to His people about the kind of fasting that pleased Him. He mentioned how fasting was not just about putting on sackcloths and ashes on oneself as were customary at that time in show of repentance and regret, but more importantly, fasting must be accompanied with a change from within and not just the outside.

For the Pharisees in the Gospel passage today criticised the Lord and His disciples as the disciples did not fast as how the Law of Moses has prescribed fasting on certain days and customs. The Pharisees looked down on them because they in particular treasured the Law and how they observed the Law with great particularity and zeal, to the point that they actually had forgotten the purpose of what they were doing. The Pharisees fasted and did all that because they wanted to be praised for what they have done and they liked it when others looked up to them for their piety and commitment.

If that is the way that we observe our Lent and our fasting and abstinence, then it will not do us any good as when this happened, our hearts and minds are filled not with the love and desire for God and to be forgiven our sins and faults, but instead we are filled with the sin of pride and greed. And the devil knows this very well, so that is why he is busy trying to distract us and to lead us down the path of pride, seeking glorification and satisfaction for our actions and for our piety that defeat the purpose of our Lenten observances in the first place.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on how we can make best use of this Lenten season by turning ourselves and our whole being towards God. Let us not be distracted by vanity and pride, and in fact, let us humble ourselves before God, stripping ourselves free from all the corruption of ego, pride, ambition, greed and desire that had clouded our judgment all these while, leading us down the wrong path of sin. Let us all sincerely repent from our sins and make best use of this opportunity that God has given to us, His wonderful and generous mercy that He has provided us. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 27 February 2020 : Thursday after Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we enter into the season of Lent that began yesterday with Ash Wednesday, we are constantly being reminded that as Christians our lives in this world will be filled with trials and challenges that we must be ready to endure, the crosses of our lives that we have to bear daily, in following Christ each and every moments of our lives.

If we have not had a difficult and challenging time in life, perhaps we have not truly been faithful in how we have lived our lives so far. I am not saying that we have to go through difficulties and challenges in life in being Christians, but rather that, maybe we have tried to avoid those challenges and difficulties by taking the easier way out by compromising on our Christian values and way of life, and instead adopting ways that are more acceptable to the world.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy was the words of the Lord that He had spoken and conveyed to His people, the Israelites through Moses towards the end of their Exodus and journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, on the matter of choosing between the life and path that God has provided and the path of worldliness. He pointed out that while one path leads to life and good, the other leads to evil and death.

This is the same choice that we have then heard being presented by the Lord Jesus to His disciples in our Gospel passage today, as He first revealed to them what He would have to endure as the Son of Man, to be betrayed and made to suffer before He was to die on the Cross, a most painful and humiliating death. And He said how those who believe in Him put their faith in Him ought to take up their crosses and follow Him, to lose their lives that they may gain in the eternal glory that is to come.

In this instance, the Lord also presented the same truth to us, on how we have a choice between enjoying all that this world has to offer us, all the materialistic pursuits and excesses of pleasures that are abundant in our world today, all the pursuits for satisfaction in money, possessions and wealth, in the accumulation of fame and glory, in the gain of prestige and honour, in satisfying our desire for the pleasures of the flesh in all kinds. All of these give us a great and enjoyable life in our world now, but the reality is that, all these things draw us further and further away from God.

The devil knows this very well, and this is why he is doing all that he can do tempt us, persuade us, force us and coerce us to fall into the many temptations present in our lives. The temptations to choose the path that seem more acceptable, easier and more profitable and beneficial to us, which is more often than not, the path of comfort and selfishness, the path of pleasure and indulgence, the path that leads us to temporary joy and satisfaction in this world but which leads us to damnation.

On the other hand, following God more often than not requires us to endure opposition and rejection, ridicule and persecution from others as what Our Lord Himself has experienced. It is a challenge for us to remain faithful as a Christian in our daily living, to be witnesses of our faith in the midst of our communities and among others who do not yet believe in God. And some of us have it more difficult than others, especially those who live in places where Christians are being persecuted daily.

There are many of our fellow brethren out there who are still struggling daily as they have to even hide their faith for being a Christian may mean certain death or suffering, where the worship of Our Lord is forbidden and difficult to get by, among other reasons. There are many out there who are prejudiced against, persecuted and rejected just because they believe in Christ, and these are those who share in the cross of Christ daily. But it does not then mean that if we do not suffer in the same way they do then we are not carrying our crosses.

Rather, to carry our cross means that we ought to be true disciples of Christ in everything, and not just in mere formality only. There are many of us who treat our faith as no more than just fulfilling the basic obligations of our faith, and we even did so grudgingly, preferring to make use of the time to satisfy our other desires and wishes instead. If we carry on living like this, it is what the Lord exactly meant by losing our souls and everything just so that we can gain the glory of the world. Is it worth for us to gain a temporary pleasure now and then suffer an eternity in suffering from which there is no escape? Let us think carefully about it.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we enter into this season of Lent, each and every one of us are called to live our lives with a newfound faith and commitment to God. We are all called to be true witnesses of the Lord and dedicate our lives to the service of God from now on. Let us all reflect on this and see in which way we then can live our lives in a more Christian manner, by taking up our crosses in life daily, striving to love the Lord our God through our daily actions and deeds at all times. Let our Lenten observances, deepening ourselves through prayer, charitable works, fasting and abstinence bring us closer to God and away from the many temptations around us.

May God bless us all and may He grant us the courage and strength to be faithful even through the difficult challenges and moments of our journey in faith. May God also help us to resist the temptations to abandon our faith and seek instead the pleasures of life, that all of us may be reminded instead of the love which God has for each and every one of us, so that He was willing to bear the suffering and pain of the Cross and death, that each and every one of us may not perish because of our sins, but live. Amen.