Lenten sermon

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Friday, 19 April 2019 : Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we gather together to celebrate the occasion of Good Friday, the day which commemorates the moment when Our Lord Jesus Christ bore His Cross and suffered for each and every one of us, and died on the Cross at Calvary, a pivotal and very important moment in the whole history of our salvation. That is why, despite the sufferings, pains and sorrows that are often associated with this day because of the Crucifixion, but we call this day Good Friday, because the Lord has truly brought us true goodness on this day.

And in order to understand this better, we have to understand and appreciate the significance of what happened on Good Friday, and know how Good Friday has changed our history and our lives forever. Before Good Friday, there was no hope yet for our salvation, and all of us mankind were still enslaved by sin, and there was no escape from our fate of death, for our disobedience and refusal to believe in God.

But after Good Friday, there is a fundamental transformation, as dramatically shown to us as the Lord’s death on the cross, and as the veil of the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem was torn open into two. For through the crucifixion, our Lord’s death and resurrection, the Lord has fulfilled completely all that He has promised to all of us from the very beginning, that is from the moment when we mankind first fell into sin.

And the Lord, Our Saviour and Liberator, became the New Adam, as the Son of Man and Son of God, in overturning all the old sins and faults of the old Adam, by which all of us mankind have been brought into sin, and separation from God, our loving Father and Creator. The New Adam brought with Him instead, reconciliation and new life blessed by the grace of God, and countered all that the devil had put in place to bring about our downfall.

The old Adam represents the old life of sin, which we too have had a share in, in our own sinful existence, in our disobedience and refusal to be wholly devoted and committed to God. While the New Adam, Christ was the revelation of the new life that we have been called to embrace, a life wholly dedicated to God, and marked by the love which Christ Himself has shown us, a perfect and selfless love for God and for our fellow men.

Let us begin the comparison and appreciate just how the Lord has overturned all the barriers and traps by which the devil had enslaved us with. In the Book of Genesis, Satan tempted both Adam and Eve, tempting them with the temptations of power and knowledge, embracing their ego and desires, that as Satan himself said, that if they took and ate of the fruits of the tree that God had forbidden them to eat, they would not die, but rather, became like God because they would come to know of all things good and evil, to be equal to God.

Eve succumbed to the temptation, and in turn, tempted Adam to do the same, and as a result, both sinned against God because of their disobedience, and Satan won his first victory against us, God’s beloved people. But almost immediately, God countered with a solemn promise and prophecy that Satan would be defeated and all of his wicked designs would be broken and defeated by His Saviour, the One Who was promised, and was fulfilled in Jesus, the Saviour of the whole world.

Jesus was born of Mary, His mother, and although He is the Divine Word Incarnate, the Son of God Who embraced the flesh of humanity, but He is also fully Man, just as He is fully Divine. And it is through Jesus, His Passion, suffering and crucifixion that Satan was handed the definitive and decisive blow, that completely countered and negated all the evil designs he had had for us mankind from the foundations of the world.

While Jesus is the New Adam, Mary is the New Eve. And both acted in ways that rebuked Satan’s attempts to bring about our downfall. While Eve was disobedient and persuaded Adam to disobey, Mary was faithful and committed totally to God, and in fact, faithfully stayed by the side of her Son, all the way through the Way of Suffering, following Him and remaining close by His side even when all of His disciples fled and ran in fear, right down to the feet of the Cross.

And this is the reflection of the ultimate faith, obedience and commitment that the Lord Jesus Himself showed, as He willingly obeyed His Father’s will, in taking up His Cross, despite of knowing fully what was awaiting Him, all the trials, torture, pain and suffering, challenges and difficulties, and the most humiliating and painful death He was to suffer from. He could have rejected it and abandoned His mission, and yet, He gave Himself so completely and obeyed so well that His prayers for our sake were heard and fulfilled.

While Adam was filled with greed and pride, and fell because of that pride, the Lord Jesus willingly emptied Himself from all glory, emptying Himself from the glory of His Kingship and Divinity, and accepted the most humiliating, inhumane and painful death, death of a criminal on the Cross, reserved for the worst of criminals and rebels at the time of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, while through pride and greed, Adam as well as Eve fell into sin, the Lord Jesus, together with His mother Mary through humility and faith regained for us our heavenly grace.

And last of all, while the old Adam and the first men fell because of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the forbidden tree, the Lord Jesus was crucified on another tree, the tree of the combination of all the sins and wickedness that we have committed because of our pride, our ego, our desire, all of the wicked things within us. And that tree, on which Our Lord and Saviour was hung, is none other than the Cross of our salvation.

Therefore, as we have seen and heard for ourselves, the Lord opposed the works of the devil on every front, and while men had faltered and fell into sin, the Lord showed that sin did not have the final say. For He is much more powerful than even sin and death, and His death on the Cross proved that He can conquer sin and death, and broke the hold that sin and death had over us all mankind, who believe and trust in Him. And we see the proof of this at the Resurrection.

And He also did this, by doing what the Father has willed Him to do, as mentioned by the second reading passage today, in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In that passage, we heard of how the Lord Jesus was described as a High Priest, and not just as any other High Priests, but the one and true, Eternal High Priest, Who has offered His offerings with tears and pain, with sorrow and suffering, for the offering He offered was not of animals and the blood of lambs, but of His own Flesh and His own Blood, He Who is our Paschal Lamb, making a new, Eternal and unbreakable Covenant with us.

A priest in the time of the Old Testament acted as the intermediary between God and man, as the bridge between God and man, linking what had been separated by sin. The priests offered on the altar, the blood of lambs to be the temporary atonement and source of consolation for the sins and rebelliousness of the people of God. But the priests themselves were sinners, and they had to offer sacrifices to atone for their own sins first as well. On the other hand, Christ, Who is the Sinless One, willingly took up upon Himself, both the role of the High Priest as well as the Paschal Lamb to be sacrificed.

We have to realise, brothers and sisters in Christ, that the Cross of Christ, is the Altar upon which our Eternal and True High Priest, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, has offered Himself as the only perfect and worthy offering and sacrifice, by which He brought upon us, healing, pardon and complete reconciliation with God, bringing on us the promised salvation, grace and everlasting life and glory.

By His own loving sacrifice, His own selfless offering and love for God His heavenly Father and for each and every one of us, Our Lord Jesus has brought upon us the salvation that God has long promised to us, and He has brought upon us a new hope and the Light that pierced through the darkness that is in our lives. With Christ, a new Light has dawned, and a new Hope has come into our midst, that with Him, there is hope for each and every one of us sinners.

Today, on this blessed Good Friday, let us fix our attention on the One Who is hung on the Cross. Let us all gaze upon His wounded face, and look at all the wounds that cover His Precious Body. Let us realise that each and every one of those wounds are the very sins that we have committed each and every days of our life, even to the smallest and what is seemingly most trivial of sins. All of these are wounds that we have inflicted on the Lord, and yet, which He willingly took up on Himself because of the love He has for each and every one of us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, do we all know why is it that Christ suffered so dearly and so painfully? That is because of His love, His great and amazing love for all of us, even to the greatest of sinners. And it is because of this love that He experienced such great pain and sorrow, such suffering and agony, because He knows that unless we get rid from ourselves these sins, He will be separated from us eternally, as we fall into the eternal darkness, out of which there is no escape.

His agony on the Cross, as we continue to gaze on Him Who is hung on the Cross, is caused by all of our refusal to be faithful and to obey the will of God. His pain and sorrow are caused by our own pride, our own greed and jealousy, our ambition and selfishness, all of the wicked things we have done towards one another, every moments we have caused hurt on others, when we trample on the rights and dignity of our fellow brethren, and every time we fail to act with love, when there are people who are suffering and unloved in our midst.

Yet, He endured them all, because of His love for each and every one of us. His love and compassion for us so great that He even forgave His enemies and persecutors from the Cross, praying that their sins would not be held against them. Thus in the same way, God has also willingly loved us and desired to forgive us from our sins, and He extends His hands to us, to embrace us and to welcome us back, that we may be fully reconciled with Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on the love of Christ made evident in the Cross today, on this Good Friday and beyond. Let us all bear our own cross with love, following the examples of Christ, that we accept His ever generous offer of mercy and embrace His compassionate heart. Let us all turn wholeheartedly to Him and abandon all things that have separated us from Him, all things that have caused Him to be wounded, our sins and rebelliousness.

Let us from now on, endeavour and do our best to love God, Who has loved us first so much that He endured all those sufferings for us. And let us all also love one another, that we truly become the beacons and bearers of Christ’s Light and love in this world of darkness, that through our love, many more will come to believe in the Lord and in the salvation He has brought to us through His Cross. Let us follow the example of the Christ, the New Adam, and abandon the past sins we have, the life of the old Adam, who fell into sin.

May the glorious Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ be our guide always, that each and every one of us will grow ever deeper in faith and in our love for God, remembering at each and every moments of our life, the boundless love that He has shown us through the Cross. May He continue to be present within our hearts, that the love of Christ Crucified will fill us to the brim, and allow us to be loving to one another and towards God in the same way that Christ has loved us, all the way to the Cross. Amen.

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Thursday, 18 April 2019 : Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord’s Supper (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this evening we celebrate together the first day of the Paschal or Easter Triduum, the three most important days in the entire liturgical year, marking the beginning of the events that marked the very crucial moment in our human history and existence, the moment when God Himself intervened to save us all from our fated destruction, by His own Passion, suffering and death on the cross, and by His glorious resurrection, through which He conquered sin and death.

On this night we gather to celebrate the moment of Our Lord’s Last Supper with His disciples, which marked the beginning of the long sequence of events that led to His death on the cross, and on that night, when the Last Supper happened, the Lord instituted not just one, but two of the most important Sacraments of the Church, that is of the Eucharist, as well as the Holy Orders of the sacred priesthood.

First of all, with regards to the Eucharist, on this night, through the Scripture passages we heard, we are reminded of the Last Supper being the new and true Passover, which fulfilled and completed the Passover as known to the Jewish people, the one that celebrated the moment of the liberation of the people of Israel from their slavery in the land of Egypt, when God brought them out by His own power, and freed them from the tyranny of the Egyptians and their Pharaoh.

The details were mentioned in our first reading passage today, in which the Israelites were told to take a lamb for each household, and in which the lamb was to be slaughtered and to be eaten after being roasted on the fire for each of the members of the household. Meanwhile, the blood of the lamb was to be marked on the doorposts of the houses of the people of Israel, so that the Angel of God bearing the plague of death on the Egyptians would not harm them.

And this is where the new, Christian Passover of Our Lord Jesus Christ, represented in the Last Supper, was truly significant when we understand the importance of the first, old Jewish Passover of the time of the Exodus. At the new Christian Passover, that is at the Last Supper, there is also lamb to be sacrificed and shared by the people, but that is not the usual Passover as known to the Jewish people at the time. For the Lord Himself is the Lamb, and He offered Himself, His own Flesh and Blood, to be the Lamb of Sacrifice.

And the Last Supper was merely part of a larger celebration and event, which is why, we celebrate it all together as part of the most sacred Paschal Triduum, where if we carefully look through the entirety of the liturgical celebrations, is one large and extended celebration of the Holy Mass, because the same Eucharist consecrated on this night, at the celebration of the Last Supper, will also be used tomorrow on Good Friday, the day when we celebrate the Lord’s crucifixion and death.

As such, the Last Supper cannot be separated from the Crucifixion, for both of them are part of the one and same sacrifice of Our Lord. Jesus Our Lord is the Lamb of the Passover, the Paschal Lamb Who has been sacrificed for us all, just as how the priests of the ancient Israel offered the sacrificial lamb for the atonement of the sins of the people, and the sacrificial lamb’s blood was spilled on the altar as a reminder of how the blood of the lamb marked Israel’s salvation and liberation at the time of the Exodus.

Significantly, the Lamb of God, our Paschal Lamb is none other than the Lord Jesus Himself, willingly embraced to be slaughtered for all of our sins, and spilled His own Most Precious Blood on the Altar of the Cross. Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, Calvary or Golgotha, the place where the Lord was crucified, is the Altar on which the Lord offered Himself both as the High Priest of all of us mankind, and offering Himself as the perfect offering by which God reconciled us all to Himself.

When the Lord at the Last Supper took the bread, blessed the bread and said the words of the Institution, “Take this all of you and eat of it, for this is My Body… which shall be given up for you…” and when He took the chalice, filled with wine, blessed it and gave it to His disciples to drink, “Take this, all of you and drink from it… for this is the chalice of My Blood… the Blood of the New and Eternal Covenant…” He did not just symbolically just mentioned the bread and wine being His Body and Blood.

On the contrary, Jesus was very clear, that the bread and wine, through His own Divine Power and united to His own crucifixion that would soon to happen at the time, that the bread He gave to His disciples was His Real Body and the wine He gave to them was His Real Blood. And to all of His disciples, He has given them the commandment and the mandate, to do what He has done, in His memory.

And when He passed His Body and Blood to His disciples, it was just as the old Jewish Passover, when everyone shared in the lamb that has been slaughtered, by which blood they have been ‘passed over’ by the Angel of Death, and were saved. The Israelites were saved and liberated from the slavery of sin by the blood of the unblemished lamb, and now, all of us who believe in Christ, are saved by the Blood of the Lamb of God, the true and perfect unblemished Lamb, worthy to save us all from our sins.

That was why, just as the Lord instituted the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist, He also instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Orders at that occasion of the Last Supper, which we are celebrating tonight. Each of those whom God has called and chosen to be His holy priests, are the successors of the Apostles, to whom the Lord has given the power and the authority, to unite their own offerings at every celebrations of the Holy Mass, to His own sacrificial offering on the Cross at Calvary.

That is why, every single celebrations of the Mass is properly known as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, instituted by the Lord Himself, as the same sacrifice that the Lord has performed at Calvary. The Lord is not sacrificed again and again, but only once and for all, and this is the same sacrifice which is reenacted again and again at every celebration of the Holy Mass, when the priests, ordained by the successors of the Apostles, and become successors of the Apostles themselves.

The responsibilities that our priests have accepted to bear are enormous, as they are entrusted with the role to be in persona Christi, to represent Christ Himself in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and therefore, to bring forth and unite all the people of God to the same sacrifice that the Lord Jesus has done on the Cross. Through His suffering and death on the Cross, Christ has become the ultimate servant of all, the servant of all the people of God, humbling Himself and emptying Himself of all glory, that He may save us all through His perfect and selfless offering of love.

Thus, let us all pray, brothers and sisters in Christ, that each and every one of us will deepen our faith in God, especially as we enter into the sacred mysteries of the Paschal Triduum, and reflect on our belief and faith in the Real Presence of God in the Eucharist, and unite our prayers together with all those whom God had called to be His servants, to be those called to the Holy Orders, to be like Christ and to be His representatives on this world.

Let us all pray that our priests will be filled with love, and also a spirit of humility and selflessness, that they may offer their own loving self and give themselves in sacrifice for the good of all the people of God, just as the Lord Himself has done. Let us all pray that they all will be faithful to the calling and to the mission which God has entrusted to them, that just as He commanded them as He washed the feet of His disciples, that they will be filled with a spirit of faithful servanthood, of courageous faith to serve all of God’s people.

And finally, let us also be inspired by the examples set by our priests and all those who have given themselves to the service of God, that we too, may follow the example of the Lord and obey the commandment that He has mandated to His disciples, that we love one another, and be humble in all things, becoming servant to one another in love.

Let us all recall that infinite and boundless love that Christ has shown us, by His willing sacrifice in becoming our Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, so that each and every one of us who partake in Him in the Eucharist, will share in His death, by dying to our own past, sinful selves, and then share in His glorious resurrection, to a new life filled with God’s grace. Let us all then prepare ourselves to celebrate meaningfully the most important events in the history of our salvation, by focusing our attention on this Paschal Triduum on Our Lord Jesus Christ, His love for us, and His selfless sacrifice, by which all of us have been saved, by the power of the Cross. Amen.

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Thursday, 18 April 2019 : Chrism Mass (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this occasion of the Chrism Mass celebrated on the morning hours of the Holy Thursday, at the beginning of Paschal Triduum, when the holy oils to be used for the entire liturgical year will be presented and blessed, in the presence of the entire presbyterate, all the priests of each dioceses united to their respective bishops, in the sign of unity and service to God, and a renewal of their commitment to serve God and His people.

That is why today’s Scripture passages for the Chrism Mass showed us all the true nature and importance of the consecrated and priestly vocation, those who have been called and chosen by God, to be His own servants, to be the ones through whom God wants to bring us all together again, as the intermediary between Him and all of us via their role as the representatives of Our Lord Jesus Christ, acting ‘in Persona Christi’ during the celebration of the Holy Mass and in the administration of the Sacraments.

And every year, at this occasion of the Chrism Mass, the whole diocese, the bishop and his priests, gather together to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to renew their commitment to serve the Lord faithfully despite all the challenges, difficulties and the many obstacles that each and every one of them must have encountered along their journey and throughout their respective ministries among the people of God.

In the first reading and in the Gospel passage today, we heard of the important roles that each of the priests and all those who have dedicated themselves to the Lord’s service are required to do, in administering to the people of God, and in obeying God’s will and bringing good deeds to the people, in reaching out to the poor and the needy, in extending their hands and efforts to help those who are marginalised, ostracised, and even more importantly, those who have fallen into sin.

Unfortunately, many of the priests today have often fallen into a state of laxity and complacency in carrying out their missions to which they have been called to do. And sadly, some among them even succumbed to the temptations of the world, and as widely reported in various occasions recently, they caused scandal to rock the whole foundation of the Church, and caused many others to lose their faith in God, because of the most unbecoming attitudes of these priests.

And this is what happens when those who have embraced the calling to priesthood failed or forgot to realise what it is that they have been called to do, that is to be the very image and representation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the one true High Priest of all, and the model of all of our priests. When they instead behave with pride, desiring attention and fame, putting themselves at the limelight and become the focus of personal attention during the celebrations of the Mass and in other occasions instead of putting the Lord first, these are the causes of the downfall of many of our priests.

The Lord Himself has shown all of us, what true priesthood is all about. It is about loving service rendered faithfully and selflessly to God, and by extension, to all of fellow mankind. The Lord Jesus loved His heavenly Father, obeyed Him and listened to Him in all things, and fulfilled the most important mission He has been entrusted to, the focus of our sacred Paschal Triduum celebrations, that is to suffer for our sins, to bear the burden of the cross of our iniquities, and to die for our sake on that same cross.

The Lord was not prideful, but instead was humble, so humble that even though He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, yet, He stripped Himself of all glory, honour and power, of all prestige and even human dignity, lowering Himself to the condition of a servant and slave. When at the Last Supper, that we are all going to celebrate later tonight at the Mass of Our Lord’s Supper, He took off His garment, and wearing the vesture of a servant, washed the feet of each of His disciples, a work that only servants did.

He became a servant to all, so that He might show us all, how each and every one of us, and especially our priests and all those who have been called to the sacred, consecrated life, ought to act in their own lives and in their own respective calling. And if each and every one of us has kept steady focus on the examples and the inspiration that the Lord Himself has shown us, it would have been much more difficult for the devil to cause us to stumble and create scandal among the faithful.

Today, let us all put our prayers together for our priests, for our bishops, for all those who have been entrusted with the governance and guidance of the entire Universal Church in their various capacities, and for our Pope, the leader of the Universal Church. Let us all pray that many of them, who remain truly faithful to the calling of their ministry of priesthood, will continue to remain faithful and devoted to the same calling that they have received, that they will be able to commit themselves wholeheartedly and resist the temptations to sin.

And for us all, let us all also make the same commitment to live righteous and God-abiding lives from now on, and do our best in our various capacities, as the members of the Body of Christ the Church, that we support the works and the efforts of the priesthood, so that each and every one of us will be able to join our efforts and contribute enormously to the many good works of the Church, supporting those who are at the forefront of the spiritual warfare of this world, namely, our holy priests.

May the Lord continue to guide and bless them, and may He grant them the strength and the courage to carry out their missions faithfully, that they will continue to show us the examples of Christ and inspire us with their own selfless service and love, that we too may follow in their examples and be people worthy of God and His love. Amen.

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Wednesday, 17 April 2019 : Wednesday of Holy Week (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, the Wednesday of the blessed Holy Week, we focus on the betrayal of our Lord Jesus by one of His own disciples, the infamous Judas Iscariot. As such, traditionally today is also known as ‘Spy Wednesday’ for it was told that Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and the elders to sell out his own Lord and Master on this day, which was done in utter secrecy that none of the other disciples knew about his betrayal until the very end.

We heard of how Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and the elders asking them for an offer of money in exchange for the betrayal that he himself put on the discussion table. And they agreed on a sum of thirty pieces of silver. This may seem to be a lot, but in fact, as compared to the value of other things, this is a merely very small amount, and in fact, historical research and records showed that the price was the rough average price of a slave in the market.

And this is a very significant and meaningful thing to think about, that the Lord, God and King, Master of the entire Universe, was betrayed and sold to His enemies at the price of a mere slave, a most worthless and indeed, a mere commodity to be traded at the time, when slaves were not even treated as a human being should have been treated. And that was exactly what the Lord willingly accepted, the role of a faithful Servant and a suffering slave to all of us mankind.

As written in the first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, God sent His Saviour into this world, a Servant Who would obediently fulfilled the mission which has been entrusted to Him, even though it would require Him to go through enormous suffering, persecution, rejection, ridicule and humiliation, to endure all that the worst of the world could raise up against Him. And that was exactly what the Lord Jesus had to suffer from.

He was willing to endure all of that sufferings, because of nothing less than His pure, selfless and enduring desire to love each and every one of us sinners, all those whom He loved from the beginning of time, but because of our sins, we have been sundered and separated from His love. Without the love of God, there would have been no hope for us all. And that is precisely because of the love that He has for us, that He was willing to forgive us our sins and be reconciled with us.

God could have destroyed us outright with His will alone. Our sins are despicable to Him, and our refusal to obey Him and our continued sinful actions are truly hurtful to Him. And yet, He was ever patient and forgiving, knowing that there are still good in us, as He created us all good and perfect before sin came and corrupted us. He wants to be reconciled with us, and that desire and compassion in Him allowed Him to do what He has willingly undertook for our sake.

And that is to humble Himself and empty Himself, humbling Himself before God and man alike, to obey the will of the Father so perfectly and be filled with so much love for Him and for His fellow men, that He bore that cross upon His shoulders, as the perfect Man, the New Adam, by which God made a new Covenant with the whole race of man. The first Adam had sinned because he chose to side with the devil and believe in the devil’s lies, and submitted to his greed and pride, and Christ as the New Adam showed us all how each and every one of us ought to be like in our own lives.

Judas fell into sin because he was selfish, and so did the chief priests and all those who plotted with Judas against the Lord. The former cared about his own desire for money, which he had done earlier as he helped himself corruptly to the group’s own treasure money, a wicked act to serve his own greed, while the latter wanted to preserve their own status, prestige and standing in the society, and could not bear to have the opposition from the Lord Jesus, His authority and His teachings.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, how should we choose to proceed with our lives from now on? Do we follow the example of Judas Iscariot, the chief priests and the elders in their prideful and haughty attitudes, in their greed and desires for power, glory and worldly satisfactions? Or should we instead follow the example of Our Lord Jesus Christ, His humility before all, and His love for His heavenly Father and for us all, as the perfect example for all of us to follow?

Let us all reflect on all these things as we prepare ourselves to enter the most sacred Paschal Triduum beginning tomorrow on Holy Thursday, that we may truly reflect and ponder on our own lives, our every words and actions, so that in everything we say and do, we will grow ever more devoted to the Lord, and shunning behind all of our past wicked ways, that we do not follow the path of sin any longer, and be true disciples of the Lord from now on.

Let us all have a wonderful time celebrating together the sacred Paschal Triduum, and allow the Lord to enter into our lives, that He may transform each and every one of us to be true children of light and to be worthy recipients of God’s everlasting inheritance and wonders. Amen.

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Tuesday, 16 April 2019 : Tuesday of Holy Week (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this blessed Tuesday of the Holy Week, we listened to the coming of God’s salvation as promised to His people, in our first reading which was taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah. The Lord sent His deliverance to all of us through the Lord Jesus Christ, His own Son, as prophesied by the prophets, the One Who would deliver us from our troubles and liberate us from our sins.

He was the One promised to be the salvation to all the people of God, to reconcile all of the people to God Himself. And yet, many of the people did not even believe in Him and refused to follow Him, and in today’s Gospel passage, we heard the moment when the Lord was having the meal with His disciples at the Last Supper, just before He was to be betrayed by one of His own and handed over to His enemies.

In that occasion, we heard how even many among the disciples of the Lord did not have a strong faith in Him. First, the Lord Himself mentioned openly how one among the disciples themselves would betray Him to His enemies, and they all wondered who among them would be the one to do such a thing. And Judas Iscariot was the one revealed to be the betrayer, as the Lord Himself already knew what he was about to do. Yet, the other disciples at that time still did not know that Judas was about to betray their Lord.

And then the Lord mentioned to St. Peter and the other disciples, when he said that he would readily give his life for Him, that before the cock crowed the next morning, St. Peter would have denied Him three times, a reference to the moment when St. Peter was asked by the bystanders at the time of the Lord’s trial, and he denied ever knowing Him three times, most likely out of fear of being arrested and suffer the same fate as the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of these passages from the Scripture ought to remind each and every one of us that we are all sinners before God, and all of us, like the disciples, are weak creatures who are often afflicted and tempted by sin, with the various temptations and pressures present in our lives, which made it difficult for us to live a life that is truly faithful to the Lord. But this is where we need to seek God’s help, for we are not able to free ourselves from our sins. Only God is capable of forgiving us our sins.

Just as St. Peter was afflicted with fear and doubt, and how Judas Iscariot was swayed with greed for money and perhaps other desires, we too have often experienced the many temptations often present in our daily lives that brought us into disobedience and therefore sin against God. The Lord indeed did not call perfect people to become His disciples, and all of them had shortcomings and weaknesses, just as we are.

Neither was it that saints had no weakness or exposure to the temptations to sim. But the most important difference between them and those sinners who have been condemned is that they willingly turned their back to sin and abandon their wicked ways behind them. They were sinners who sought the Lord for forgiveness, and they allowed the Lord to guide them in their path of life, their words, actions and deeds.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, as we continue to progress through this blessed Holy Week, let us all rediscover our faith for God, and commit ourselves anew, to make ourselves once again to be righteous, just and good in all of our actions and deeds in life. Let us all turn to God from now on, with all of our hearts and with all of our might, that He, the Perfect One, may enter into our lives and transform our imperfections and weaknesses into strength and courage through His love and mercy. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 15 April 2019 : Monday of Holy Week (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we enter into the Holy Week, on this blessed Monday, we are presented with God Who is loving and forgiving, filled with mercy and compassion, Who wants to forgive us from our sins and shortcomings, from our disobedience and rebelliousness. And this is important because the whole reason for the celebration of this Holy Week is based on God’s love for each and every one of us.

For as we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in our first reading today, the Lord has sent us His salvation in the Messiah and Servant He has brought into this world, and this One He has sent, was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God and Son of Man, the One Who revealed God’s infinite and boundless love for all of us, and Who sought sinners and those who have fallen into sin, to heal them and liberate them from their bondage to sin.

That was what we have also heard in our Gospel passage today, when we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus was with His disciples and Mary, likely Mary Magdalene, whom in many accounts was a former prostitute that the Lord had redeemed and saved from the possession of demons and evil spirits. Mary took out an alabaster jar filled with expensive pure nard perfume, and anointed the feet of the Lord with it.

And not only that she anointed the Lord’s feet with the rich and fragrant perfume, but she also wiped the Lord’s feet dry with her own hair. And if we understand the gestures and the importance of one’s actions and appearances at the time, we should appreciate even better how significant this event is for each and every one of us. What Mary had done, was a representation and symbol of her total love, surrender, humility and commitment to the Lord.

A woman’s hair is her glory and her crown, and the beauty of a woman is often linked to her hair. And even more so during Jesus’ time, a woman’s hair is so precious, that it is ought to be covered with veil, as St. Paul mentioned in his Epistles, that a woman ought to cover her glory in the presence of the Lord. Yet, Mary used those very hair, her own glory, to do what seemed to be the most humiliating of tasks, that is to wipe another person’s feet, which in contrast to the hair, is associated with filth, humiliation and dishonour.

Mary therefore gave her best to the Lord, not just in using the expensive pure nard perfume, which was a really expensive aromatic matter at the time, but in using her own pride and glory to humble herself before the Lord such, not just in front of a few but many who witnessed what she has done. And some misunderstood her intentions, such as Judas Iscariot, the one who was about to betray the Lord, because he was already then having dishonest and wicked intentions in his heart.

That was why he was quick in criticising Mary before everyone who was present and rightfully was immediately rebuked by the Lord for that unjust and completely improper criticism. By contrasting the actions and words of Mary and Judas Iscariot, we can see how while the former was filled with faith and humility before God, recognising her own sinfulness and unworthiness before God, she gave her best to serve Him and to seek Him for His love, mercy and forgiveness.

And in contrast, Judas Iscariot, whom in some accounts was one of the most brilliant and most qualified among the disciples of the Lord, on account of his role as some sort of treasurer of the Lord’s company, which definitely required some intelligence and skills in accounting and the handling of finances, this one was not filled with love and faith for God, but instead with selfishness, greed and pride. And that eventually led to his downfall in his betrayal of the Lord.

And if we look through the first reading again and reflect on the whole events of this Holy Week, we will realise that the Lord Himself did what Mary had done. The Lord, Who is King of Kings, Lord of Lords and Master of all the Universe certainly had no need to humble Himself, and yet, He assumed the flesh of Man, and humbled Himself such that, He took up even the condition of a slave, and burdened Himself with the punishment for our sins, so that, each and every one of us may be reconciled with God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to journey through this blessed time of the Holy Week, let us all deepen our relationship with God, and reflect more on the Lord’s love for each and every one of us, His loving heart and compassionate mercy, by which He has willingly humbled Himself, and gave Himself the burden of the cross, that is all of our sins and unworthiness, our shortcomings and rebelliousness, so that by His suffering and death on the cross, He brings us all together to share in His resurrection, so that we all receive a new life, one that is no longer bound and enslaved to sin.

May the Lord continue to guide us and may He strengthen our faith and our commitment to serve Him and to love Him each and every days of our life. May He also inspire us all to live our lives following the good examples of the humility of Mary, who gave her all in her service to God, in her humility and dedication to Our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

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Sunday, 14 April 2019 : Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, after going through five weeks and more of the season of Lent, a time of preparation and rediscovery of our faith, we finally come to the beginning of the Holy Week, when we celebrate the most important moments and mysteries of our faith, commemorating that very moment when salvation came into our midst, through none other than Our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Saviour of all.

Christ was the Saviour promised by God to all His people, the culmination of the grand plan He has revealed to man, ever since the beginning of time, when man first fell into sin and because of that, sundered from the fullness of God’s love and grace. And God fulfilled His promises perfectly and completely in Christ, the One He sent into this world, bringing the salvation and true hope into our midst, that we may all be saved.

And this Holy Week, we enter into the most crucial moment in all the history of the whole world and our whole existence, the moment when God completed His plan of salvation, by none other than the Passion, suffering and death of His own Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross. And on this Palm Sunday, the day that marks the beginning of Holy Week, we enter and immerse ourselves into the very important events that mark that moment of our salvation through Christ.

On this day, we heard from the readings of the Scripture, two very opposing and contradictory accounts, of what happened on the actual day when the Lord Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem in glory, which we commemorate with the blessing of palms and procession on this day, with the account of the suffering and death, the crucifixion of the same Lord Jesus on the cross, which happened just merely a few days apart.

In the Gospel passage which related to us what happened when the Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem for the time of the Passover, we heard how the people gathered to welcome the Lord Jesus as if He was a glorious and conquering King, entering the city of His reign, with palms raised and garments spread along the way on which He would enter on a donkey, as prophesied by the prophets. This event reminded us all that indeed, Jesus Christ is our Lord and King, the One Who has been promised to us, as our one and true Master.

But His kingship is not like any other kingship. He Himself mentioned on a few occasions throughout the accounts of the Gospels on the events of the Holy Week. He mentioned before His disciples, when they wanted to defend Him as He was being betrayed by Judas Iscariot and was about to be arrested, that had His heavenly Father wished it, He could have sent legions of Angels to protect Him. And before Pilate, Jesus Himself said that His kingdom was not of this world.

And this is why, many of the people abandoned Him, betrayed Him and rejected Him. And do we all realise that it was the very same people who welcomed, praised, glorified and sung ‘Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David!’ that just a few days later cried out before Pilate, ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ and ‘We have no king but Caesar?’. This is because many among them did not have true faith in God, but were following their own selfish, wicked and sinful desires.

Some certainly followed the Lord to be famous, while others misunderstood and thought of Christ and His kingdom as one like of this world, and therefore, hoped to gain popularity, power, prestige, and all sorts of other worldly recognitions and pleasures, as what two of His own disciples showed us, when St. James and St. John, the sons of Zebedee came up to Him with their mother asking for special favours over that of the other disciples.

And the others had various other reasons, many of whom were motivated by the desire of self-advancement, self-praise, self-gratification and other forms of worldly desires, that indeed quickly turned from one of apparent faith and dedication, into one of betrayal, as Judas did, and into apathy and lack of conviction to defend their faith, as what many of the people did, easily following the popular sentiment, of what was first the popularity of Christ in acclaiming Him as King and then condemning Him when the tide of events turned against Him.

Even Christ’s own disciples fled in fear and abandoned Him. And in the accounts, we heard how this King of ours, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, turned from complete glory into utter humiliation, that He was not just stripped from His dignity as even a human person, but even treated in the worst manner possible, and made to suffer the worst of the worst of injustices and treated as the worst and lowliest of criminals for sins and mistakes He did not commit.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, before we continue further, we ought to spend some time now to reflect on our own lives, on our own actions, on our own faith in God, on our own way of following the Lord and how we have lived our faith life all these while, especially as Christians, as those who profess to have faith in God. And we ought to remember that we are truly perhaps, just as terrible as those same people whom we just talked about earlier, all those who betrayed, abandoned and left the Lord behind for our own selfish desires, gain and purposes.

Many of us seek the Lord only to feel good and high, and perhaps seeking that spiritual satisfaction and fulfilment, or any other means to satisfy ourselves and to make ourselves feel good. And we often only remember the Lord when we have a vested interest, a desire that we want Him to fulfil, in our wishes and prayers, that when all those things have been fulfilled, or in the case when they were not fulfilled, we left the Lord behind and abandoned Him.

Many of us live our Christian life in most un-Christian like manner. Many of us only thought of fulfilling the barest minimum of our obligations as Christians, in coming for and attending the celebrations of the Holy Mass every Sundays of the year, and not more than that. And in this case, many of us even struggled to fulfil this barest minimum of what the Lord has called us all to do. We only hoped and wished what was best for ourselves, and not wanting to make the sacrifices for the Lord.

And even though we call ourselves Christians, how many of us continue to do what is wicked, sinful and unbecoming of ourselves as Christians? How many of us continue to act in manner that is selfish, greedy, condescending towards others, and being ignorant of the sufferings and troubles that others experience, often because of our own actions? How many of us continue to succumb to the temptations of the flesh and acted immorally, causing scandal within our own families and communities?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the sad and unfortunate reality of our world, and especially our Christian world today. Many of us profess to be faithful to God, and yet, our hearts and minds are not completely attuned and focused on Him. We are still so easily swayed by the many temptations of the world, of desire for power, glory, fame, renown, human praise and the pleasures of the body and mind, that we can easily abandon our faith or not having true faith in God, as how the Israelites and the people at the time of Jesus had done.

Yet, it is to all of us, these delinquents, rebels, stubborn and hardhearted people that Christ has come, to deliver us all from all these attachments to sin and our wickedness. He, Who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, willingly emptied Himself of all glory and honour, taking up not just the humble appearance of a Man, like us, but even more so, to be humiliated, ridiculed, rejected and made to suffer, enduring the worst of punishments, so that by all of that sacrifice and selfless giving of Himself, He may free us all from our sins and bring us to the salvation He promised us.

Every wounds that had been inflicted on Christ’s body, as He endured all the unimaginably painful suffering throughout the moments of His Passion, are in fact all of our imperfections, mistakes, our sins and rebelliousness, all of our iniquities and faults, all of our refusal to obey the Lord’s will and our selfishness. Every time we sin, we are causing that wound in the Body of Christ to fester and be even more painful, even as He endured it all and bore the burden of our sins on His cross.

Christ, in truth, showed us all, what it truly means for us to be Christians. First of all, all of us must be filled with love, the love for God and the love for our fellow brothers and sisters. It was love for His Father and the love that He has for each and every one of us, even the greatest and most wicked of sinners, that allowed Christ to endure the bitter and terrible pain of His suffering and death on the cross. Without His enduring love and compassion for us, God would not have done everything all the way to suffer death just that all of us may live.

And as Christians, we must be humble, and the greater we are, the humbler we are to be before God and men alike. For Christ Himself said, that He came not to be served, but to serve, and He showed His disciples at the Last Supper, what they ought to be doing to one another, loving one another as brothers and sisters, and to care for each other with true and genuine love. The Lord did not allow pride and ego to be in the way, and just as He rejected Satan’s advances through the temptations he attempted on the Lord, we too should cast aside our own pride and ego.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we journey through the Holy Week, let us all delve deeper into our understanding of our faith and our own relationship with God. If all these while, we have been distant and have not been spending our time with God, because of the many distractions and temptations we faced in life, then now is the perfect opportunity for us all to reorientate ourselves and to rediscover our true purpose in life, not for our own self-glory, but rather, for the greater glory of God.

Let us all grow deeper in our faith and in our conviction and dedication to love the Lord and to serve Him through our actions and deeds in life, that are pleasing to Him. Let us all also follow the Lord wholeheartedly from now on, carrying our own crosses with Him. He has called us and we should respond to His call. Let us all turn to Him with all of our hearts and with all of our might, and embrace the great love He has for us, that He was willing to suffer and die, just that we may live and not perish.

May the Lord continue to bless us all and may He continue to guide us as we continue to progress through this holiest of all periods and times of this year. May He sow in us all the seeds of faith, hope and love, so that we may grow ever deeper in faith, ever more hopeful in our lives, and be ever more filled with love at all times of our lives. May God be with us all, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 13 April 2019 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of Pope St. Martin I, Pope and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the word of God speaking to us in our hearts through the Scripture passages we heard, in which first we heard from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, the promises that God had made to His people and which He has revealed to them through His prophets. The Lord has revealed to us what lies ahead of us, should we keep our faith in Him.

He revealed to them the good things He has planned for all of them, with references to all the hardships, challenges and difficulties that they had to encounter due to their disobedience against Him. He said that they would no longer be divided into two kingdoms, a reference to the division of the kingdom of Israel to the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, due to the disobedience and sins of Solomon, the king of Israel and the people.

The Lord promised that He would restore the glory of Israel, and fulfil the promises He had made to them, in the new reign of the kingdom of David, of glory and joy without end, where God will free them from all of their guilts, their attachments and bondage to sin, and God Himself will rule over all of them for eternity, in the new and true kingdom of Israel, God’s holy kingdom that surpassed the old kingdom that had fallen by the time of the prophet Ezekiel.

And all of these were fulfilled in the person of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of God, Who came into the world just as God has promised through the prophets, the One Who is the Heir of David, the One Who will shepherd the people of Israel, all of mankind, as God’s own people, forever and ever. He is the one True King, Who has come into the world, revealing the fullness of God’s glorious and wonderful plan for each and every one of us.

Unfortunately as we all heard in our Gospel passage today, instead of being welcomed and accepted, He was instead rejected and cast out from the society by the ones who should have known of His coming and those to whom had been entrusted the leadership and shepherding of the people of God. The chief priests, the Sanhedrin and the elites of the people rejected Him and wanted to condemn Him to death, all to safeguard their own interests and desires.

That was what the Lord Himself experienced, rejected and unwanted, even by His own people, the very same people to whom He has been sent to bring them the fulfilment of God’s long awaited promises and goodness. The Lord even had to hide from them, as it was not yet His time to suffer and die then, although the time was already really at hand at the time. Yet, despite all of these, God still loves each and every one of us and is faithful to the Covenant that He had made with us.

As we are about to enter into the Holy Week period, let us all keep in mind and indeed, focus our attention on the love which God has for each and every one of us. And His love for us was so selfless and so great that, even though we mankind have repeatedly disobeyed Him, refused to believe in Him, and even persecuted so many of those whom He had sent into our midst, including His very own Son, Our Lord Jesus, yet, He is still ever loving and merciful towards us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, as we enter into this holiest moment in our entire year, let us all enter the Holy Week with an open mind and heart, willing to listen to the Lord and to welcome Him into our midst. God wants to love each and every one of us, and it is often that we have to be receptive to the love, mercy and compassion that He is showing to each and every one of us, or otherwise, we will end up like the Sanhedrin, the chief priests and the Pharisees who refused to believe in God because of their pride.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are called to reexamine our lives and to turn our way of life from one that was filled with wickedness and disobedience, pride and human greed, into one that is aligned with the will of God. We are called to turn ourselves to the Lord with all of our hearts and with all of our might. And in order to be able to do that, we have to learn to be humble and to open our hearts and minds to welcome the Lord into our hearts and allow Him to change our lives and our attitudes.

There will indeed be challenges and difficulties awaiting us, should we choose to devote ourselves to the way of the Lord. His prophets and servants had suffered, and today, we celebrate the feast of one of those faithful servants, namely Pope St. Martin I, a holy Pope and martyr of the Church. Pope St. Martin I stood fast in his faith and dedication to the true faith, even in the midst of persecution and opposition from the Roman Emperor, who although was a Christian, but believed in the heretical teachings of monothelitism.

The Pope was arrested and made to suffer by the Emperor and his agents, and was put into exile in faraway lands, where he eventually died, a part of his suffering and martyrdom, just because he remained firm in his conviction and dedication to the Lord, to the very end. Pope St. Martin I placed God above everything else, even his own personal desires and wishes, that instead of saving himself and protecting his own self, he let himself to suffer and be martyred rather than to betray the Lord and the truth that He has brought into this world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all imitate the good examples of Pope St. Martin I, as well as the many other saints of the Church. Let us all walk in their footsteps, doing what is right and worthy of the Lord, in all of our words, in all of our actions and in all that we do in our daily lives from now on. May God bless us all and may He continue to guide us through life, that as we enter into the Holy Week, we may continue to grow in faith in Him. Amen.

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Friday, 12 April 2019 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we rapidly approach the beginning of the Holy Week of Our Lord’s Passion, commemorating the suffering, death and eventually resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the nature of the Scripture readings chosen for the occasion increasingly reflect the deeper understanding and ties to the mysteries of the Lord’s Passion, and how He fulfilled the mission that He has been sent into this world for, through the laying down of His life on the cross.

In the first reading today, we heard the story from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, where the persecution and plotting against the prophet by his enemies and all who opposed him were laid bare before us. They all opposed him and the forces that were combined against him were immense. He was treated as a doomsayer, a traitor and someone who ought to be killed for having spoken the truth of God before them, that is for exposing and pointing out their wickedness.

The prophet Jeremiah however trusted in God and placed himself completely in His mercy and loving care, knowing that despite all the opposition He had to endure and the challenges and difficulties He had to face, the Lord was always faithful, and would always be, and to trust in Him would lead to a true joy in the end, joy that surpasses all sufferings, pains and challenges that one had to encounter and endure.

In the same way therefore, in the Gospel passage today, we heard how the Lord Jesus was also treated in a similar manner by those who opposed Him, those who contended that He was spreading lies and blasphemies, and refused to believe in all that He had told them to do. The Lord Jesus experienced the same rejection, ridicule and persecution as Jeremiah had once experienced, but He also trusted completely in the plan that His heavenly Father had placed on Him.

It was indeed tough, difficult and painful, and that was why, Jesus before He faced His Passion and suffering on the cross, agonised so much in His humanity over all that He had to endure, the pain and the whole weight and burden of the cross, that is not just the physical weight of the wooden cross, but even more so, the entirety of the unimaginably heavy burden of mankind’s sins. And yet, He obeyed the Father’s will perfectly, and by that obedience, brought unto us the promised eternal salvation and life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, during this time and season of Lent, we have been urged to remember our own sinfulness, our own unworthiness before God because of our sins, and how we have been called to renew our faith and our lives through dedication and commitment of our lives from now on, so that while once we may have done what was wicked and evil in the sight of God, but now we become a new people with a new heart, mind and purpose.

Yes, indeed, the path forward if we choose to walk down this path will be difficult and arduous, as the prophet Jeremiah’s life and our Lord Jesus Himself have evidently shown us. But this is where we need to learn to overcome our attachments to the world and all the temptations that often surround us and overwhelm us with desire, ego, pride and all sorts of things that led us into disobedience and sin against God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we approach and enter into this holiest week and period of time in our liturgical year, let us all prepare ourselves in body, heart, mind and soul, in our entire and whole being, to be able to celebrate the sacred mysteries of the Passion, suffering, death and resurrection of Our Lord meaningfully and faithfully, that by deepening our understanding of our faith and by committing ourselves further to God, we may be ever more worthy to receive the eternal glory that He has promised to all of us mankind.

May the Lord be our guide, and may He help us in our journey of faith, that each and every one of us may draw ever closer to Him and be worthy to receive the everlasting inheritance He has promised to all those who are faithful in Him. May He bless us always in our daily lives and in all of our actions and works in life. Amen.

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Thursday, 11 April 2019 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Stanislas, Bishop and Martyr (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 reminding us of the Covenant which God has established with each and every one of us, the children of Abraham by faith. Abraham was prominently mentioned in the first reading today taken from the Book of Genesis, in which the Covenant of God with him was mentioned, all the promises that God had made before him, how He would make him the father of many nations, and how his descendants would be innumerable and became great nations.

And Abraham were favoured by God with such a great promise because of his faith in God, his steadfastness and willingness to obey and to follow the will of God. That was why out of many other men and women of his time, God chose Abraham to be the instrument of His will and the partaker of His Covenant. To him was granted a son, even at his old age, and when his wife could not possibly have borne him any more children, as the proof and concrete sign of God’s faithfulness.

It was ironic therefore, that in the Gospel passage today, when the Lord came to fulfil the fullness of His promises to the descendants of Abraham, many among those same descendants refused to believe in Him, and in the good works and the truth that He was proclaiming and performing in their midst. Instead, they accused Him of collaborating with evil spirits and committing blasphemy before God, in their own opinion.

The people claimed that the Lord could not have been true in what He spoke, because they were unable to see the wisdom of God being revealed in the person of Jesus. They were amazed and in fact enraged when they heard Jesus saying that He was there even before Abraham was, and they thought of Him as merely a Man and nothing else. Some among them even thought of the Lord Jesus as a heretic, a dangerous influence that must be removed.

In this occasion therefore, we saw two very different attitudes and expressions between the attitude of Abraham, who was faithful and committed to God, and the attitude of the people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham who lacked faith in God and who refused to believe in the One Whom He had sent into the world, into their midst. We saw how mankind had succumbed so deeply into sin, that those sins hardened their hearts and minds, and prevented them from coming closer to God and His truth.

In this case, we saw the contrast between the humility of Abraham in accepting God’s plans for him, and the pride of his descendants who refused to acknowledge the truth of God being revealed before their very eyes. And that pride brought danger to them, for it made them stubborn and even ardently opposing the Lord’s efforts and wanting to kill Him for His supposed ‘blasphemy’ in their opinion.

And therefore, through the passages of the Scriptures we have received and heard today, we are reminded that we have been presented with many choices of actions in our daily lives. We can choose to obey the Lord and to follow His commandments and laws just as Abraham, our father in faith has done, or we can instead indulge in our own worldly desires and in our own ego and pride, as the Israelites did, many times throughout history, including at the time of Jesus, in how they disobeyed God and opposed His good works.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be aware that if we choose to follow in the path of Christ, as we should, we will likely encounter the same opposition and challenges as the Lord Himself has faced. It is indeed much easier for us to be wicked than to be righteous, to be prideful rather than to be humble, to be filled with anger, hatred, lust and jealousy rather than to be filled with love, compassion and mercy.

Today, therefore, we ought to listen to the story of the life of St. Stanislas, a holy bishop and servant of God, and also a martyr of the Church and the faith. St. Stanislas was a Polish bishop who stood up courageously against the ruler of Poland at the time, king Boleslaw the Brave. The king and his nobles were not living righteously and were enacting laws and regulations that were corrupt. St. Stanislaw himself chastised the king for his sexual immorality and lack of proper conduct as a ruler.

The king was so angered by the bishop’s opposition to his rule and his policies, that he tried to have him killed, only for St. Stanislas to be even firmer in his opposition to the king’s waywardness. Eventually, the holy and devout servant of God was martyred at the hand of the king himself, when the men the king sent to slaughter him refused to lay their hands on the holy bishop. And thus, a faithful servant of God fell for defending his faith, and yet, be assured that his reward in heaven and everlasting life is unimaginably great.

Thus, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us ought to be inspired by the faith of both Abraham, our father in faith and that of St. Stanislas, holy servant of God and faithful defender of the faith. Let us all purge from ourselves all taints of sin, of ego and pride, of anger and jealousy, of hatred, greed and worldly desires. Let us all instead fill ourselves with humility, with love and compassion in our hearts, and with the burning desire to love God and put Him at the centre of our lives from now on. May the Lord always be our guide, now and forevermore. Amen.