Lenten sermon

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Monday, 10 March 2025 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we continue to progress through this time and season of Lent, all of us are reminded through the words of the Sacred Scriptures of the need for us to live our lives carefully, being ever vigilant against the many temptations present all around us which may lead us into the wrong paths in life, moving ever further away from the Lord and His salvation. We are all reminded today that while God has generously given us all the many opportunities for us to follow Him and to embrace His mercy and forgiveness, but we must not take those for granted, or else we may come to regret it when the time comes for us to account for our lives before the Lord, at the time of the Last Judgment. Will we want to end up in the wrong side of the judgment at that time, brothers and sisters?

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Leviticus in which God spoke to His people, the Israelites during the time of their Exodus from Egypt, detailing to all of them the Law, the commandments and all the things which He had taught and revealed to them.  Through those Law and commandments, He wants all of His people to know how to carry on living their lives with true and genuine faith in Him. God reminded the Israelites to act in the manner of righteousness, justice and virtue, that they do not cause suffering to others and pervert justice, or to manipulate others for their own benefits. All of these reminders that God had told His people are still important reminders for us even up to this day, because as the disciples and followers of the Lord, we ourselves are called to live lives that are truly worthy of Him, and we should be good role models and examples for everyone to follow.

The Lord wanted the Israelites to keep faithfully the Law and commandments which He had provided to them so that they would not fall into the temptations to sin, which could lead them all into their downfall and destruction. This is therefore also an important reminder for all of us so that we ourselves do not let those temptations of the world, desires, ambition, greed, or our ego and pride from leading us astray from the path towards the Lord. We have to strive to resist the wickedness of the evil ones who are constantly trying to lead us into our downfall. We should show genuine love towards our brothers and sisters, caring for the needs of those who are around us, such that through our loving actions and examples, we may inspire others to follow the Lord as well, because they will come to know God through us and our lives.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist in which the Lord Jesus presented to His disciples and to all those who were listening to Him about the time of the Final or the Last Judgment, which will come to happen at the end of time. The Lord told them all how everyone will have to account for their lives before God, the Judge of all, Who is none other than the Lord Jesus Himself. Essentially, He has come into this world not just to lead us all into the salvation and eternal life by His loving sacrifice on the Cross, but also to reveal to us the coming time of reckoning at the end of time, when we have to account for all of our actions in each of our lives, be it those that are good or those that are wicked, as well as any failures for us to act.

All of these things will determine whether we will be worthy of God and His glorious inheritance. God has always been generous in loving us and on showing us His mercy, and He certainly wants us all to be reconciled and reunited with Him. However, at the same time, we must always remind ourselves that God, Who is all holy, good and perfect, will not allow sin and evil to exist in His Holy Presence. If we are to come towards Him with sins and wickedness that we have not repented from and have not been forgiven from, then we will be condemned by those same sins and wickedness which we have committed, all the disobedience and other unworthy deeds which we have done, which prevents us from truly being worthy of the Lord.

We must remember well as we continue to progress through this time and season of Lent that our faith in the Lord is the source of our salvation, for God has given us His grace through our faith in Him. However, we also must not think that our faith in the Lord without action and concrete deeds to back it up will benefit us in any way. As St. James the Apostle mentioned in his Epistle, and also the Apostolic tradition of the Church stated, that faith without good works is dead. This must not be misunderstood as what some believed wrongly, that we can gain salvation through our works without faith. Instead, it means that our faith in God must always be supported and made concrete and alive through real actions, not by mere words and formalities only, or else, that faith will not avail us.

And how should we live our faith such that we are truly worthy of the Lord? It is by following what He Himself had said in the Gospel passage today about the Final Judgment. He told all of His disciples and all those who were listening to Him about the actions taken by all those who will be found worthy at the time of the Final Judgment, that is those who have shown love to the least among their brothers and sisters, caring for those who are sick and needy, showing love and attention to the marginalised and all those who are suffering from various difficulties. All those actions show true faith that is indeed lived with genuine desire and sincerity to love both God and one’s fellow men and women alike, which is exactly what all of us as Christians have been called to do.

On the other hand, if we neglect to do those good deeds and ignore the need to show love and sincere care towards our fellow brethren, no matter how we may claim to be faithful to God, but in the end, that faith will not avail us, because all of our ignorance of the opportunities and the actions that we could have done for the benefit of others, or if we only care about ourselves, causing suffering for others and ignoring the plight of the needy and those who are suffering in our midst, all those things led us into sin against God, the sin of omission, which will be judged against us, and makes us unworthy to share in the true happiness and eternal glory that God has promised to those who have been truly faithful to Him. Essentially, we cannot come towards the Lord unless we make the conscious effort to do what is right and just, as well as commit ourselves to do His will, to show love towards our brethren in our midst.

Therefore, during this time of Lent, let us all continue to deepen our relationship with God, and strengthen our faith in Him by doing whatever we should be doing in this period of renewal and rejuvenation of our faith. Let us all do them with true understanding of our faith and with genuine desire to seek to be forgiven by God from our many sins and wickedness. We must continue to journey towards the Lord, reestablishing the connection which have been weakened by sin, and resist the many temptations present around us trying to drag us away from our loving God and Father. May the Lord also help us in this journey so that we may continue to persevere and move forward in our path towards Him, and with this blessed time and opportunity of Lent, may we rediscover that love which we all ought to have for God, and grow ever more committed to Him, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 9 March 2025 : First Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday is the very first Sunday of the season of Lent, in which we are reminded of the need for us to be careful in living our lives so that we do not allow ourselves to be swayed by the temptations that are ever always present around us, all the wickedness and evils that may lead us astray in the journey towards God. As we continue to progress through this time and season of Lent, we need to remind ourselves of the many challenges and trials that we may have to endure and encounter in our path so that we will not be easily distracted and lose our focus in the Lord. We have to keep in mind that the Lord wants us all to be holy like Him, and to be worthy of Him, and this is why during this season and time of Lent, we seek to purify ourselves and rid ourselves of all the corruptions of sin.

In our first reading this Sunday, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, we heard of the words of Moses, the leader of the Israelites, who exhorted the people of God on how they ought to offer their sacrifices and present them before the Lord. In that passage, we heard how the priest offering the sacrifice recounted the great deeds that the Lord had done for the people and for their ancestors, guiding them all through the various trials and tribulations in life, and how He has moved His hands to guide them all, performing great deeds, signs and wonders in their midst, freeing them from all of their enemies and from those who have persecuted them, as evidenced in the great signs of the time of the Exodus from Egypt.

Essentially, through those words of the priests, the people were constantly being reminded of the great and wonderful graces that they have all received from God, all the love that God has constantly shown to them. This is a reminder of the great love of God, the enduring love that had transcended even the rebelliousness and the sins of the people, who have often disobeyed and rebelled against Him. He did not forget those whom He loved when they called upon Him, and He came to their help and gave them all His blessings, and bringing them to the Land of Promise, fulfilling the Covenant which He had made with their forefathers, with Abraham and his descendants. And therefore, it is also a reminder for all of us that if we sincerely seek God’s mercy and love, we shall be forgiven by Him, and we shall once again be found in His loving embrace and Presence.

Then, in the second reading taken from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful people of God in Rome, we heard of the salvation which God had reassured all of us, His faithful ones, by the sure guarantee that He has given to all of us through His Son, Whom He had sent into our world to be our Saviour, so that everyone who believes in Him, all of us may receive through Him the sure path towards the eternal life and true happiness that can be found in God alone. And everyone, regardless of their background and origin, be it they are Jews or Greeks, or any other differences or categories that we often differentiate ourselves by, all of us are truly beloved by God, and God will bless and grant us His salvation if we are to put our trust and faith in Him.

This is yet again another reminder of the universal nature of God’s love, which is given freely to everyone without bias or preference. Everyone is equally beloved by God, be it those who are rich or poor, privileged or nobody, powerful or weak, healthy or sick, man or woman, and no artificial human divisions or groupings, prejudices and biases affect His love for all of us, love that He has genuinely shown us from the very beginning of time. God Who created us all out of love wants us all to be reconciled to Him, to be guided back to Him through our repentance and sincere desire for purification of our souls, for the atonement of our faults and mistakes, which He had accomplished once and for all, for all time and for all creation through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, Who has triumphed and conquered sin and death.

And in the Gospel passage this Sunday, we heard that famous moment when the same Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God Incarnate, was tempted by the Devil in the desert for the forty days period after His baptism at the Jordan. This baptism was the mark of the beginning of the Lord’s ministry, the time when He started to do everything that His heavenly Father, our loving God and Father, has entrusted to Him, for the sake of our salvation. But in order to do that, He Who also share in our humanity, and born into this world, also has to subject Himself to the same temptations that the Devil has brought upon our ancestors, by which he had led countless souls into the path of sin and damnation. Why is that so? That is because, by uniting Himself to our humanity, and by embracing our human nature, Christ our Lord showed us all that it is possible for us to defeat sin and reject the temptations to sin, by obeying God perfectly and wholeheartedly in our lives.

Now, let us all look at the three temptations that the Devil presented to the Lord. The first temptation was the temptation of hunger and food, in which the Devil told the Lord to turn the stones there in the desert into bread for Him to take and eat, because He was very hungry after having fasted in the desert for forty days. Clearly the Lord was capable of such a deed, but He rebuked Satan, telling him that ‘man does not live on bread alone, but on every words that come from the mouth of the Lord’. Essentially this is a reminder for all of us not to give in to the temptations of our flesh, our desires for things of this world, be it for food and other luxuries around us, or for the other goods and pleasurable things in this life. It is not that we cannot or should not eat, as certainly we need to eat to sustain ourselves, but we must not allow ourselves to be overcome by the attachment and desires we have for those things that we end up neglecting the Lord and His truth and words.

It is also an important reminder that we should not orientate our lives around the material things in this world, which is what the second temptation that the Lord was given by the Devil, who brought Him up a very tall mountain, showing Him all the glory and riches of the world, all the kingdoms and the glory of all those things. The Lord told the Devil off when he said to Him that everything would be His if only He would worship the Devil. The Lord rebuked the Devil saying that the Lord God alone is worthy of worship, and nothing or noone else do. This is an important reminder for all of us because many of us may truly realise that we may have idolised or turned into an idol our obsession and desire for worldly glory, wealth, possessions and all the other things that we usually desire for in our lives, such as praise, renown, money, material goods, pleasures of the flesh, and many more.

That is why during this time and season of Lent, we practice fasting and abstinence to remind us all of the need to restrain these desires which we may have in us so that we do not end up being swayed and led down the path of sin. We have to make the conscious effort to keep ourselves free from the unhealthy attachments to worldly matters, and fasting and abstinence, done with the right spirit and desire to keep ourselves focused on the Lord will help us in our journey towards the Lord, particularly during this time of Lent. We also should deepen our relationship with God, and remind ourselves to spend more and more time during this season in particular, so that if we have not really spent the time with Him all these while, we should change our way of life, and begin to spend more time with God, good quality time through prayer and other means.

Lastly, the third and final temptation that the Lord Jesus faced from the Devil is the greatest temptation of all, that is pride. This happened as the Devil brought Him up to the parapet or the peak of the Temple of Jerusalem, asking Him to drop down from there, even quoting from the Scriptures that ‘The Lord would not let His Holy One to be hurt, and would send His Angels to protect Him’. This was meant to test the Lord with pride, as doing such an action in the view of so many people present at the Temple and miraculously surviving such an action, would make the Lord praised and glorified by the people, and everyone certainly would have believed in Him with such a wonderful miracle. But the Lord rebuked Satan again, telling him that no one should test the Lord, and He refused to be tempted by pride.

Pride is certainly something that the Devil was very familiar with. After all, it was pride that brought him to his downfall, he who was the greatest and most brilliant of all the Angels of God, Lucifer, the lightbearer. His great brilliance and might made him to grow proud and to think that he can ascend above God, aspiring to take over the Throne of Heaven. And thus that was how Lucifer fell from power and grace, becoming the Devil, the great Enemy of all the people of God. He used this same temptation of pride to tempt us mankind, to lead us astray from the path towards God by causing us to indulge in our pride, ego, ambition and desires, so that we end up following his path of rebellion and disobedience, turning us into the followers of the Devil instead of the faithful disciples and holy people of God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, after we have heard all these words from the Sacred Scriptures, and hopefully after carefully discerning together our path in life, we may come to realisation that sin and the temptations to sin are serious obstacles preventing us from coming back to God, our loving Father and Creator. Each and every one of us should make good use of the time and opportunities which the Lord Himself has provided to us so that by our sincere efforts in seeking Him and His forgiveness, God may be kind to show us His love, His compassion and mercy, allowing us to be fully and truly reconciled and reunited with Him. We should humble ourselves and resist the temptations of pride, ambition, ego, desires and all the attachments to worldly pleasures, vices and all those distractions that can keep us away from God.

May the Lord continue to guide us throughout this Lenten journey, so that our observances of Lent, our practices such as fasting, abstinence, prayer and almsgiving, among others, may truly benefit us and strengthen us all in our faith and in our relationship with the Lord, our most loving God, as we journey towards the pinnacle of the story of our salvation at Holy Week and Easter. May God continue to bless our efforts and good works in bringing ourselves ever closer to His loving embrace, so that we may one day be worthy to be at His Holy Presence, to share forever His eternal joy and glory, having been forgiven from our many sins and faults, and be reunited with our loving Father, to live forever in His Presence. Amen.

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Saturday, 8 March 2025 : Saturday after Ash Wednesday, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Lord contained in the Sacred Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the need for us to live a holy and worthy life in God, one that is truly in accordance with the ways of the Lord, in tune with what He has revealed and taught to us through His Son and His Church. We must keep ourselves away from the corruptions and snares of sin, striving to seek the Lord and His forgiveness, His mercy and love, allowing Him to forgive us and heal us from this corruption of sin that had afflicted us all these while. We must not be discouraged from a truly holy life that is in harmony with God and His righteous path, and as we continue to progress through this season of Lent, we are constantly being reminded to stay true to this path of the Lord.

In our first reading today, we are called to heed the words from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which the Lord spoke to His people through Isaiah, calling upon them all to remove from themselves the yoke of sin and disobedience, for them all to turn away from their rebelliousness and disobedience against Him, all which they had done for the many years of their existence and lives in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. God has always been patient in helping and guiding all of them back to Himself, pointing out the path for them all to follow, sending to His people countless prophets, messengers and others to help and lead them all to the right path. Many of those people had lost the direction in their lives, being swayed by the temptations of worldly pleasures and glory, that they disobeying the Lord and His Law, and even persecuting His prophets.

God wanted to remind all of His beloved people that while He chastised them all for their sins and wickedness, but ultimately, He loved them very much and wanted all of them to find their path to Him, to be reconciled and fully reunited with Him, no longer separated from Him because of their sins and wickedness. He told them that if they were to change their ways and abandon their sins, they would be blessed by Him again, and they shall all be His people once more. God’s love is truly great, and He wants all of His people, that is all of us to be united to Him, but sin and the temptations to sin have always been great obstacles barring our path towards Him. As long as we are corrupted and afflicted by sin, then we will always be separated from God. But God has always been patient in helping us and showing us the path to return to Him, and we should not take this for granted.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist the account of the Lord Jesus speaking to Levi, one of the tax collectors that He encountered in His ministry, and called on this same Levi to follow Him and become His disciple. Levi listened to the Lord and followed Him, leaving behind everything that he had, all of his possessions, money and profession. Not only that, but he also invited the Lord to his place, to have dinner with him and many other tax collectors who sought to know Him and listen to Him as well. This brought about immediate outcry and protest from the Pharisees who were often following the Lord, as those people regarded the tax collectors as being sinners and wicked, and would have nothing to do with them because this was considered as making them ritually unclean.

But the Lord rebuked those Pharisees for their wrong ideas and ways, and told them that it was exactly for this purpose that He had been sent into this world. The Lord came into this world to save us all, His beloved people, and He has reached out to us with His generous compassion and love, calling upon each one of us to follow Him and to repent from our sins. As He told those Pharisees that He came into this world to heal those who were broken and sick, and to gather all of us from the precipice of darkness, preventing us from falling into the darkness. That is why, He reached out to the least and the lost, and to those whom others would have rejected and ostracised, like those tax collectors, prostitutes and others marginalised by the society, and this is an example for all of us as Christians to follow in our own lives.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. John of God, a holy man of God and renowned founder of the religious order and institute, the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, which is an institute dedicated to the care of those who are poor, sick and suffering from mental disorders. St. John of God was born in Portugal in the late fifteenth century to an impoverished but pious family of prominent heritage, but met an unfortunate incident early in his life as he was lost from his family at the age of eight, and eventually became an orphan in Spain. He was raised by a farmer who gave the young St. John of God a job as a shepherd. Then he escaped the farmer’s place after he consistently tried to make St. John of God marry his daughter and become his heir, becoming a member of the military.

St. John of God spent some time in the military until he was wrongly suspected of theft of what he had been entrusted to guard, and for the next twenty years, this and many other challenges, uncertainties and difficulties that he encountered in his involvement as a soldier fighting various wars and conflicts, and after periods of internal struggles and spiritual barrenness, and some period of soul-searching, it was told that after receiving an apparition of the Holy Child, the Infant Jesus, St. John of God, whose name of John of God was apparently bestowed on him by the Lord Himself, eventually St. John of God decided to leave behind his past life and work in the military and other fields, and decided to devote himself thoroughly to God.

St. John of God had a profound moment of conversion then, and he began to live his life with the intention to reach out to the less fortunate, the sick and suffering in the midst of the community, gathering like-minded individuals to establish the aforementioned Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God. This community of devout men spent their time and effort to reach out to those who are suffering, those who are sick from various illnesses and maladies, and St. John of God devoted himself and the rest of his life to this ministry for the sake of God’s people. His great faith and dedication to the Lord, while only lasted for about ten years before he passed away, inspired many other people both during his lifetime and afterwards, in putting themselves to make the lives of their fellow brethren to be a better one.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have reflected from the words of the Sacred Scriptures, and also as we have discussed from the life and good examples shown to us by St. John of God, we should be inspired to follow the Lord faithfully in the manner that he and our many other holy predecessors had done. Each and every one of us as Christians ought to be good role models and examples, the ones to show everyone what it truly means for us to live as Christians, as the disciples and followers of the Lord. And in particular during this time of Lent, we are reminded to attune ourselves well to the path of the Lord, reorientating our lives as per necessary if we have strayed away from the path of the Lord, that we may spend more time and effort to benefit all those around us who are in need, those who are poor, sick and marginalised, among others who are in need of our love and care.

Let us all therefore continue to strive to live worthily in the Lord’s Presence, to do His will and to live in accordance with His Law and commandments at all times. Let us no longer remain idle or procrastinate in our efforts to seek the Lord, but do our best to expedite our journey towards the Lord, doing our very best to come to Him with contrite and repentant hearts, seeking His forgiveness and mercy for our many sins, for our most loving and forgiving God will surely forgive us if we are truly sincere in looking for Him and His mercy. May the Lord be with us always, and may He show us all His loving mercy, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 7 March 2025 : Friday after Ash Wednesday, 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 continue to progress through the season of Lent, this time of repentance and reorientation of our lives, we are all reminded that everything which we are doing during this time and season of Lent should always be focused on the Lord, our Saviour and Master. We should not allow ourselves to be deluded and misguided by the temptations of worldly glory, pleasures, or other pursuits and ambitions which can lead us into the wrong paths in life. This Lent we are all called to turn away from our many worldly attachments and distractions, as well as coming closer to the Lord by our deepening of this relationship which we ought to have for Him. Each and every one of us should seek to rend ourselves off the various shackles of worldly desires present around us, and come to the Lord with a sorrowful and contrite heart.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard of the words of the Lord to His people, the Israelites through Isaiah in which He called on all of them to turn towards Him with genuine faith and desire to love Him, and not merely paying lip service to Him and obeying His Law and commandments out of formality and mere outward observance only. The Lord pointed out how some of the people were doing exactly this, contradicting their own pious practices with other things that were not in accordance to His Law and commandments. The Lord quoted some examples how the people observed the fasting and the festivals, and yet, as they put ashes on their heads and wearing their sackcloth as they fast, they still persecuted and oppressed others around them, manipulating and benefitting over the sufferings of their fellow brethren.

All of those things meant that those people had not truly understood the Law and commandments of God. They fulfilled the requirements of the Law more as formality and perhaps even out of fear for the Lord, but not because they truly desired to seek Him or to follow His path wholeheartedly as they all ought to have done. That is why the Lord reminded all of His people through Isaiah, who wanted to tell them all to turn away from this wicked path, and embrace once again wholeheartedly and meaningfully the path that He has shown them, and which He has helped and reminded them constantly through the many prophets that He had sent to them including that of Isaiah himself. God wanted all of His people, and this is a reminder to all of us as well, that we must truly be sincere in our faith and all the practices we do, especially during this time and season of Lent, that we do not end up being hypocrites, believing in one thing and yet doing something entirely contradictory and opposite on the other.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist, we heard of the words of the Lord Jesus to the disciples of St. John the Baptist who came up to Him to question why He and His disciples did not practice fasting in the manner that the disciples of St. John the Baptist themselves and the Pharisees had done. Unfortunately, especially for the latter group, many of them did the practice of fasting and other pious practices not for the right purpose and intention, but rather to seek attention and praise from others around them. At the same time, the Lord also used this opportunity to reveal and highlight the truth about Himself and His mission, how He, the Lord God Himself descending into our midst in the flesh and form of Man, being in our presence is no circumstance for His disciples and followers to fast.

Ultimately, this is a reminder for all of us that fasting and abstinence are practices that serve to remind us all of our sin and mortality, our rebellion and disobedience against God. When we fast, we also in a way mourn and show our regret and sorrow against our separation from God, reflecting upon the sad reality of the state of our soul, tainted and corrupted by sin and evil. And yet, at the same time, we must always remind ourselves that God has provided us His help and love, His kindness and grace, offering us all generous forgiveness and mercy. We must not squander these opportunities that God had given us all, as He reached out patiently towards us, gathering us all and calling on us to come into His Holy Presence once again, to be loved by Him again and reunited with Him.

Today, all of us are called to repent from our sins and wickedness as we continue our progress through this penitential season and time of Lent. We are called to reevaluate our path in life, and whether we have truly lived our lives worthily in the Lord or whether we are still being wayward in disobeying the Lord and His commandments. This is why we need to heed the words of the Lord that we have listened to and discussed today so that our Lenten season and whatever we are doing to observe it can be truly beneficial and fruitful for us. We must not do those observances and actions without truly understanding their significance and importance, and whenever we fast, abstain, spending our time in prayer and performing acts of charity, we should do them because we sincerely desire to better ourselves and to come back towards the Lord with contrite hearts.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Perpetua and St. Felicity, two holy and devout women whose martyrdom during the era of persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire inspired many of the faithful throughout history. St. Perpetua was a Roman noblewoman who was recently married at the time of her martyrdom while St. Felicity was a slavewoman, who was arrested and imprisoned together with St. Perpetua during one of the episodes of persecution of Christians in the Empire. Despite their different backgrounds, both were united in the common faith they had in the Lord, in their belief in Christ, the Saviour of all. They refused to abandon their faith, and for St. Perpetua, she refused her father’s desire that she recant her faith in God. Eventually both of them were put to death for their faith in the Lord, courageously defending their faith to the very end.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we reflect upon these words from the Sacred Scriptures and upon listening to the examples of the great saints, St. Perpetua and St. Felicity, let us all hence renew our commitments to the Lord, and renew that desire in each and every one of us to seek the Lord ever more wholeheartedly, by our exemplary living and deeds, by our obedience to the Law and commandments of God. The Lord has given us this time of Lent as the wonderful opportunity for us to embrace Him and His mercy, to reevaluate our lives and to reattune ourselves to His path. Let us all not squander these opportunities that He has given us, and let us all seek the Lord faithfully, being good role models for everyone around us, much as our holy predecessors, like that of St. Perpetua and St. Felicity had been for us.

May the Lord continue to bless us in our journey of life and strengthen us in our faith and commitment to Him, and bless our Lenten practices and observances so that through them, we may draw ever closer to Him and find the path to His Holy Presence, and remain ever firm in our desire to love and seek Him always in our lives. Amen.

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Thursday, 6 March 2025 : Thursday after Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we embark on this journey through the penitential and contemplative time of the Lenten season, let us all reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures that we have received on this day. We are reminded that as Christians all of us must make the decision to consciously follow the Lord and His path in our lives, and make the conscious effort and commitment to persevere in this path no matter what challenges, trials and tribulations may be in the journey that we have towards God. There is likely going to be plenty of obstacles in our path, but we must not allow these to be barriers preventing us from coming towards the Lord with genuine faith and devotion. Instead, they should make us even more committed and willing to follow the Lord more faithfully each day.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Deuteronomy in which Moses, the leader of the Israelites during the time of the Exodus from Egypt presented before the Israelites the rules and the commandments which the Lord had revealed and passed to them, and the expectations that accompany the Covenant which God had made with them, His beloved people. Moses reminded the people of the path that they ought to choose in their lives, whether they wanted to follow the Lord and obey Him, His Law and commandments, or whether they wanted to walk their own path of disobedience and rebellion against God. Moses made it clear the choices that lay before the people, and how their choices are truly important, in deciding their eventual fate.

What Moses had said to the Israelites highlighted the way that the Lord has always been loving and caring towards His people, and He has always been patient in helping and leading them all to Himself. However, at the same time, He also gave them the free will and the freedom to choose their course of actions in life, the gift that the Lord gave to each one of us. He does not impose on us His will, and He gave us the freedom to walk the way that we choose. At the same time, Moses made it clear that if we put our faith and trust in God, then in the end, we will receive the fullness of His grace and blessings, and we will not regret our choice, as despite the challenges and trials that we may face, we will be vindicated by the triumphant glory with God. On the other hand, if we choose to walk away from God, in the end, there will only be suffering and eternity of regret in Hell.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel of St. Luke the Evangelist, we heard of the Lord telling His disciples plainly and frankly about what He Himself would experience in the midst of His upcoming Passion, the culmination of His worldly ministry. The Lord said it clearly that He, the Son of Man, would have to suffer rejection, persecution and oppression from none other than the leaders of the people, the chief priests and the elders, to be handed over to His enemies, and to be punished and persecuted although the fault was not His own. And yet, He would obey willingly to follow the path that His heavenly Father has shown Him, the path of redemption for all mankind, which He would accomplish by His most selfless and loving sacrifice on the Cross.

He also predicted His own Resurrection on the third day, and also how the same sufferings would be part of the disciples’ life, mission and journey. He reminded them all that just as the world has rejected and opposed Him, thus it is likely that they would also face the same challenges and obstacles that He had been facing. And they cannot be His true disciples and followers unless they carried their own crosses and follow Him wholeheartedly and faithfully. This is the reality that the Lord presented to His disciples, reminding especially those among them who might be expecting good and comfortable life if they were to follow Him as their Lord and Master. Some among the disciples at the time had the misconception thinking that the Messiah was to come to usher the era of peace and glory, the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel, and this is what the Lord wanted to remind them about the truth.

All of us are reminded that as Christians, as the disciples and followers of the Lord, we must always be ready to face persecution and difficulties in our path, and we should not expect that our lives will be good and smooth. This does not mean that God will not bless us, as He will surely bless us abundantly and give us His guidance and strength. However, we have to put our faith and trust in God whenever the challenges and trials come by us, or else we may be easily tempted and swayed to abandon our faith in the Lord and abandon His path, choosing to embrace instead the other allures of worldly temptations and solutions to our struggles and issues. All these may lead us astray in our journey in life, and in the end, we may end up being lost forever to the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we enter into this time and season of Lent, we are all called to turn over a new leaf in our lives, embracing the truth of God and His love, His path wholeheartedly as we all should have done. We have been given these many wonderful opportunities by the Lord which we should never squander, and we should try our best such that we use them well in changing our way of life and our attitudes, putting ourselves wholly in the path of righteousness and virtue, doing our very best to live in accordance to the manner that the Lord has shown us. We have been given the freedom to choose our path in life, and we have been reminded and shown what each of those paths will lead into, and therefore we should really spend the time to discern how we are to move forward in life from now on.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to strengthen and encourage us all in our lives, each and every moment of these precious lives we have been blessed with. Let our Lenten practices and observances be truly good, worthy and fruitful in leading us ever closer towards the Lord, and help us to remain true and faithful to this path towards God’s salvation and eternal life. May all of us not easily be swayed or tempted to abandon our struggles and perseverance despite all the challenges and difficulties that we may have to face in this journey. May God bless us all in our every good efforts, works and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 5 March 2025 : Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is Ash Wednesday, the very first day of the penitential season of Lent, the forty days plus period of spiritual renewal and reorientation of our lives, so that we may prepare ourselves well for the upcoming important celebrations and events during the Holy Week and Paschal Triduum towards the glorious season of Easter. During this time and period of Lent, all of us as Christians commit ourselves to a renewal of our lives and reattune ourselves to the Lord. We remind ourselves that as God’s holy and beloved people, each and every one of us ought to live our lives worthily and devote ourselves to His ways, distancing ourselves from all the corruptions of evil and sin, from the various temptations of the world around us so that we may truly be faithful disciples and followers, worthy of the Lord, our most loving God and Father.

Today we recall our weakness and mortal nature, as sinful men and women, who because of our disobedience and sins against God, had been sundered from the fullness of God’s love and grace. This is why the blessed ashes imposed on us is a reminder of this fallen state and our mortality, with the words of the priest imposing the ashes, ‘Remember man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return’, linking to the fact that God crafted and made us all from the dust of the earth, and when we die, our bodies shall rot and perish, returning back to the earth where it came from. No matter how great or glorious our background or life may be, in the end, all of us will have to face death and the end of our earthly existence. But with God there is an everlasting life and existence beyond this life we have in this world.

Alternatively the priest would also have said as he imposed the ashes, ‘Repent, and believe in the Gospel’, which again highlights the penitential nature of this time and season. On this Ash Wednesday, all of us are required to fast and abstain from meat, in which these practices are meant for us to restrain our physical bodies and desires, our worldly wants and pursuits, and reminding us all to purify ourselves, our bodies, minds, hearts and our whole being so that through this repentance and purification of our beings, we may truly be worthy once again, through God’s grace and forgiveness, to be His holy and beloved people, filled with the fullness of His grace and love. We are all required to fast today, eating just one main meal and two smaller meals called collations, and the aforementioned abstinence to remind us of the futility of worldly glory and desires, and to focus ourselves to the Lord once again.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Joel, we heard of the words of the Lord spoken through this prophet calling on all the people of God to return to their Lord and Master with repentance and sincere desire to turn themselves towards His mercy and forgiveness. The prophet Joel was sent by God to minister to the people of the southern kingdom of Judah, the southern half of the kingdom of God’s people, to remind them all of the Lord’s Law and commandments, calling upon all of them to restore the faithful practices of their ancestors and for them to turn away from their sins and wickedness. At that time, the kingdom of Judah and the people of God had fallen far away from the path of the Lord, disobeying and disregarding the commandments which God had taught to them and their ancestors and requiring them to follow and obey. And as a result, they had been beset by troubles, difficulties and persecution from their enemies.

But the prophet Joel highlighted how God is truly loving and merciful, and all of us ought to come to Him seeking His mercy and forgiveness, as He forgives those who sincerely seeks Him and wants to be forgiven. Through our repentance, our fasting and abstinence done with the right intentions and desire for us to be rid of our impure and corrupt thoughts, desires and other temptations, we shall gain the grace of God, the generous love and compassionate mercy that our loving Father has always had for us. Nonetheless, this is as always, easier said than done, as despite our best intentions, there will always likely be temptations and other things which may hinder us on our path and journey towards God, and it is during this time of Lent that we should do our best to reorientate our lives towards the Lord and be more aware of the dangers of sin and the temptations around us.

In our second reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city and region of Corinth, the Apostle reminded all the faithful there of the great grace and mercy which God has shown to all of them, the beloved people of God, and how they all should seek the compassionate love and mercy from God because this very moment is indeed the favourable time to seek God’s mercy and forgiveness. What St. Paul told to the faithful among the Corinthians is also a reminder for all of us that we should not procrastinate or delay in our efforts to seek the Lord, as some among us may delay in doing so because we think that we still have ample amount of time in our lives to be forgiven from our many sins and wickedness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must be reminded again of the reality of our mortality and the fact how any one of us can be called to account for our lives before the Lord at any moment. No one knows for certain when we will meet the end of our lives, beside the certainty that we will indeed face death in the end of our earthly life and existence, be it that we have a long or short life. All of us are mortals who will not endure and exist forever in this world, and hence, we should make good use of all the opportunities and means that the Lord has generously given to us, to seek Him and His ever generous love and kindness. We must not wait until it is too late, when all of our means to reach God has been exhausted, and we can no longer attain His forgiveness. Let us all be quick to seek to repent from our sins, and receive regularly the forgiveness from God through the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the Church.

Then from our Gospel passage today taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew the Apostle, we are reminded of the matter of practices of our faith and things related to what we do during this time and season of Lent such as fasting and abstinence, prayers and almsgiving among others. As the Lord made it clear to His disciples and all those gathered to listen to Him, when we fast, abstain, make our prayers and do other things that we often do during this time of Lent, we must not make a show out of it. We also should not do these actions in order to be praised and adored by others around us. Instead, we should do them because we are truly and sincerely repentant over our many sins and wickedness, realising the depth of our unworthiness and iniquities before God.

As we receive the blessed ashes on our heads and foreheads, we are all reminded of the need for repentance and renewal in our lives, as we are called to embrace God’s rich and merciful love, making use of the chances that had been provided to us to turn once again towards God, and as His children, full of love for our Father, let us all beseech Him for His mercy and kindness, knowing that in Him alone we can find true forgiveness and peace, salvation and eternal life, and if we are willing to commit ourselves to the path that God our Father has shown us, then God will surely forgive us our sins and allow us to be reconciled with Him. And hence, as we symbolically wear the ashes on our heads and foreheads, we are reminded of this sinfulness that is in us, and of the commitment required from us to abandon these sins for the righteousness of God.

The Gospel passage also reminds us all of the three important pillars of our Lenten practices in order to prepare us all well for the upcoming celebrations of Holy Week and Easter. These as mentioned earlier on are fasting and abstinence, as well as prayer, and lastly being almsgiving. Each one of these practices were meant to help direct our focus and attention towards the Lord, and through them hopefully we may be ever more restrained in our greed, desires and ego in life, and become more attuned to the Lord and His path. We should not do these just in order to satisfy Church requirements and laws, or do them for the sake of doing them. We should also appreciate and understand the significance and importance of each one of these practices so that we may benefit most wonderfully from each one of them in bringing ourselves ever closer to God this Lent and beyond.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let our fasting, abstinence, prayers and almsgiving be truly centred on God, and may they help us to continue to grow in faith and dedication to the Lord, and remind us all of our own frailty, mortality and also our sinfulness so that we may truly be humble in life, in desiring and seeking healing and forgiveness from God. Let us all come towards our merciful and ever loving Father and Creator, our Lord and Master with contrite hearts, asking Him to heal us from our afflictions and corruption by sin, and help us all to enter into His glorious inheritance, to bring us all into the eternal life and true happiness that He has promised us, through our genuine reconciliation and reunion with Him. May all of us have a truly blessed and fruitful season of Lent, and be blessed by God in our every good works, efforts and endeavours this Lent. Amen.

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Sunday, 31 March 2024 : Easter Vigil Mass, Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is Risen from the dead, He has risen and conquered sin, destroyed the chains that had held us down all these while, broken free the prisons of the underworld, and led all of those who have faith in Him to Himself. Alleluia! He is Risen! And we all truly rejoice greatly and wonderfully this evening because at this moment we mark the occasion when Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, the Son of God, on the third day of the Triduum of His Passion, His suffering, Crucifixion and death, rose in glory just as He Himself had predicted and told to His disciples, showing them and all of us, that sin and death truly have no power over Him, and that those do not have the final say over all of us.

At this moment, after having gone through the entire season and time of Lent from Ash Wednesday, having not sung the great and most joyful Alleluia, now we finally sing out with great joy this hymn of great praise to God, and rightly so because we give Him thanks for everything the He had done for our sake, and we thank Him most graciously for having given us all His Son to save us all, just as we have commemorated everything that happened throughout His Passion or Suffering, when Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, endured the worst punishments, sufferings and trials, all for the sake of our salvation and liberation from evil, sin and death. We rejoice because through His Resurrection afterwards, the Lord Jesus showed us all that not even sin and death can rule over us, and in the end, we can have the sure hope of eternal life with God.

In tonight’s Easter Vigil liturgy, we heard of the glorious retelling of the entire story of the salvation of the world, as narrated to us through the Scriptures, particularly from the seven readings taken from the Old Testament, while the number may vary, but the readings highlighting the Creation of the World from the Book of Genesis and the liberation of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt in the moment when they walked through the Red Sea are always read in tonight’s Mass celebrations, as all these highlighted to us how God truly brought everything that He had created all good and perfect, back into their original state of perfection and goodness, by everything which His Son had done, in restoring the once broken relationship between God and mankind, His ultimate creation, made in His own image.

From the Book of Genesis where we heard the story of the Creation of the world, we heard how God created all things from nothingness, through the power of His will, and how the Son Himself was present in the work of Creation, for Christ Our Lord, the Son of God Incarnate, is also the Word of God, through Whom God created the world, when He willed all the things in Creation into being through His Word. God made all things perfect and all good, without blemish or flaw, until He created us all mankind in His own image, making us all to be partakers of His love, and to be the stewards of all the things that He had created. However, our ancestors chose to follow the falsehoods and lies of Satan instead, and succumbed to temptations, which was why sin entered into our hearts and bodies, corrupting us and leading to the loss of our state of grace, as well as expulsion from Eden.

But God never forsake us, not even once. While we had to wander in this world, full of sufferings and challenges, as the consequences of our rebellion and disobedience against God, as sin and corruptions caused by those sins have separated us from God’s grace and Holy Presence, but God has proclaimed from the very beginning the salvation which He would bring unto us, the deliverance that He promised to all of us, and which He fulfilled perfectly through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Through His suffering and death, He has led us to die to our own sins, to our past sinful and wicked selves, abandoning our past evils and wickedness, so that through His glorious Resurrection from the dead, He might lead us all to a new existence and life, one that is full of God’s grace and love.

From the other reading taken from the Book of Genesis, we heard how God called Abraham to bring his beloved son, Isaac, and offer him as a sacrifice to God at Mount Moriah. This sacrificial offering of Isaac is indeed intriguing first of all because Isaac was Abraham’s beloved and long-awaited son, as he had not been able to have a child with his wife, Sarah for a long time. God promised Abraham and made a Covenant with him, saying that he would become the father of many nations, and that he and Sarah would bear a son, even in their old age, which came true with the arrival of Isaac. God was testing Abraham, to see if he truly had faith in Him, and Abraham obeyed completely, trusting in God, and telling Isaac to trust in the Lord and to obey His words. Abraham trusted that the Lord knew what was best for him and his son, and that God will never break the Covenant which He Himself had made with him and his descendants.

At Mount Moriah, where Abraham brought Isaac to, God told Abraham to stay his hands and not to sacrifice Isaac as He had seen Abraham’s faith, and how he chose to obey Him completely and unquestionably, sending a ram instead to be sacrificed in the place of Isaac at that mountain. Now, this Mount Moriah according to tradition was where Jerusalem itself now stands, where the Temple of God once stood, and most importantly, where the Lord Jesus went up with His Cross to Calvary, the hill located just outside of the city of Jerusalem, where He suffered and died on His Cross. That hill of Calvary or Golgotha is therefore likely the exact same Mount Moriah where Isaac was supposed to be offered to God, only for God to place a ram in his place instead.

That was in fact a prefigurement of what would happen on Good Friday, at the moment when the Lord Jesus suffered and died on the Cross at Calvary. God gave His Son willingly to us, mirroring what Abraham had done, in giving and offering his son Isaac willingly to God. And then, the ram which God put in place of Isaac to be sacrificed is also a prefigurement of the role of Christ as the Paschal Lamb, the Lamb of God Who has been slaughtered and offered on the Altar of the Cross, offering the most worthy sacrifice and offering on our behalf, for the atonement of our many sins, so that through this offering of His own Most Precious Body and Blood, all of us can have the assurance of eternal life and liberation from the tyranny and dominion of sin and death.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, that reading reminds us of God’s love which has been manifested through His Son, Who bore upon Himself all the blame and punishments for our many sins and faults. He was blameless and without fault, and yet, He willingly took upon Himself the punishments due for our sins and evil deeds, offering us all the sure path to salvation, sparing us from the destruction that would have been our fate, had God not intervened and showed us all His love. God not sparing even His own beloved Son, all for our sake, is the ultimate proof of His faithfulness, His steadfastness to the Covenant which He had made with us, and renewed once and for all into a new and eternal Covenant through the Blood of His Son.

Then, as mentioned earlier, in the reading from the Book of Exodus we heard of the story of the moment when the people of Israel were brought out of the land of Egypt, stepping out from the land of their humiliation and misery, their slavery and sufferings in Egypt, as God miraculously opened the sea itself before all of them, through Moses His servant, who led the Israelites to walk safely through the sea to their freedom. The people of Israel was led by God to enter into the sea, safe from harm and led through to the other side on their journey to the land promised to them and their ancestors, and as we heard, later on God crushed their pursuers and enemies, the Egyptians and their war chariots, which God destroyed and smashed with the waves and the water of the same sea.

This reading is compulsory to be read this Easter Vigil because of its link and symbolism to the Sacrament of Baptism which many catechumens all around the world will be receiving during the Mass, as through baptism, they will receive the grace of sanctification from God, led through the waters of baptism to die to their old sinful lives and past actions not in harmony with God, sharing in the death of Christ on the Cross. Not only that, but just as Christ has risen gloriously from the dead, therefore, all those who have received the Sacrament of Baptism has also received a share in this glorious Resurrection, and at the appointed time, we shall also be raised in glory to enter into our heavenly and eternal existence with God, the life that is to come for us.

Water is both an agent of life and death, representing both the capacity for rejuvenation and destruction. It can take lives, but also can restore lives to those who need it. It is representing the renewal of our beings, our whole body, heart, mind and soul, as we are restored back to the unity and connection which we once had with God. Through Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, we have been brought from the darkness of this world into the light of God’s salvation and grace, taking us from the precipice of destruction back to where we are all supposed to be, to be once again in the loving presence of God and to enjoy once again the fullness of His love and grace, just as He has always intended it for us, from the very beginning, when He created us all, before sin corrupted us all and led us down this path of damnation.

That is why on this most joyous occasion of Easter, as we finally rejoice in great joy and exultation upon the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord, let us all therefore remember our own moment of baptism, the time when we pass through from the old life and existence of sin into the new life and existence once again filled with God’s grace and love. We must remember our calling, mission and whatever God has entrusted to us all as Christians, in embarking on this journey we have been entrusted with through our baptism. Baptism is merely just the beginning of our journey as Christians, the moment when we enter into this new life, and not the end of the journey. There are bound to be trials, challenges, difficulties and many other obstacles in our path, and if we are not careful, we may easily slip and fall again back into the path of sin. However, if we continue to remain true and faithful to our calling and mission as Christians, then we will surely remain true in our path towards God and His salvation.

Therefore, just as we pray today for our catechumens and all those who are going to be welcomed into the Church, let us all remind ourselves of our own journey as Christians, that each and every one of us will continue to go forth, ever joyfully proclaiming the Lord and His truth, His love and salvation to all the whole world through our lives, through our every actions, words and deeds. Let us all be truly good and worthy disciples and followers of the Lord, by doing His will and by continuing the great works which He has entrusted to us through His Church. May the Risen Lord be with us all and may He bless our every actions, efforts and endeavours, all for His greater glory, now and always. Alleluia! Amen!

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Friday, 29 March 2024 : Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is Good Friday, the day marking Our Lord’s suffering and death on the Cross at Calvary. On this day we remember primarily everything that Our Lord Jesus Himself had done in bearing up all the burdens of our many sins and wickedness, all the evils and corruptions we have had in our lives, the punishments due to them, as He willingly sacrificed and offered Himself on our behalf, giving us the assurance of eternal life and salvation because He, the Paschal Lamb and the High Priest of all of us mankind, had given Himself up and offered Himself as the perfect and worthy for the atonement of all of our many and innumerable sins. It was indeed Good Friday because while we are sorrowful over the suffering and death of Our Lord, but it was indeed ‘Good’ because through this event, all of us have received the assurance of salvation and eternal life.

In order to appreciate and understand this better, we have to go back all the way to the very beginning of time, at the moment of Creation. The Lord created all of creation, all of the whole Universe, and each and every one of the living things in it, and ultimately all of us mankind because He has loved everything that He has created, and He wants to share this overflowing love with each and every one of us. That was why He had created us, and yet, our ancestors from the beginning chose to disobey Him, disregard His commandments and guides, trusting instead in the falsehoods and lies of Satan, who tempted them to sin. They chose to eat from the fruits of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which God had told them not to eat from, and thereafter, they sinned against God and were cast out of the Gardens of Eden.

God has always intended for us to enjoy the fullness of His love and grace, and we were never intended to suffer in this world as what we and our ancestors have been experiencing. But it was by our own conscious choice to disobey the Lord, rejecting His generous offer of love, compassion and mercy, His guidance and help, which He has always provided to us along throughout our whole lives, we have therefore turned away from His love and grace, and having to endure the consequences and punishments because of those sins which we have committed. It was never His intention to punish us or see us destroyed, as if He had wished us to be destroyed, He could have just easily done it with the mere whim of His thought and will from the very beginning.

Instead, God has assured all of us that He would be sending us His Saviour, the One Who would bring about the deliverance of all mankind, the whole entire world from the power of sin, evil and death, all of which had dominated over us for a long period of time, as He would not let us all to suffer forever under their dominion and power. From the beginning, the Lord had already proclaimed the ultimate defeat of the evil one, and how He would avenge our forefathers, while gathering all of His faithful ones, all those who cling on to His truth and love, from being scattered all throughout this world, through none other than His own beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus, Who as our Good Shepherd and Guide, laid down His life for us because of His love for us.

In our first reading today, we heard from the passage taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, in which the Lord told His people through Isaiah of the prophecy of the coming of the Suffering Servant, the same One Whom God would send into the world to save His people. We heard of how Isaiah described that this Servant of God would face beatings, hardships, sufferings and pains for our sake and on our behalf, so that by His wounds and hurts, His injuries and pains, all of us would be healed and brought towards God’s salvation and grace. This was indeed the prophecy of everything that would happen to Jesus Christ at the moment of His Passion, when He suffered greatly, bearing His Cross and enduring the worst and most humiliating punishments known then, reserved only for the worst criminals.

For the crucifixion was the Romans’ ultimate form of punishment, reserved to the worst offenders and criminals, for those who were found to deserve death for their crimes. In particular, most crucifixions in fact did not involve the criminals being nailed to the Cross, but rather only being hung there on their respective crosses until they all died from thirst and exhaustion, or until they died when their legs were broken if they had not yet died. The Lord’s crucifixion was much worse because He was not just hung on the Cross, but pierced by the nails on His hands and feet, and He was also lashed and tortured, forced to wear the painful crown on thorns upon His head, bleeding and wounded from all over His entire body, stripped and humiliated before everyone to see His Suffering Self.

Thus in the Crucifixion of Our Lord at Calvary, everything that God had promised and prophesied through the prophet Isaiah came true, and as the author of the Epistle of the Hebrews mentioned in our second reading passage today, He, as Our one and true Eternal High Priest, Who has taken up our human nature and existence, obeyed His Father’s will so perfectly, so that He, as the New Adam, would come to the ‘Tree’ of the Cross, and obeying what God has planned for all of us, for our salvation, He would lead us all out of the darkness and reconciling us to our loving and ever merciful Father, Whom we can call Father because Jesus Himself, as the Son of God, through His Incarnation, has become one of us, sharing our human nature, and therefore, we share in His Sonship, becoming the adopted sons and daughters of God.

And through His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus as the New Adam, by His perfect obedience, showed us all the way out of our disobedience, as once caused by the disobedience of the first Adam, and his wife Eve. Together with Mary, His blessed Mother, who is the new Eve, the Lord showed us all the path that we all should follow in our journey towards God, in our pursuit of His salvation and grace. While our forefathers had chosen to disobey the Lord, eating the forbidden fruits of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and wanting to become like God, the Lord Jesus Himself showed us the exact opposite. He showed us all not just perfect obedience, but how God willingly humbled and emptied Himself, that He became a humble being like us, in our broken and imperfect human existence, just like us, with the exception of being without any sin.

Thus, we can see clearly here the opposite ideals shown in the Book of Genesis, when mankind’s fall happened because of a Tree and their disobedience, listening to Satan’s lies and allowing themselves to be swayed by those lies, and being driven by their desires and the temptations in their hearts, on the other hand, mankind’s salvation and return to grace came about because of the other Tree, the Tree of the Cross, upon which the Saviour Himself, the Son and Word of God Incarnate, chose to willingly suffer and die for our sake, in emptying Himself from all glory, and in humbly submitting Himself to His heavenly Father’s will, rejecting earlier on the three temptations of the same Satan, who failed to tempt the Lord with worldly power and glory in the desert.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, having understood better the greater idea and appreciation behind the means that the Lord had chosen in saving us, by reversing everything that had happened through our downfall into sin, and raising us up again through His obedience and His Cross, He showed us all the perfect path to redemption. Through His offering as our High Priest and sacrifice of His own Most Precious Body and Blood, broken and outpoured for us from His Cross, He has given us all the perfect offering in atonement for our sins, that no earthly means can give us. Our Paschal Lamb, Christ Himself, has suffered, died and was slain, sacrificed on the Altar of the Cross, and by His offering, truly worthy and acceptable, a most selfless and loving sacrifice made for us, He has saved us all.

Through His suffering and death, Christ has united each and every one of us to His death, which we share through our baptism, where we commit to die to our past sinful way of life, and we are reminded of this fact every time we renew our baptismal promises at Easter. And then, as we are about to celebrate with Easter in just over a day’s time, through His glorious Resurrection, Christ also united us all to His Resurrection, and we are brought into new existence and life, one that is no longer put under the power and dominion of sin and death, but one that is instead filled with God’s grace and love, and directed towards His Holy Presence, bound for eternal life.

That is why each and every one of us should make good use of the time and opportunities which God has given us, and the love He has shown us all from His Cross. As we gaze upon the Cross, looking upon our Crucified Messiah, let us all come to realise that every single wounds inflicted upon Him are our sins, caused by our disobedience against God and our folly in thinking that we know it better than to follow God and His path as we should have done. Let us all keep our focus upon the Cross, with sorrow and regret in our hearts for the many sins which we have committed in our respective lives, and from there, coming with the strong desire to seek God’s forgiveness and mercy, embracing His Son’s most loving sacrifice on the Cross. Let us all embark on this journey of faith, to enter into God’s Redemption and grace, and to be once again in His Loving Presence.

May the Lord Jesus Christ, our Crucified Messiah, be with us always in our journey of faith and life, so that we may also bear our crosses in life and follow Him faithfully. May He continue to help and guide us all, carrying His Cross together with us so that we may continue to persevere and do our best in enduring the many challenges and trials that we may encounter in our journey as Christians, in living our lives ever more faithfully in the path that God has shown and taught us. May God bless us all, at all times, and may He strengthen us all in faith, that we may draw ever closer to Him, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 28 March 2024 : Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord’s Supper (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this evening we are all celebrating the beginning of the important events of the Paschal or Easter Triduum in which we immerse ourselves into the very moments when the Lord Our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, had His Last Supper with His disciples the night before He was to suffer and die on the Cross at the pinnacle of His Passion. On this commemoration of the Last Supper, we celebrate the moment when the Lord instituted two important Sacraments of the Church, namely that of the Eucharist as well as the Holy Orders, especially that of the ministerial Priesthood. And at the same time, at that moment the Lord also mandated to His disciples what they all ought to do as His followers, which is why this Thursday is also known as Maundy Thursday, after the ‘Mandatum’ that the Lord gave to His disciples.

On this day, at the moment of the Last Supper, the Lord revealed to His disciples yet again how He would have to suffer grievously for the sake of the world and for all of us mankind, and how He would be betrayed by one of His own, persecuted, tortured and eventually die on the Cross. It was also at that moment, in which the Lord revealed that He would lay down His life, and get His Body broken, and His Blood shed for everyone, and He gave His Most Precious Body and Blood to all through His disciples, as He instituted the Eucharist by the sharing and giving of His Body and Blood when He prayed over the bread and wine that He and His disciples shared and partook in during that Last Supper. The bread and the wine had been transformed into the essence of the Lord’s own Most Precious Body and Blood, at the very first Mass.

That Last Supper itself was in fact part of the celebration of the Jewish Passover as how it was celebration two millennia ago, which in itself was based on the original first Passover that happened in the land of Egypt at the moment when the Lord brought out all the people of Israel out of the land of their slavery. That is what we heard from our first reading today, from the Book of Exodus in which the Lord told Moses and Aaron how they should be marking and celebrating the Passover, with the proper preparations before the event, and most importantly the provision of an unblemished lamb which had to be set aside and prepared, and then slaughtered, so that the blood of that Passover lamb can be used to mark the houses of the Israelites, and so that the lamb itself could be shared during the Passover meal.

In the Last Supper, what is obviously missing is the Passover lamb, which was not mentioned anywhere in the accounts of the Supper. From the earlier accounts of the preparation of this Supper, it was clear that this Last Supper was the Passover meal, as the Lord asked His disciples to find a place for them all to have the Passover meal, also known as the ‘Seder’. That particular meal then, was a peculiar one because the Passover lamb, the centrepiece of the whole meal was not mentioned. The truth and reality is that, the Lord Himself was the Passover Lamb, as He was to be the Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, the One Who would offer Himself as the worthy offering and sacrifice, for the atonement of all of our sins. Through His willing offering of His own Most Precious Body and Blood, slain for us, broken up for us, and His Blood outpoured upon us, He has marked us all for salvation, just as how the blood of the Passover lamb marked the houses of the Israelites that Death might pass them all by.

Therefore the Last Supper marked for us the beginning of the new Christian Passover, the one true and eternal Passover, the heavenly banquet which the Lord has prepared for each and every one of us. In that Passover, Christ Our Lord Himself is the Passover Lamb, Who offered Himself as the Sacrificial Victim, as the One Who willingly gave Himself so that through His suffering and death, He could lead us all into a new and everlasting life, a new existence filled with God’s love and grace. All of us who have share in His Body and Blood, given to us through the Eucharist, all have received the Bread of Life Himself, and as He Himself had said, that we who have eaten and shared of this Bread of Life will never perish but have eternal life. He did all these as He went through His Passion or suffering, all the things which He had done for us, out of His ever generous and ever present love.

The bread used in the Passover meal is known as the matzo, a type of unleavened bread used because the Israelites ate in haste when they were on their way out of the land of Egypt. The unleavened bread are wrapped in layers of cloth, which came with it deep symbolism to the Lord’s Passion, suffering and death, because this bread which the Lord took, blessed and then gave to His disciples is His own Most Precious Body, free from all blemish and corruption of sin, represented by the unleavened bread, which would soon be broken and slain on the Altar of the Cross, and those who are familiar with the detail of the Seder or Passover meal will know how the three matzo bread represent God’s work of salvation made through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour Himself.

The first bread which remained hidden in the layers of cloth throughout the meal represents God the Father Whose works were shown to us through Christ, Who manifested His love and compassion to us, and while the Father is not visible to us, it is the Son Who has revealed Him to us. The third bread is the representation of the Holy Spirit, through Whom God made His work tangible to us, through the Incarnation of His Son, and through all the works that the Holy Spirit had done in our midst, assisting the Father and the Son in the work of salvation. Lastly, the second bread which is broken, is the very representation of Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God, Who would be slain, broken and put to death for our sake, and this broken bread represent His death, which also represents His burial, when half of that second bread is put and wrapped back with the cloth.

It was indeed truly wonderful how the Lord’s instructions and rules regarding the Passover so many centuries before the time of Christ has already prefigured and prepared everyone for His coming and for all that He would do for the salvation of the whole world. Certainly no one could have foreseen or knew about it back then, and only after everything had happened, then those who have been blessed with hindsight and knowledge of the matter realised that God had been in the working all along, and the New Passover which Christ has brought unto us, which began at the Last Supper and culminated on His Crucifixion and death, all are in tandem and parallel with the original Passover, that while the original Passover marked the liberation of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt, the New Passover marks our liberation from sin and death.

And if we pay attention more carefully to the details of what happened, the Last Supper was not properly concluded as per the Jewish Passover, as there were four cups of wine to be drunk during the occasion of the Passover meal, namely the Cup of Sanctification, the Cup of Deliverance, the Cup of Redemption and the Cup of Praise, in which the promises of God’s salvation and the memory of how God had saved His people out of their slavery by the Egyptians were remembered. When the Lord shared and drank from the cup of wine in the Last Supper, He also told them that the next time He would drink the fruit of the vine would be in the Kingdom of God, representing the moment when He would accomplish everything that He had come to do in this world, with His Passion and death.

The Passover as mentioned, culminated on the Cross, when the Lord mentioned that He was thirsty. Many of us may be puzzled of the significance of these phrase that the Lord mentioned at the time. But when the Lord had drunk of the sour wine or vinegar as mentioned in the Gospel, He then mentioned, ‘It is accomplished.’ This signified the moment when the Passover of the New Covenant that the Lord had established, was indeed accomplished perfectly and completely, as the Lord drank the Cup of Redemption, the fulfilment of the New Covenant made between God and mankind, sealed through none other than His own Most Precious Blood. It is through the Lord, Our Paschal Lamb and Our Eternal High Priest, Who had offered on our behalf such a great and worthy offering and sacrifice, that we have been redeemed.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, as we continue to journey through these important moments of the Easter Triduum, and as we traditionally keep vigil with the Lord after the Mass this evening, let us all therefore reflect upon our own lives and our disposition in faith. Let us all remember the great love which God has shown us through His Son, Who has given us all His own Most Precious Body and Blood, through which He instituted the Most Holy Eucharist, so that we can partake in Him and therefore gain admittance into the promise and assurance of eternal life, grace and true joy with Him. At the same time, we have also been reminded of the Mandatum or the commission which He has entrusted to us, to do as He had done, in serving and loving one another. In that, He has also instituted the Priesthood, for those whom He has called and chosen to be His servants and ministers to His people, to all of us.

However, this does not mean that for the rest of us we do not have things for us to do. As Christians, each and every one of us are expected to do our part and live our lives most worthily, in doing what we can so that more and more people may come to know the Lord through us, and be inspired by our own faith and commitment to God. All of us should continue to do our part so that in everything that we say and do, we will always continue to be good examples for others, and that we will continue to show God’s love in all things, in caring for the needy and for the marginalised, and in inspiring others who are downtrodden and troubled. Let our lives be the beacons of God’s light and truth, and be the bearers of hope for all those who are in darkness and sin.

May the Lord continue to bless us and guide us in our journey of faith so that especially throughout our Paschal Triduum observance, and all that we are commemorating in the coming few days, we will grow ever stronger in our faith, commitment and love for God. May the Lord bless us in our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 28 March 2024 : Holy Thursday, Chrism Mass (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this morning we all gather together to celebrate this occasion of the Chrism Mass, when everyone assembled together, the priests of each dioceses in the world, in their respective dioceses, together with their respective shepherds, the bishops of the dioceses, to renew their commitment to the Lord, renewing their priestly vows and promises, and at the same time also celebrating the blessing and the consecration of the holy oils that are crucial for the use in the Church and its liturgical celebrations. On this day, this Chrism Mass, which is usually celebrated traditionally on the morning of the Holy Thursday, but which can be celebrated on other days, we all remember how our priests have dedicated and committed themselves and their lives to God, answering and heeding His call to be His servants, to be the ones to minister to His people.

In our first reading today, we heard from the passage of the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which the prophecy about the coming of God’s salvation that would come through the Saviour, Messiah or Christ, and everything that He would do for the salvation of the world. It was the Lord Jesus in our Gospel passage Who chose this exact same passage given to Him, to proclaim the fulfilment of everything that God has prophesied and promised to all of His people, through none other than Him, as the One Who would save the whole world, all of mankind, from the destruction due to our sins and wickedness, our evils and our infidelities. God has sent His own Beloved Son to our midst so that through Him He might gather us all, and being our High Priest, He might offer for us all, the perfect and most worthy offering and sacrifice for the atonement of our sins.

That is what we are going to celebrate starting this evening with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the Institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Institution of the Sacred Priesthood, that is foreshadowed now in this Chrism Mass. This is also what we are commemorating in this Paschal or Easter Triduum, as we are about to enter into the commemoration of the most important and remarkable events that happened two millennia ago, when Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, gave Himself to be betrayed and rejected, persecuted and oppressed, and condemned to death, so that He might offer on the Altar of His Cross at Calvary, the most perfect offering of His own broken and Most Precious Body, and the outpoured Most Precious Blood that He had given freely to all of us.

All these came to be so that He might free us all from the tyranny of sin and death, breaking forever the chains and the power, the dominion and control that sin has over any one of us. Through His perfect obedience, He has ended the dominion of sin, caused by the disobedience of mankind. He has shown us how to be truly and perfectly obedient to God, our heavenly Father and Master, by taking up His Cross, and willingly took it up all the way to Calvary, where He laid dying, suspended between the Heaven and the earth, bloodied and broken, having offered Himself, as our Eternal and True High Priest, giving to us all the new hope of eternal life, the freedom from the dominion of sin and death.

And He did not do it all alone, as He has called those whom He had called and chosen, to walk in this path, to be His servants, to be priests like Him, in the Order of Melchizedek the High Priest, to be God’s priests and servants forever. He has given the authority and power to all of His priests, those who are serving all of the people of God, namely our Pope, our bishops and priests, with the power to turn the bread and wine at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to be His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, being offered freely for us, for our salvation, at every celebration of the Holy Eucharist in the Mass. He has empowered all the priests to celebrate this Eucharist for us, so that all of us may also benefit and witness the same Sacrifice that He has performed at Calvary, for our redemption and salvation.

That is why today, the priests of the whole world renew their commitment to serve the Lord, to be His representatives in this world, to be the ones to celebrate the Sacraments, particularly that of the Holy Eucharist, to bring forth unto us all the same Sacrifice at Calvary, done in their presence ‘in Persona Christi’ during the time of the Consecration of the bread and wine, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, and by the authority given to all of them through the Church and the Apostles, from the Lord Himself, they may turn all the bread and wine, into the very essence and Real Presence of the Lord Himself, into His Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, which all of us partake, in one Holy Communion of all the faithful, that we become part of this same One Body of Christ, the Church.

That is why the role of the priests here are very important, as they are the only ones who can do so, and they are the ones given the power and authority to do this, and no one else. Without priests, we will not have the Sacraments to help us in our journey towards God and our salvation in Him. That is why today, as the priests renew their commitment to the Lord, let us all also pray for them and give them more of our support, strength and help, so that in whatever challenges and responsibilities that they are carrying, they can continue to shoulder them faithfully and courageously, doing whatever they can to serve the Lord to the best of their abilities, at all times and circumstances.

Today we also mark the occasion of the blessing of the holy oils, the Oil of the Catechumens used to mark the catechumens seeking for baptism and reception into the Church, the Oil of the Sick used in the Sacrament of the Sick and for the ministry to the ones who are suffering from illness and in the danger of death, and lastly the Sacred or Holy Chrism used in various purposes in the Church and its various liturgies, from the baptism and confirmation liturgies, for those who are baptised and confirmed in the faith, in the Ordination of those called to the Holy Orders, and in the Consecration and Dedication of churches and altars, to mark as sacred, holy and worthy all those that had been set aside for Divine worship and purpose. Like the kings of old had been consecrated to God with the pouring and anointing with the holy oils, thus, each and every one of us have received the holy oils at different stages and parts of our Christian living as well, as part of our mission and calling in life.

Yes, these holy oils have been blessed today so that we can also remember what the Lord had called us to do with our lives, in the respective missions that have been entrusted to us. While primarily we focus our attention today to those who have given their lives and dedicated themselves to the ministry of sacred priesthood, but we should also remember that each and every one of us in our respective parts and areas of life also have specific calling, ministries and vocations to do, and we have been called and reminded to follow them faithfully, and to do whatever we can so that our lives and vocations may be carried out well and faithfully, and by our lives and actions, we may truly glorify God and lead even more people ever closer to God and His salvation.

All of us must always be active members and parts of the Church, as the priests alone cannot do everything on their own. Instead, each and every parts and members of the Church must actively contribute in whatever way they can, so that through their actions and contributions, each and every one of them may assemble their efforts together and bring about lots of good deeds and actions that will help so many in their journey towards the Lord. Let us all therefore also commit ourselves anew on this occasion, together with all the priests who have renewed their priestly vows and promises this day, that each and every one of us will also continue to commit ourselves to live our lives worthily in the manner that the Lord has shown us through His Church. May the Lord be with us all, and bless particularly all of our priests, in everything that they all do, for His greater glory. Amen.