Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 4 : 7-10
My dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Those who do not love have not known God, for God is Love.
How did the love of God appear among us? God sent His only Son into this world that we might have life through Him. This is love : not that we loved God but that He first loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Liturgical Colour : White
John 15 : 12-17
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “This is My commandment : Love one another as I have loved you! There is no greater love than this, to give one’s life for one’s friends; and you are My friends, if you do what I command you.”
“I shall not call you servants any more, because servants do not know what their master is about. Instead I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learnt from My Father.”
“You did not choose Me; it was I who chose you and sent you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. And everything you ask the Father in My Name, He will give you. This is My command, that you love one another.”
Liturgical Colour : White
John 14 : 21-26
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever keeps My commandments is the one who loves Me. If he loves Me, he will also be loved by My Father; I too shall love him and show Myself clearly to him.”
Judas – not Judas Iscariot – asked Jesus, “Lord, how can it be that You will show Yourself clearly to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves Me, He will keep My word and My Father will love him; and We will come to him and make a room in his home. But if anyone does not love Me, he will not keep My words; and these words that you hear are not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”
“I told you all this while I was still with you. From now on, the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I have told you.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 117 : 2-4, 16ab and 17-18, 22-24
Let Israel say, “The Lord’s loving kindness endures forever.” Let the house of Aaron say, “His loving kindness endures forever.” Let those who fear the Lord say, “His loving kindness endures forever.”
The right hand of the Lord is lifted high, the right hand of the Lord strikes mightily! I shall not die, but live to proclaim what the Lord has done. The Lord has stricken me severely, but He has saved me from death.
The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing and we marvel at it. This is the day the Lord has made; so let us rejoice and be glad.
Liturgical Colour : White
Acts 4 : 32-35
The whole community of believers was one in heart and mind. No one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but rather they shared all things in common. With great power the Apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, for all of them were living in an exceptional time of grace.
There was no needy person among them, for those who owned land or houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of the sale. And they laid it at the feet of the Apostles who distributed it according to each one’s need.
Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 103 : 1-2, 5-6, 10, 12-14, 24 and 35
Bless the Lord, my soul! Clothed in majesty and splendour; O Lord, my God, how great You are! You are wrapped in light as with a garment; You stretch out the heavens like a tent.
You set the earth on its foundations, and never will it be shaken. You covered it with the ocean like a garment, and waters spread over the mountains.
You make springs gush forth in valleys winding among mountains and hills.
Birds build their nests close by and sing among the branches of trees. You water the mountains from Your abode and fill the earth with the fruit of Your work. You make grass grow for cattle and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth.
How varied o Lord, are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all – the earth full of Your creatures. May sinners vanish from the earth, and may the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, my soul!
Alternative Psalm
Psalm 32 : 4-7, 12-13, 20, 22
For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness. The heavens were created by His word, the breath of His mouth formed their starry host. He gathered the waters of the sea into a heap, and stored the deep in cellars.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.
In hope we wait for the Lord, for He is our help and our shield.
O Lord, let Your love rest upon us, even as our hope rests in You.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Isaiah 49 : 1-6
Listen to Me, o islands, pay attention, peoples from distant lands. YHVH called Me from My mother’s womb; He pronounced My Name before I was born. He made My mouth like a sharpened sword. He hid Me in the shadow of His hand. He made Me into a polished arrow set apart in His quiver.
He said to Me, “You are Israel, My servant, through You I will be known.” “I have laboured in vain,” I thought, and spent My strength for nothing. Yet what is due Me was in the hand of YHVH, and My reward was with My God. I am important in the sight of YHVH, and My God is My strength.
And now YHVH has spoken, He who formed Me in the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, to gather Israel to Him. He said : “It is not enough that You be My servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob, to bring back the remnant of Israel. I will make You the Light of the nations, that My salvation will reach to the ends of the earth.”
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard in the Holy Scriptures about the arrogance and selfishness of men, and on the contrary, how God is ever loving and forgiving, showing His mercy and love ever upon us all. As we embark upon the celebrations of the Holy Week starting tomorrow, we have to come to realise that for many times in our life, it is our selfishness and stubbornness that have brought about our downfall.
The people of Israel were torn into two peoples, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, because of the selfishness that grew in the heart of Solomon, the great king of Israel, as he grew older and became enamoured and occupied by his great wealth and by his many wives. And therefore by his stubbornness and refusal to listen to the Lord, calamity befell the people of God.
And as had been proven many times throughout the Old Testament, and even into the New Testament, the people of God had displayed selfish attitudes so many times so as to suggest that it is in their nature to be selfish, and indeed we mankind are all by nature selfish. And it is this selfishness that led Israel to constantly rebel against the will of God and disobey His commandments.
The Israelites constantly complained against the Lord and refused to listen to Him, demanding for more and more during their journey towards the Promised Land from Egypt, because of their inability to look beyond themselves. Each of them were only concerned about themselves and not for others, and definitely for the Lord. And this is despite the fact that God had given them abundance of food, large birds and others, even manna, the bread from heaven itself, and abundance of clear and clean water to drink in the midst of the desert.
And for many times, the kings of Israel did not give glory to God, but seek for their own glory and honour. They did not care about the Lord and His precepts, and in their rule, they mistreated the people and abused their power, and at the same time they misled the people into sin, into treating the prophets and the messengers of God badly, rejecting them and murdering them for having spoken the truth about their wickedness.
This is exactly the same resistance which Jesus had encountered when He came into the world, being rejected by His own people, His own townspeople of Nazareth, and by the Pharisees, the elders and the chief priests. They refused to listen to Him and they viewed Him as a threat to their own authority, to their own sphere of influence, and most importantly, to their own way of life as they had it.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, those people rejected the Lord because they thought first of themselves, as made clear by the elders themselves in our Gospel today, when they spoke of how Jesus and His actions would bring calamity and disaster to them, and to all that they held dear in their livelihood, as the Romans would come and destroy the Holy Temple and the Jewish nation.
Thus, to them the Temple and earthly things such as power, influence and nationhood is more important than honouring the Lord? They were interested only in furthering their own interests and advancing their own cause. This is why in their heart the Lord did not have any place at all, which is filled with their hubris and their pride. This is what our Lord had warned against, so that we will not follow in their path towards doom and annihilation.
Let us all reevaluate our lives and seek to be better in terms of our attitudes and our approach in life. We have to realise our sinfulness and how we can change for the better. What is at stake is none other than our own souls, our own fate. Do we want to enjoy for a while the pleasures of this world and risk our souls into eternal suffering? Or do we want to endure difficulties a bit, and then receive our eternal reward in joy?
May Almighty God guide us on our path, so that we may find our way to Him and be saved from the darkness of this world and turned to the light. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Jeremiah 31 : 10, 11-12ab, 13
Hear the word of YHVH, o nations, proclaim it on distant coastlands : He who scattered Israel will gather them and guard them as a shepherd guard his flock.
For YHVH has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand of his conqueror. They shall come shouting for joy, while ascending Zion; they will come streaming to YHVH’s blessings.
Maidens will make merry and dance, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness, I will give them comfort and joy for sorrow.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are drawing ever closer to the end of Lent and the celebrations of the Holy Week, when we will be commemorating the most important events of our faith. It is therefore important that we have made the best use out of this time of Lent to prepare ourselves in our body, heart and mind to celebrate together the great celebration of next week and that of Easter.
All of this boils down to one thing, that we have to know what our faith is about, and in what we believe that is our faith. We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, whom God begotten from Himself before all ages, and who is part of the Divine Lord, one of the Three Divine Persons of the singular God. That means, we believe in Jesus who is God, and who is also Man at the same time, having assumed the flesh of man, in order to bring about our salvation.
For indeed, there is only One God, and it is to Him that we dedicate all of our beings and all of our devotions. However, we know that by faith, that the Lord is working at all times in order to bring about good to this world and to all of His creations, especially for all of us mankind, His most beloved people. And thus, while the Father creates and governs all of creation, and the Holy Spirit is the driving force behind all things and the source of life, thus, the Son is the most intimate and direct manifestation of God, for He took the form of us all, and became visible to us, as God made Man.
God that was once beyond all things and beyond comprehension had made Himself visible to all, comprehensible and tangible, through Jesus Christ, who was sent into the world, so that all the world might be saved, including all of us today. By taking our own form, and by His showing of perfect obedience as the Son, who is obedient of the Father, He had shown us all mankind a new hope. Yes, a new hope that we have the chance and opportunity to free ourselves from the bonds of sin.
Jesus showed us all the way to reach out to the Lord and to find our way to our salvation, that is by following what Jesus had done, and by listening to what He had taught us and by acting according to what He had said. It is because of our rebelliousness that we have been estranged from receiving the fullness of God’s grace and promise, and so it is by the obedience of Christ that we have been brought to salvation.
St. Paul stated in one of his letters that just as the first Adam had fallen from grace by his disobedience, therefore, the New Adam, that is Christ had redeemed mankind by His own obedience to the Lord, to the will of His Father. On this day, as we reflect on the words of the Holy Scriptures, we all should also reflect on how Christ had lived His earthly life, so that we may also emulate what He had done.
He faced such a great challenge and suffering awaiting Him, and He knew all that would happen to Him. And yet, although He was tempted by His human nature, but He remained completely resolute in His desire to save all of us. Such great was His love for all of us indeed. He persevered through all of the evils and sufferings, all the humiliations and rejections so that we do not have to go through all of them if we indeed fall into hell. He gave us a new chance, a new opportunity in life.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all not waste this perfect opportunity which had been given to us. We have to take this opportunity and make best use out of it, so that we may be changed and transformed, from a people controlled by our pride and our desires, to become faithful and obedient people of God, following the footsteps of our Lord Himself who had shown us the way.
Indeed, the path would not be easy, and just as Jesus Himself had suffered, we also would suffer as well. There will be plenty of challenges and difficulties awaiting us along the way, and we will be rejected by the world, but we can be assured that our reward will be great beyond compare. Let us therefore look up to the hope which our God had offered us, and let us be grateful for all that He had done for us. God bless us all. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 