Passiontide

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Monday, 27 March 2023 : 5th Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 22 : 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.

He guides me through the right paths for His Name’s sake. Although I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are beside me : Your rod and Your staff comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of my foes. You anoint my head with oil; my cup is overflowing.

Goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

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Monday, 27 March 2023 : 5th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Daniel 13 : 1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62

There lived in Babylon a man named Joakim, who was married to a very beautiful God-fearing woman, Susanna, Hilkiah’s daughter, whose pious parents had trained her in the law of Moses. A very rich man and greatly respected by all the Jews, Joakim was frequently visited by the Jews in his house adjoining a garden.

That year, two elders of the people were appointed judges, in whom this word of the Lord became true, “Wickedness has come forth from Babylon, through the elders appointed judges, who were supposed to govern the people.” These men frequented Joakim’s house, and all who had legal disputes used to come to them.

After the people had left at noon, Susanna would go into her husband’s garden for a walk. The two old men began to lust for her as they watched her enter the garden every day. Forgetting the demands of justice and virtue, their lust grew all the more as they made no effort to turn their eyes to heaven.

One day, as they were waiting for an opportune time, Susanna entered the garden as usual with only two maids. She decided to bathe, for it was a hot day. Nobody else was there except the two elders watching her from where they had hidden themselves. She said to the maids, “Bring me oil and ointments, and shut the garden doors while I bathe.”

When the maids had left, the two elders hurried to her and said, “Look, the garden doors are shut and no one sees us. We desire to posses you. If you refuse to give in, we will testify that you sent your maids away for there was a young man here with you.” Susanna moaned, “Whatever I do, I am trapped. If I give in to your desire, it will be death for me; if I refuse, I will not escape your persecution. I would rather be persecuted than sin in the eyes of the Lord.”

Susanna shrieked, but the old men shouted, putting the blame on her. One of them ran and opened the garden doors. Hearing the noise in the garden, the household servants rushed in by the side entrance to see what was happening. They were taken aback when they heard the elders’ accusation, for never had anything like this been said of Susanna.

The next day a meeting was held at Joakim’s house. The two elders arrived, vindictively determined to have Susanna sentenced to death. They ordered before all the people, “Send for Susanna, Hilkiah’s daughter and Joakim’s wife.” They sent for her, and she came with her parents, children and all her relatives. Her family and all who saw her wept.

The two elders stood up and laid their hands upon her head. Completely trusting in the Lord, she raised her tearful eyes to heaven. The elders started making their accusation, “We were taking a walk in the garden when this woman came in with two maids. She ordered them to shut the garden doors and dismissed them. Then a young man came out of hiding and lay with her. We were in a corner in the garden, and we saw this crime from there.”

“We ran to them, and caught them in the act of embracing. We were unable to take hold of the man. He was too strong for us. He made a dash for the door, opened it and ran off. But we were able to seize this woman. We asked her who the young man was, but she refused to tell us. This is our statement, and we testify to its truth.”

The assembly took their word, since they were elders and judges of the people. Susanna was condemned to death. She cried aloud, “Eternal God, nothing is hidden from You; You know all things before they come to be. You know that these men have testified falsely against me. Would You let me die, though I am not guilty of all their malicious charges?”

The Lord heard her, and as she was being led to her execution, God aroused the Holy Spirit residing in a young lad named Daniel. He shouted, “I will have no part in the death of this woman!” Those present turned to him, “What did you say?” they all asked.

Standing in their midst, he said to them, “Have you become fools, you Israelites, to condemn a daughter of Israel without due process and in the absence of clear evidence? Return to court, for those men have falsely testified against her.” Hurriedly they returned, and the elders said to Daniel, “Come and sit with us, for you also possess the gifts bestowed by God upon the elders.”

Daniel said to the people, “Separate these two men from one another and I will examine each of them.” When the two elders were separated from each other, Daniel called one of them and said, “How wicked you have grown with age. Your sins of earlier days have piled up against you, and now is the time of reckoning.”

“Remember how you have passed unjust sentences, condemning the innocent and freeing the guilty, although the Lord has said, ‘The innocent and the just should not be put to death.’ Now, if you really witnessed the crime, under what tree did you see them do it?”

The elder answered, “Under a mastic tree.” Daniel said, “Your lie will cost you your head. You will be cut in two, as soon as the Lord’s Angel receives your sentence from God.” Putting the first one aside, Daniel called the other elder and said to him, “You offspring of Canaan and not of Judah, you have long allowed yourself to be perverted by lust.”

“This is how you have dealt with the daughters of Israel, who out of fear have yielded to you. But here is a daughter of Judah who would not tolerate your wickedness. Tell me then, under what tree did you catch them committing the crime?”

The answer came, “Under an oak.” “Your lie has also cost you your head,” Daniel said. “God’s Angel waits to cut you both in two.” The whole assembly shouted and blessed God for helping those who hope in Him. They turned against the two elders who, through Daniel’s efforts, had been convicted by their own mouths. In accordance with Moses’ law, the penalty the two elders had intended to impose upon their neighbour was inflicted upon them. They were sentenced to death. Thus was the life of an innocent woman spared that day.

Alternative reading (shorter version)

Daniel 13 : 41c-62

Susanna was condemned to death. She cried aloud, “Eternal God, nothing is hidden from You; You know all things before they come to be. You know that these men have testified falsely against me. Would You let me die, though I am not guilty of all their malicious charges?”

The Lord heard her, and as she was being led to her execution, God aroused the Holy Spirit residing in a young lad named Daniel. He shouted, “I will have no part in the death of this woman!” Those present turned to him, “What did you say?” they all asked.

Standing in their midst, he said to them, “Have you become fools, you Israelites, to condemn a daughter of Israel without due process and in the absence of clear evidence? Return to court, for those men have falsely testified against her.” Hurriedly they returned, and the elders said to Daniel, “Come and sit with us, for you also possess the gifts bestowed by God upon the elders.”

Daniel said to the people, “Separate these two men from one another and I will examine each of them.” When the two elders were separated from each other, Daniel called one of them and said, “How wicked you have grown with age. Your sins of earlier days have piled up against you, and now is the time of reckoning.”

“Remember how you have passed unjust sentences, condemning the innocent and freeing the guilty, although the Lord has said, ‘The innocent and the just should not be put to death.’ Now, if you really witnessed the crime, under what tree did you see them do it?”

The elder answered, “Under a mastic tree.” Daniel said, “Your lie will cost you your head. You will be cut in two, as soon as the Lord’s Angel receives your sentence from God.” Putting the first one aside, Daniel called the other elder and said to him, “You offspring of Canaan and not of Judah, you have long allowed yourself to be perverted by lust.”

“This is how you have dealt with the daughters of Israel, who out of fear have yielded to you. But here is a daughter of Judah who would not tolerate your wickedness. Tell me then, under what tree did you catch them committing the crime?”

The answer came, “Under an oak.” “Your lie has also cost you your head,” Daniel said. “God’s Angel waits to cut you both in two.” The whole assembly shouted and blessed God for helping those who hope in Him. They turned against the two elders who, through Daniel’s efforts, had been convicted by their own mouths. In accordance with Moses’ law, the penalty the two elders had intended to impose upon their neighbour was inflicted upon them. They were sentenced to death. Thus was the life of an innocent woman spared that day.

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Sunday, 26 March 2023 : Fifth Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we mark the occasion of the Fifth Sunday of Lent and therefore we are reminded that it is just another one week from the beginning of the Holy Week and two weeks from the glorious season of Easter. As we come closer to the most solemn and important parts and celebrations of our whole entire liturgical year, each and every one of us are reminded at this point and juncture, of what we have to do as Christians, in living our lives in accordance with the way of the Lord and in having His Presence in our lives, to be filled with His Spirit and His love. Each and every one of us have been blessed with many great and wonderful gifts from God, and it is truly up to us whether we want to live our lives in a way that is worthy of the Lord or not. This Sunday, as we enter into this time of deeper reflection, all of us are reminded that if we have not yet done so, we should make good use of the remainder of this time of Lent to reexamine our path, our actions and way of life.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel in which we heard the Lord’s words to the prophet Ezekiel and to His people, the Israelites and their descendants, of how He still truly loved them and cared for them, and how through Him they would have life once again. The Lord told them all that He would put His Spirit in them again and they would live, as a reference to the earlier part of the same chapter of the Book of Ezekiel, in which the prophet Ezekiel saw a vision of a valley filled with many dry human bones, and how suddenly right before his very own eyes, all those bones began to reassemble themselves and becoming humans once again, becoming covered with muscles and sinews, and then the Spirit of God coming down upon them all, and before Ezekiel was laid a huge throng of the people of God, all living and breathing.

This was a symbolic representation of how God would restore His beloved people, and how He would grant them new life and restore them to grace and happiness with Him. He would gather all of them and give them His Spirit, to rejuvenate them and bring them back from their land of exile into the land that has been promised and kept for them, the land of their home and the land of their ancestors. God would save them all just the way He has once saved their ancestors from the land of Egypt. Back then, the people of Israel at the time of the prophet Ezekiel had been scattered away from their homeland, exiled in distant lands and had their cities, towns, villages and land ransacked, destroyed and crushed. Their great Temple of God, long defiled by their wickedness and evils, the worship of idols by their ancestors, were destroyed and the great Ark of the Covenant disappeared.

Therefore, this was akin to some kind of ‘death’ in the psyche of the people of God, and God therefore was revealing through Ezekiel that He would restore them back to a new life through Him, when He would rescue them and bring them all back to their homeland. The Lord revealed what He would do in allowing them all to return to their homeland, as how it would indeed happen, when several decades later, He moved the heart of the Great King of Persia, Cyrus the Great, to allow the whole people of Israel to return back to their homeland and even to rebuild their cities and the Temple of God in Jerusalem. The Lord reminded His beloved people that He would not abandon them and leave them behind despite the rebellious attitude that the people has shown Him, and despite them having abandoned and rejected Him first. He did not want them all to perish but live forever with Him, as He has always intended.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the well-known story of the Lord Jesus resurrecting one of His friends, Lazarus, from the dead. In a similar theme to the first reading we heard from the Book of Ezekiel, we heard how God restored life to His beloved ones, and in this case to one of His own close friends. Lazarus was the brother of the sisters Mary and Martha, who were also good friends of the Lord and often followed Him in His ministry. Back then, as we heard from the Gospel passage, Lazarus fell really ill and was on the verge of death when his sisters sent a message to the Lord telling Him about their predicament. The Lord truly loved and cared for Lazarus, but at the same time, the events had also likely been preordained by His heavenly Father, to be the example and showcase of the truth behind the true identity of the Lord Jesus, as the One sent into our midst to be our Saviour, and to rescue us from destruction and death.

Thus, the Lord intentionally delayed His departure for Lazarus’ place near Jerusalem until eventually, the latter passed away before the Lord arrived. The Lord was indeed struck deeply by the passing of Lazarus, and that was the origin of the famous shortest sentence in the entire Gospels and Scriptures, ‘And Jesus wept.’, which highlighted the love that He has for His beloved friend, and the love which He also has for each and every one of us. That sentence, though short, delivered to us the very powerful meaning and revelation that God truly loves us, from deep within His heart, and He does not want any one of us to be lost to Him through death, which is an echo of what we heard in our first reading today. God’s love was made manifest to us in His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, Who came into our midst to show the perfection of this Love incarnate in the flesh, and which was made even more tangible to us, by the tears that Our Lord Himself has shed.

This was one of the several occasions that the Lord shed tears, the other one being the Lord weeping over Jerusalem, and lamenting all the sins and wickedness that the people had committed, which would have led them into the path towards damnation. God does not want any of them to fall into this path precisely because He loved all of them very much, and does not desire to see their destruction. The other occasion that some Biblical scholars argued as the occasion when the Lord shed tears was when He was in agony in the Gardens of Gethsemane just before He was to be betrayed and condemned to death during His Passion. At that time, the Lord agonised over the great responsibility and burden that He had to bear for us, but He bore it all with love, and some experts said that it was likely that the Lord might have shed tears too at that time, when He remembered each and every one of us and willingly took upon Himself the burdens of our many sins.

Thus, this is where all of us need to realise just how blessed and fortunate all of us are, to have been beloved so much by the Lord, Our God and Saviour, our loving Father and Creator. He Who loves us so much certainly does not want us to be lost from Him or to be separated from Him, and as mentioned, He gave us all His only begotten Son, the Son of God, incarnate in our midst, for this very purpose. He, the Master of Life and Death, the Lord and the Giver of Life, endeavoured to lead us all out of the darkness of our current existence, just as what He has proclaimed to the people of Israel back then through the prophet Ezekiel. We have sinned against God, disobeyed Him and refused His love and mercy many times, but He still cared for us and loved us very much nonetheless, and sent us His many servants, messengers and reminders to help us in our path, that hopefully His words may touch us and lead us to repentance and reconciliation with Him.

Through what we have heard in our Scripture passages today, we can see that not even death can part us from the love of God. God loves us all and He desires to lift us all up to Himself, freeing ourselves from the bondage of sin and death. And since death is the just consequence and punishment for sin, He sent His Son to us, in order to break the chains of sin holding down us once and for all. This is what we have been preparing ourselves for this whole season and time of Lent, which is to bring our attention back towards the Lord and everything that He had done for us, in everything He did, by leading us out of the darkness and bringing us by His own hands to the path towards righteousness and eternal life. We look forward to the celebrations of the deepest mysteries and aspects of our faith in the Holy Week of Our Lord’s Passion, His suffering and death, and ultimately glorious Resurrection from the dead, to remind ourselves firstly of God’s love for us, and also that in Him alone we can have true life and joy.

That is what St. Paul reminded the faithful in Rome in his Epistle to them in our second reading today, and which is also an apt and timely reminder for all of us as well. The Apostle spoke of how those who have life ought to have the Spirit of Christ within them, or else, they will not have any part with the Lord, and hence, on the day of Judgment will be cast out and destroyed. This means that we must receive the Spirit of God, the Spirit that renews and rejuvenates us in the same manner as how God turned that valley of dry bones into a vast multitude of living and breathing people, and how He has raised Lazarus from the dead. He had put His Spirit into us, and we have been restored into life, a new life and existence that is blessed by Him, and by this reconciliation and renewed unity we have with the Lord, all of us may enter into the glory of the kingdom and eternal life promised to all of those who have remained firmly faithful in Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we enter into the period known as the Passiontide, beginning on this Fifth Sunday of Lent, traditionally known as the Passion Sunday, let us all therefore deepen our immersion into the penitential nature of this season of Lent, a time of preparation of our hearts and minds such that we may come into deeper understanding of the mystery of our faith, the love that God has for each and every one of us, and the acuteness of the sins and the wickedness that have afflicted us deep within our beings. Sin comes from our disobedience against God, from our rebellion against His will and the rejection of His love, and God has given us all the freedom to choose our path in life. Now, it is really therefore up to us whether we want to embrace God’s path and love, or whether we prefer to follow the path of sin and evil that many of us have often walked in all these while.

Let us remember that the path of sin and evil leads to nothing but eternal damnation and destruction, and while that path may seem to be easier or much more convenient than the path that God has shown us, we have been given the Wisdom, knowledge and revelation of what awaits us should we continue to walk down that path. On the other hand, if we follow the path that the Lord has shown us and willingly lead us all by His own hands, we shall attain the perfection of His love and grace, and the new life, blessed existence with Him, that begins right here in this world, and then continuing for everlasting life beyond death. Death has no hold or power over us who adhere to the love of God and to the path of His righteousness and grace, because He, the Master of Life, will deem us worthy of Him, and deserve therefore the gift of eternal life and blissful existence forever in His Presence.

Let us therefore do our best, brothers and sisters in Christ, to live our lives well and to contemplate our choice of action, beginning from this Lent onwards, and through each and every moments of our lives so that we may no longer fall again and again into the trap of sin and the vices of the world. May the Lord our most loving God, He Who raised Lazarus from the dead, the Lord and the Giver of Life, through His Holy Spirit, grant us strength, courage and rejuvenate our spirit, that we may continue to persevere in this life and overcome the many temptations and obstacles surrounding us in our journey and path towards Him, Our Lord and Saviour. May God bless us all, in all things, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 26 March 2023 : Fifth Sunday of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 11 : 1-45

At that time, there was a sick man named Lazarus who was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This is the same Mary, who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped His feet with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was sick.

So the sisters sent this message to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.” On hearing this, Jesus said, “This illness will not end in death; rather it is for God’s glory, and the Son of God will be glorified through it.”

It is a fact that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus; yet, after He heard of the illness of Lazarus, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was. Only then did He say to His disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.” They replied, “Master, recently the Jews wanted to stone You. Are You going there again?”

Jesus said to them, “Are not twelve working hours needed to complete a day? Those who walk in the daytime shall not stumble, for they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, for there is no light in them.” After that Jesus said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him.”

The disciples replied, “Lord, a sick person who sleeps will recover.” But Jesus had referred to Lazarus’ death, while they thought that He had meant the repose of sleep. So Jesus said plainly, “Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there, for now you may believe. But let us go there, where he is.” Then Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

When Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. As Bethany is near Jerusalem, about two miles away, many Jews had come to Martha and Mary, after the death of their brother, to comfort them. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him, while Mary remained sitting in the house. And she said to Jesus, “If You had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.” Jesus said, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection, at the last day.” But Jesus said to her, “I am the Resurrection. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, shall live. Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” Martha then answered, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, He Who is coming into the world.”

After that Martha went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The Master is here and is calling for you.” As soon as Mary heard this, she rose and went to Him. Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met Him. The Jews, who were with her in the house consoling her, also came. When they saw her get up and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep.

As for Mary, when she came to the place where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, who had come with her, He was moved in the depths of His Spirit and troubled. Then He asked, “Where have you laid him?” They answered, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept.

The Jews said, “See how He loved him!” But some of them said, “If He could open the eyes of the blind man, could He not have kept this man from dying?” Jesus was deeply moved again, and drew near to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across it. Jesus said, “Take the stone away.” Martha said to Him, “Lord, by now he will smell, for this is the fourth day.” Jesus replied, “Have I not told you that, if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone.

Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You for You have heard Me. I knew that You hear Me always; but My prayer was for the sake of these people, that they may believe that You sent Me.” When Jesus had said this, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Untie him, and let him go.” Many of the Jews who had come with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw what He did.

Alternative reading (shorter version)

John 11 : 3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45

So the sisters sent this message to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.” On hearing this, Jesus said, “This illness will not end in death; rather it is for God’s glory, and the Son of God will be glorified through it.”

It is a fact that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus; yet, after He heard of the illness of Lazarus, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was. Only then did He say to His disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.”

When Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him, while Mary remained sitting in the house. And she said to Jesus, “If You had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.” Jesus said, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection, at the last day.” But Jesus said to her, “I am the Resurrection. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, shall live. Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” Martha then answered, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, He Who is coming into the world.”

Jesus was moved in the depths of His Spirit and troubled. Then He asked, “Where have you laid him?” They answered, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept.

The Jews said, “See how He loved him!” But some of them said, “If He could open the eyes of the blind man, could He not have kept this man from dying?” Jesus was deeply moved again, and drew near to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across it. Jesus said, “Take the stone away.” Martha said to Him, “Lord, by now he will smell, for this is the fourth day.” Jesus replied, “Have I not told you that, if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone.

Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You for You have heard Me. I knew that You hear Me always; but My prayer was for the sake of these people, that they may believe that You sent Me.” When Jesus had said this, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Untie him, and let him go.” Many of the Jews who had come with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw what He did.

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Sunday, 26 March 2023 : Fifth Sunday of Lent (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Romans 8 : 8-11

So, those walking according to the flesh cannot please God. Yet your existence is not in the flesh, but in the spirit, because the Spirit of God is within you. If you did not have the Spirit of Christ, you would not belong to Him.

But Christ is within you; though the body is branded by death as a consequence of sin, the spirit is life and holiness. And if the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from the dead is within you, He Who raised Jesus Christ from among the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. Yes, He will do it through His Spirit Who dwells within you.

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Sunday, 26 March 2023 : Fifth Sunday of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 129 : 1-2, 3-4ab, 4c-6, 7-8

Out of the depths I cry to You, o Lord, o Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears pay attention to the voice of my supplication.

If You should mark our evil, o Lord, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness.

For that You are revered. I waited for the Lord, my soul waits, and I put my hope in His word. My soul expects the Lord more than watchmen the dawn.

O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with Him is unfailing love and with Him full deliverance. He will deliver Israel from all its sins.

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Sunday, 26 March 2023 : Fifth Sunday of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Ezekiel 37 : 12-14

YHVH said to Ezekiel, “So prophesy! Say to them : This is what YHVH says : I am going to open your tombs, My people, and lead you back to the land of Israel. You will know that I am YHVH, o My people! When I open your graves and bring you out of your graves.”

“When I put My Spirit in you and you live. I shall settle you in your land and you will know that I, YHVH, have done what I said I would do.”

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(Usus Antiquior) Passion Sunday (I Classis) – Sunday, 26 March 2023 : Introit and Collect

Liturgical Colour : Violet

Introit

Psalm 42 : 1-2 and 3

Judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta : ab homine iniquo et doloso eripe me : quia Tu es Deus meus et fortitudo mea.

Emitte lucem Tuam et veritatem Tuam : ipsa me deduxerunt et adduxerunt in montem sanctum Tuum et in tabernacula Tua.

Response : Judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta : ab homine iniquo et doloso eripe me : quia Tu es Deus meus et fortitudo mea.

English translation

Judge me, o God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy. Deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man. For You are my God and my Strength.

Send forth Your light and Your truth, they have conducted me, and brought me unto Your holy hill, and into Your tabernacles.

Response : Judge me, o God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy. Deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man. For You are my God and my Strength.

Collect

Quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, familiam Tuam propitius respice : ut, Te largiente, regatur in corpore : et, Te servante, custodiantur in mente. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English translation

Look with favour upon Your household, we beseech You, o Almighty God, that, by Your gift, it may be governed in body and, by Your preservation, may be guarded in Spirit. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

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Sunday, 17 April 2022 : Easter Vigil Mass, Easter Sunday of the Lord’s Resurrection (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, after a long period of forty days and the six Sundays of Lent that we have spent before this night, we have finally come to the culmination of all of our preparations for this most important event in all the history of mankind and in the history of our salvation. For this very night we commemorate that time when Christ Our Lord, our Crucified Saviour, rose gloriously from the dead, overcoming sin and death, and therefore barring open the gates of hell, showing the triumphant victory of God and His faithful ones against the forces of evil and darkness, against sin and death.

Tonight as we gather together to celebrate the coming of Easter, we rejoice greatly as we finally see the great Hope and Light that Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour had shown us by His glorious Resurrection, that we know that sin no longer has its hold on us, and death no longer has the final say over us. There is life and existence after death, when our physical bodies meet its end in this world, because we shall rise and join our Risen Lord in a new and blissful existence, sharing in the joy of all the Angels and saints in Heaven, to be forever with God and to be in His light and Presence always.

That is why we sing with great joy the Gloria tonight, praising God and singing our joyful heart out, glorifying Our Lord Who has conquered sin and death, and Who has loved us all so much and so dearly that He has done all these things for us, as we look back to our Holy Week journey to remind us of everything that He had done for us. We sing the great Alleluia, the triumphant proclamation of praise and joy, which we have not sung for the entirety of the season of Lent, as we look forward to the true and great joy of seeing God’s light and salvation in our midst, reflecting the joy that the disciples had upon seeing that empty tomb and then later on, seeing the Risen Lord in their midst.

In our many Scripture readings tonight, traditionally numbering seven from the Old Testament, the First to the Seventh Reading, and then two from the New Testament, the Epistle and the Gospel reading, we have heard the long account of God’s plan of salvation for each and every one of us from the beginning of Creation, culminating at the Lord’s Resurrection in our Gospel today where all of God’s plans and promises were accomplished and fulfilled perfectly. Let us look back into those readings to remind ourselves of how beloved we are in God’s eyes that He has done so much for our redemption and liberation from sin and death. We are reminded that He has loved us so much that He gave us His only begotten Son, that through Him we will not perish but have eternal life.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Genesis, we heard of the account of the Creation of the universe, the whole world as know it. Through His will and by His words, all of the universe we created, God creating everything that exists and made everything as He desired it to be, all good and perfect as we heard the Lord Himself saying. He made the firmaments, the Heaven and the Earth, and all the living things, from the smallest to the greatest. The Lord then lastly also made us all mankind, the pinnacle of all His creation, as creatures made in His own image and appearance. He gave us the Spirit of life, and made us all good and perfect.

We may wonder why God had created us all in the first place. After all, is God not perfect and has everything? God has no need or any shortage of anything. He has perfect love shared within Himself in the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But the reason why God created us all and everything is indeed that love is not truly full and wholesome unless it is shared with even more people. That is why God created all of us, in order to share His overflowing love with us. We were always destined and meant to live in pure happiness and bliss with God, just as how the Gardens of Eden were described as a blissful and perfect place.

It was by our own failure to resist the temptations to sin, in giving to the desires of our hearts that led us into our downfall. Satan, the great adversary plotted for our destruction and downfall, and he knew well how to tempt us. He tempted Eve and eventually Adam through her to disobey God’s commands by eating the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and as a result sin entered by into the hearts of mankind. Ever since then, sin has reigned over us and we have been made defiled and corrupted, and thus we are no longer able to be hiwith God. That was why Adam and Eve were both cast out of Eden.

God created all things good and perfect, and that includes us all as well, brothers and sisters in Christ. But sin enslaved us all, corrupted us and made us all separated from God. Yet, God did not give up on us, and He still loved us all the same. He could have destroyed and annihilated us by the mere power of His will, or to condemn us all to hellfire just as what happened to Satan and all the fallen angels, but He clearly did not do so. He loves us all mankind beyond anything else, as His own most beloved ones, as His beloved children that He has formed and made His own. Because of this, it is natural that God wants to find us and be reconciled with us.

Hence, He promised us His salvation that He would send into our midst, and He made a Covenant with us through Abraham as His effort to rebuild the relationship that has been broken with us, and this Covenant was meant as a reminder of the great love that He has for each and every one of us, that in the end, He did not desire our destruction but instead our reconciliation with Him. That Covenant serves as a reminder of this love that God has for each and every one of us. And most importantly, a Covenant involves both parties that take part in the Covenant, and just as God has reached out to us with love and mercy, then we have to respond to Him as well.

Then, we ought to remember how the Lord blessed and fulfilled His promises to Abraham, and as He has promised to him, he became the father of many nations and many people. These descendants of Abraham, the Israelites, God’s chosen people was led by God to Egypt during the time of great famine, and then blessed them and made them prosper greatly in the land of Egypt which led to them being enslaved by the Egyptians and their Pharaoh. But God again showed His great love and compassion for His people, in sending Moses, whom He called to be His servant, and then through Moses and his brother Aaron, God performed many great miracles and signs, sending ten Great Plagues to persuade and force the Egyptians to let His people go free.

In our third reading today, we heard that iconic moment in the history of God’s people, recounting to us the moment when the Israelites were pursued all the way to the edge of the sea, out of which there was no where else to go. They were at the threshold of escaping and leaving behind the land of their slavery towards freedom, on their way towards the Promised Land at Canaan, promised to them and their ancestors from the days of Abraham. They were all afraid and fearful seeing all of the armies and the chariots of the Pharaoh and the Egyptians, but God was with His people, and He did not just stop those armies and chariots with a great pillar of fire, but He also opened the sea itself before them.

I am sure all of us are familiar with the story of how the Israelites walked through the sea on the dry seabed, and how they were led to the other side through the water, and then the Lord brought the water and the waves down against the Egyptians who tried to pursue after the people of Israel, crushing their armies and chariots, winning a great victory and triumph for the people He had chosen and loved as His own. And this reading is very symbolic for today in particular especially because this night is typically when the catechumens are baptised and therefore welcomed into the Church, and for all of us who have already been baptised, we are reminded of our baptismal promises.

For just as the Israelites were led through the water of the sea, from the land of their slavery into the land of freedom, therefore the catechumens who have committed themselves to the Lord are led through the water of baptism, to leave behind their past enslaved state under sin and death, and be freed by the grace of God to enter into the freedom and true joy that He has called us all to come towards. When we are immersed in the waters of baptism, we leave behind our past lives and are washed clean, becoming a clean slate, beginning a new stage in our lives and existence, transformed into God’s own adopted children, His sons and daughters. And all of us who have been baptised earlier are reminded of this moment when our lives are transformed forever.

And through the other Scripture readings that we have heard today, in the prophets and how they speak of God and His care and love for His people, reminding them of everything that He has done for them, again and again throughout the ages, and all of us are called to refocus our attention on the Lord, keeping in mind that God has been so loving, kind and merciful that He has always been willing to reach out to us, forgiving us and welcoming us back to Him whenever we sinned. The Lord has given us all the means for us to return to Him, because He loves us so much more than He despises our sins. Nonetheless, as mentioned before, because of sin we have been corrupted and made defiled, and we have been separated from God because of this.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God gave us His only begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, to be Our Saviour, and through Him all of us have received the assurance of eternal life, all because of everything that happened that time which we celebrate now, the moment when He overcame sin and death, gloriously triumphant through His Resurrection. By His Passion, His suffering and death, Christ has taken upon Himself all of our sins and faults, our mistakes and all the punishments due to those sins. He redeemed us by offering Himself as the perfect and most worthy offering, the only one by which all of us mankind can be absolved from our many, innumerable sins.

While Our Lord endured death and descended into hell after His passing on Good Friday, He did not remain in death forever, showing us all that death has finally been overcome, for the Master of Life and Death Himself has come to liberate all those who have been awaiting Him to see the hope of their salvation. That was why when the Lord rose gloriously in His Resurrection, many eyewitnesses saw the tombs of the righteous were opened and the souls of the deceased righteous went out and were taken by God to their rightful place in the afterlife.

According to Church tradition and teachings, the Lord went down into hell, in what is known as the harrowing of Hell, as God liberated all those who were deemed worthy of salvation and brought them out of their waiting place, and you can just imagine the kind of joy that those souls of the faithful departed must have upon witnessing the light of the Lord coming into their midst, liberating them, much as how the Israelites were led out of their slavery in Egypt into the freedom, and to the Promised Land. And all of us share in this same joy because through baptism, in fact, we have also shared in the death of Christ, dying to our old ways of life, and striving henceforth, to live lives truly worthy of God.

That is why we rejoice this Easter, brothers and sisters in Christ. We rejoice because through Christ, we have received the assurance of true happiness and we are all made His beloved children, called to be His disciples, and through our common baptism, we have been marked as God’s people. We are now members of God’s Church, His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the one united Body of Christ. However, at the same time, we also have to remember and keep in mind that we cannot be idle in the living of our faith.

That is because although today, the Easter Vigil is the pinnacle of our entire liturgical year, remembering and celebrating the single most important event in our entire human history and existence, but we must remember that Easter and our baptism is not the end journey, but only the beginning of the journey towards God. Just as the Israelites in the past have had to travel for an entire forty years, before they actually reached and entered into the Promised Land, and they fell again and again into sin, the same applies to us all as well. If we allow ourselves to be swayed by worldly temptations and our desires, then we can easily fall back into our old sinful path and way of life again.

We have to keep this in mind as we celebrate the most wonderful and joyous festivities happening today this Easter Vigil. That we must not forget our calling in life as Christians. We have to follow the Lord and walk in His path, having seen the hope of His light and salvation, and the empty tomb showing us hope that there is path beyond sin and death. Through Christ, His loving sacrifice on the Cross and most importantly, His resurrection from the dead, He has shown us the path out of darkness and into the light.

God has established a new Covenant with us, and as we all should be aware of, this Covenant requires us to be actively doing our part of this Covenant, and means that we have to be active in contributing to the Church, in living our lives with faith, dedicating ourselves to serve Our Lord in all times and opportunities. We have to walk this path with faith, and realise that there is still a long path forward for us. Let us all be inspirations and good examples for one another, and be good role models and witnesses of Our Lord’s truth and resurrection in our community and world today. Let us all be true Christians in all things, and proclaim the Lord in all opportunities.

May the joy of Our Risen Lord be with us always, and may He empower us all to remain firm in faith, and that we may always ever be committed to Him, no matter what challenges, trials and temptations may be present in our path. May God bless us always, in everything we do, and may all of us have a blessed Easter season and celebration. Alleluia! Our Lord is Risen! Amen!

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Sunday, 17 April 2022 : Easter Vigil Mass, Easter Sunday of the Lord’s Resurrection (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 24 : 1-12

At that time, on the Sabbath the women rested according to the commandment, but the first day of the week, at dawn, the women went to the tomb with the perfumes and ointments they had prepared. Seeing the stone rolled away from the opening of the tomb, they entered, and were amazed to find that the Body of the Lord Jesus was not there.

As they stood there wondering about this, two men in dazzling garments suddenly stood before them. In fright the women bowed to the ground. But the men said, “Why look for the living among the dead? You will not find Him here. He is risen. Remember what He told you in Galilee, that the Son of Man had to be given into the hands of sinners, to be crucified, and to rise on the third day.” And they remembered Jesus’ words.

Returning from the tomb, they told the Eleven and all the others about these things. Among the women, who brought the news, were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. But however much they insisted, those who heard did not believe the seemingly nonsensical story. Then Peter got up and ran to the tomb. All he saw, when he bent down and looked into the tomb, were the linen cloths, laid by themselves. He went home wondering.