preaching the faith

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Monday, 12 April 2021 : 2nd Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are reminded of the power of God guiding each one of us, as He led His disciples through their missions and works, providing for them and helping them as they navigated through the many challenges and trials, and embarking on the many opportunities they had in evangelisation to the people about God and His saving works.

In our first reading today, we heard of the prayers of the Apostles and the disciples, just after St. Peter and St. John were released from the custody and inquiry by the members of the Sanhedrin. They thanked God for His protection over them and prayed for guidance and strength that they might continue to serve Him faithfully at all times, and they sought Him for His continued love and grace.

They were indeed those who had been reborn in the Spirit as mentioned by the Lord Himself to Nicodemus, when they were conversing about the works that the Lord Jesus had done, and the identity of the Lord, as the One Who had come from the Father into the world in order to save it. The Lord had revealed to Nicodemus, one of the few faithful among the Pharisees, Who He really is.

And He told Nicodemus that unless one is reborn again in the Spirit, they will not be able to recognise Him and His works. And all are called to be reborn again in the Spirit, through the baptism of water and the Holy Spirit that the Lord brought unto us, His Church. The Apostles and the disciples had received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and they had been renewed in faith and strengthened, with great courage to carry out the mission that God had entrusted to them.

The Holy Spirit transformed them all from people who were fearful, as they were just after the Lord had been crucified, and then later on, as they feared the persecution by the Jewish authorities. They were transformed into courageous and willing participants in the works of the Lord, as St. Peter and St. John had done, in testifying their faith before the assembled people in Jerusalem, and before the Sanhedrin itself.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called to reflect on what we have received and heard through the Scriptures, on what we ourselves have been called to do as Christians in our respective lives. Each and every one of us have the share in the same baptism, and received the same Holy Spirit that the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord then had received.

However, are we all willing to let the Lord guide us through His Spirit as the Apostles had done? Are we willing to commit ourselves to the mission that the Lord had entrusted to us, dedicating our efforts, time and attention to serve Him and to glorify Him by our actions, through our every outreach to our fellow brethren, our every little deeds by which we show God’s love and truth to more and more people whom we encounter in this world?

Let us all do our very best therefore to do what the Lord had commanded us to do, to be exemplary in our lives as Christians, to be good and worthy disciples of Our Lord in all things, that by our efforts and works, more and more people may see the light of God’s salvation through us, and therefore, be saved and may enter into the glory of the kingdom of God with us. May God bless us all, and may He guide us in all of our good works and endeavours. Amen.

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Sunday, 11 April 2021 : Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today marks the last day of the Easter Octave and also the Second Sunday in the season of Easter. According to the declaration of Pope St. John Paul II at the canonisation of St. Faustina Kowalska in the Jubilee Year of 2000, the Second Sunday of Easter ever since has also been known as the Divine Mercy Sunday. The devotion to the Divine Mercy continues to spread in popularity ever since it was made known by St. Faustina Kowalska herself, in the visions she received of the Lord in His Aspect as the Divine Mercy.

On this Sunday, as we celebrate this Feast of the Divine Mercy of God and the Second Sunday of Easter, we are brought to attention through the Scripture readings of the wonderful graces that God has given us through His Church, all that He had done for us and what it is we then ought to do as Christians, as those who truly believe in God, in Him as Our Lord and Saviour. We have seen the Light of God’s salvation through Christ, Our Saviour, and through Him we have received the assurance of eternal life and glory, if we held on to our faith firmly in Him.

In our first reading today, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard the way that the early Christian communities had lived, in how they showed great care and concern for one another, in how they lived in communal living, sharing their blessings and possessions with one another, in being selfless in their actions and in helping sincerely those who were in need within their communities. Through those examples, we are shown that indeed it is possible for us to live our lives entrusting ourselves to the Lord and resisting the temptations of worldly desires.

And all of them believed in the Lord, their Saviour, Whom St. John in his Epistle to the faithful today spoke of, as the One Who had conquered death and triumphed over the darkness and evil. Christ has overcome death through His Resurrection and by His love for us, for each and every one of us He has endured the worst of punishments and humiliations for the sake of our salvation, our liberation from the tyranny and bondage of evil and death. Through Him, we have received the assurance of a blessed new existence, if we are to seek Him with all of our hearts and strength.

But as we heard in our Gospel passage today, many of us still hesitate to believe in the Lord wholeheartedly or to entrust ourselves to His love and care, and we still have doubts in our hearts, like what St. Thomas the Apostle showed us. We all know what happened as described in today’s Gospel, as St. Thomas publicly doubted the Resurrection and refused to believe that the Lord has risen from the dead. He has always been the most skeptical among the disciples, and happened to be absent during the time when the Lord appeared before His disciples for the first time after His resurrection.

St. Thomas doubted the Lord and said that he would only believe if he could prove that the Lord was indeed risen from the dead, only to be humbled when the Lord Himself appeared right before him and told him to prove everything just as he had said. St. Thomas believed and said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord and my God’. He and all the other Apostles and many of the disciples of the Lord witnessed the Risen Lord in person, and from then on, became courageous and faithful witnesses of His truth.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, we may be thinking that St. Thomas was lacking in faith and was a doubtful person, but before we make any judgment on his actions, we ought to remember very well that it is perhaps and likely what we ourselves had done as well. Have we not doubted the Lord at some point in time in our lives? Have we not placed Him to the sidelines and forgotten about Him, prioritising more on other things in life, or treating Him as One Who is not significant and does not really exist?

St. Thomas in fact represent all of us, the people of God. There are many of us with different experiences and varying levels of faith and devotion. And at some point, we may have grown weak in our commitment to the Lord and begin to doubt Him, based on our own experiences, or when we were distracted and tempted by the many worldly temptations and concerns that we turned away from the Lord and began to idolise other things like money and material possessions, fame and prestige. At times, we have fallen in our path and lose our way like St. Thomas had experienced.

As we can see, the Lord did not choose perfect people to be His disciples, and rather, He called and chosen people who would have otherwise be overlooked by the society. He called the uneducated, those who were deemed as sinners and unworthy, people of no renown and those who were ordinary, to be His disciples and followers. But what was amazing is that He transformed them all from their ordinary existence into a new extraordinary existence through faith. That was how all the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord could courageously stand up for their faith and endure the bitter persecutions of those days.

And the words of St. Thomas as he came to witness the Lord, Risen and alive in the flesh, is the same words that we also utter at the moment of the Transubstantiation, when the bread and wine offered in the Holy Mass, by the power of God through His priests are transformed in reality, matter and essence to the very Precious Body and Blood of Our Lord Himself. And when we see Him lifted up before us, we say, ‘My Lord and My God’ just as St. Thomas did. It is of us that the Lord had spoken, that even though we have not seen Him in person, but we believe, and we are blessed because of that.

We believe that the Lord is truly present in the Eucharist, really present in His Body and Blood, and which we receive and partake together as one Church. And we believe that He has given us all these so that through His sacrifice on the Cross, we may be saved and be freed from the tyranny of sin. In the words of St. Faustina Kowalska, the visionary of the Divine Mercy, and which is mentioned in every recitation of the Divine Mercy prayer, ‘Eternal Father, I offer you, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, of Your only beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the atonement of our sins and those of the whole world’

In tandem with what we heard from St. John, this is our Christian faith, brothers and sisters in Christ, in God Who is so loving and merciful towards us, that even as we have sinned and disobeyed Him, and doubted Him again and again as St. Thomas had done, and abandoned Him like the other disciples, denied Him like St. Peter, not once but thrice, but God’s love and mercy are still greater than all those, and if He forgave all of them, and made them to be worthy disciples and Apostles, then certainly He will forgive us all our sins as well.

This is the power of forgiveness from Our Lord, the Divine Mercy of God, the healing and reconciliation that have come through the loving sacrifice of Our Lord on the Cross at Calvary. This is the power of God’s compassionate mercy through which He assured us of victory and triumph over sin and death, over the chains that had kept us trapped and enslaved all these while. However, are we willing to embrace God’s mercy and forgiveness, brothers and sisters? Are we willing to be reconciled with Him?

We often do not realise what God’s mercy and forgiveness really mean. And many of us think wrongly that the Lord in His mercy and as the Divine Mercy will forgive us all of our sins and allow us to continue committing those sims again and again, essentially condoning our sinful way of life and our state of sin. No, brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord indeed forgives us freely and generously, but if we are to be fully forgiven, then we have to embrace His forgiveness, and this requires for us to repent, turn away from our sins and seek to walk in the path of the Lord.

Do we all remember the Lord speaking to the woman who was caught in the act of adultery, that He did not condemn her, but also telling her at the same time, ‘Go and sin no more’? This is what the Lord wants from us, a heart that yearns for Him, that is filled with the desire to love Him, and full of faith and believing wholeheartedly in His Resurrection and the salvation which He has therefore brought unto us, through His Passion, suffering and death, and glorious Resurrection.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all entrust ourselves to the Divine Mercy of God, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Let us all put our trust in Him, knowing that He has loved us so dearly and so patiently, and let us be filled with genuine regret and the desire to repent from our many sins, the sins which have been purchased and forgiven through the shedding of the Body and Blood of Our Lord on the Cross, the perfect sign of His eternal love for us.

Let us all not be stubborn and doubtful anymore, but acknowledge the Lord just as St. Thomas had once done, and humble ourselves before Him, allowing Him to lead us in our way, so that we may truly serve Him faithfully as Christians, and contribute in whatever way we can, to move forward with the many works of the Church of God in our world today, for the greater glory of His Name. May God be with us all, and may He, the Divine Mercy, forgive us all our sins, and embrace us all sinners, who desire to return to Him and be reconciled with Him. Amen.

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Saturday, 10 April 2021 : Saturday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures we are called to be courageous in proclaiming our faith and the truth about the Lord and His Resurrection, His salvation and glory in the midst of our communities, among the communities and the peoples we are living with in this world, to be genuine Christians in all of our words, actions and deeds. We have to be faithful in the mission which God has entrusted to us all, His Church.

In our first reading today we heard the consternation and disbelief among the members of the Sanhedrin during the time when they took in the Apostles St. Peter and St. John for questioning, when they were interrogated for their activities. The Sanhedrin were surprised and amazed that the Lord Jesus and His works continued even after His death, as they likely believed that they had gotten rid of Him once and for all. And the great wisdom and courage showed by the two Apostles greatly unsettled them.

That the Apostles spoke courageously of the salvation of God that had come through Christ, recently crucified and handed over by the Sanhedrin to the Romans, and proclaimed as risen from the dead angered quite a few of the Sanhedrin members who were more hardline in their beliefs and opposition against the Lord, but the more moderate members cautioned violence and hardhanded actions against the followers of the Lord.

As such, the Apostles were released with just a stern warning that they were not to continue preaching in the Name of the Lord or continue their mission. But certainly, as we have seen, the Apostles refused to obey such a human order, and instead, continued to preach the truth of the Lord, proclaim His Resurrection and way to all the people, the Jews and the Gentiles alike without fear. They persevered through the challenges and trials, the persecutions and oppositions they faced, and remained true to the mission entrusted to them by God.

It is that same mission which we have heard in our Gospel passage today that the disciples and followers of the Lord had dedicated themselves to, following God with all of their strength to proclaim His Good News to the nations, as the Lord Himself commanded them all to “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.” Through this commandment, the Lord has sent all of His followers to be missionaries of the faith, and the witnesses to His truth to all the people, calling more and more to Himself.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is the same mission that we have been entrusted with, as members of the Church and through our common baptism, by which we have been made sharers in the same mission of the Lord, to reach out and evangelise the many peoples of the world, of all the nations, and to be witnesses of the Lord’s truth and Resurrection. And the works of the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord were far from done, as there are indeed still so many opportunities and avenues through which more and more can be saved.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we willing to contribute to this calling and mission we have? Are we willing to spend the time and effort to be true disciples of the Lord, that is not just in name or formality only, but also through real action and works? This is what we have been constantly reminded through this Easter season thus far, to be the living Church, continuing the works of the Apostles in our present day world and communities. As Christians, we have to be active in living our faith and be good role models and examples for our fellow brethren.

Let us all therefore do whatever we can, in whatever little and small things we can do each day, to reach out to our fellow brethren and be ever more committed to serve the Lord through our actions, through our charitable deeds and real, genuine concern for our fellow brothers and sisters. We are all called to be generous in our love and in our outreach, that more and more may come to know of God and His love through us, so that many more souls may come to repentance and reconciliation with Him, and thus be worthy to enter into eternal life and glory.

May God bless all of our efforts and endeavours, and may He, Our Risen Lord and Saviour, help us all to remain firm in faith and to be strong and courageous just as He has strengthened His Apostles and disciples to speak up and stand up for their faith before the Sanhedrin and those who doubted and oppressed them. Be with us, Lord, always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 9 April 2021 : Friday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the continuation of the accounts of the Lord’s Resurrection and the early activities of the Apostles in spreading the faith in Jerusalem. In our first reading we heard how the members of the Sanhedrin brought St. Peter and St. John for questioning after they healed a paralytic man at the Temple gate and preached to the people who were gathered. Meanwhile, in our Gospel today we heard the appearance of the Risen Lord to His disciples at the Lake of Galilee not long after His resurrection from the dead.

In our first reading today, we heard of the Sanhedrin or the Jewish High Council, the influential and powerful members of the community questioning St. Peter and St. John for what they had done in healing the paralytic man. Based on what they were asking the Apostles, essentially they were surprised and amazed that the two Apostles could have done what was deemed impossible. Certainly those Sanhedrin members would have recognised the paralysed man who had been by the Temple gate for so many decades.

Yet, they were dumbfounded because they must have thought that since they managed to kill Jesus by condemning Him to death through the Romans, that they had eliminated this rival to their power, influence and authority. They could not believe that His Name was still being spoken and preached around, and even more so, that miracles could happen through His Name and power. That was because they sincerely believed that Jesus was a false Messiah.

And they were even more dumbfounded because they knew many of the disciples and followers of the Lord were mere ordinary people who were mostly uneducated except for a few, and St. Peter and St. John being formerly fishermen from Galilee were among the uneducated ones. Yet, they were able to speak with such eloquence, wisdom and passion, and perform such miracles, that the Sanhedrin were stunned by what they had done in the Lord’s Name.

They were all doing what the Lord had called them to do, as they obeyed His commandments and calling to reach out to the peoples of the nations, and proclaim to them all the Good News of His salvation, and call all of them to be reconciled with Him and to embrace His truth. That was what we heard in our Gospel today as well, symbolically presented in the occasion when the Lord appeared to His disciples in Galilee for the first time.

Today, in the Gospel passage, we heard of the Lord Jesus appearing to the disciples just as they were fishing in the lake of Galilee, having followed His instructions to go to Galilee where they would meet Him. They went to fish and could not gain anything over the entire night. Then, when the Lord came before them on the shore, He told them to cast their nets and immediately there were so many fishes that the boats were almost sunk by the amount of fishes that they managed to catch. It was then that they recognised the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in that story, we heard a very symbolic representation of what the Lord called His disciples to do. First of all, Galilee itself at that time was at the periphery and edge of the Jewish world and community, a place very distant from Jerusalem and Judea, and which was dismissed by the Sanhedrin who said that no one worth of note, nor the Messiah would have come from there. There were many Gentiles living there together with the Jewish populations in Galilee.

Therefore, by being called to Galilee by the Lord, it was representative of the Lord sending out His disciples to go forth to not just the Jewish people but also to the Gentiles, or the non-Jewish people, and to spread the truth and salvation in Christ to all of them, without exception. The symbolism of the boat and the fishes is also very powerful, as the boat where the disciples were on, is the Church of God, often represented as a ship or boat, in which the many fishes, each of them represent the peoples of the various nations.

It was at that same place that the Lord Himself called the disciples, to be the fishers of men. It was thus that the Lord reiterated that calling and mission which He then entrusted to all of His disciples and followers, sending them all to reach out into the deep waters, and to cast their nets so that more and more people may come to know the Lord and be saved, and this is the same mission which He has entrusted to all of us as Christians, as parts and members of the Church, sharing in the same mission He has commanded on all of us to do.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be courageous in faith and in carrying out the ministry entrusted to each and every one of us as parts of God’s living Church. Let us all turn towards God with faith and commit ourselves to Him with renewed zeal that we may be ever more committed to live our lives from now on with sincere desire to serve Him in our respective communities, reaching out to those who are in need of us and our help, and showing them the love of God, that they too may come to believe in Him.

Are we willing and able to commit ourselves to the Lord’s calling, brothers and sisters in Christ? Let us all do this, and let us all contribute in whatever little ways we can, in our own ways, among our communities, families and relatives, circles of friends and others we encounter in life. May God, our Risen Lord and Saviour be with all of us, and may He bless us all and our every good works and endeavours. Amen.

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Thursday, 8 April 2021 : Thursday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scripture telling us about the fulfilment of God’s promises through Christ, His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, through Whom God willed to reconcile us all to Himself, by Christ’s most selfless and loving sacrifice on the Cross, and by His Resurrection. All the prophets and the promises that God had made, pointed at Christ and what He would do for the salvation of all mankind.

In our first reading today, we heard of the continuation of the testimony of faith made by St. Peter and St. John before the people who were assembled seeing the great miracle that happened to a paralytic man healed from his condition after being sick for so many years. And St. Peter spoke of how it was through Christ, the Saviour Who had then just been recently crucified, that the Apostles had healed the paralysed man, and made him whole again.

St. Peter reminded the people that the Lord had promised all that had happened, through His prophets and messengers, from the days of Moses and even earlier, as God promised Abraham, their forefather. All that God had promised would come true in Jesus Christ, Who had brought the truth about the salvation of God to the midst of His people, and Whom, through His crucifixion, His suffering and death on the Cross, and finally the Resurrection, brought all mankind to the promise of eternal life.

We need to understand that it was this same people who had been in Jerusalem and witnessed everything that happened during the Lord’s Passion, His crucifixion and death. And while the Apostles and many of the disciples themselves had seen the Risen Lord, and many others had witnessed the occurrences on the Sunday of the Resurrection, when tombs were opened and many souls of the faithful came forth, risen with the Lord, but many among them did not yet know what had truly happened.

Therefore, St. Peter and the other Apostles, with the early Christian communities proclaimed the truth of what they had witnessed and known before all the people, to reveal to them the truth of God and His salvation. They did not have it easy as they often encountered a lot of opposition and challenges, and yet, they continued to persevere and reached out to others with the same truth because they themselves had seen the Lord as we heard in our Gospel today, of the moment when the Risen Lord Himself appeared in the flesh before them.

Had the Resurrection been false, those Apostles and disciples of the Lord would not have wanted to do so much for a lost cause, and they would have been disbanded and scattered, just as what happened to the other false Messiahs that had come up at that time. Instead, the early Christian Church grew and grew even stronger despite the challenges and persecutions it received. And with the many martyrs, more and more became inspired to follow the Lord rather than to abandon Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as the Lord Himself said in today’s Gospel passage that the disciples were witnesses to everything that had happened, we too have a share of this truth by what we have received from the Church, the sacred tradition and faith that came to us from the Apostles themselves, preserved unchanged for the past two millennia. The Lord had entrusted to us, His Church to be His witnesses in the world today, to proclaim His truth among the nations, to reach out to those who have not yet known the truth.

Are we willing and able to commit ourselves to this cause, brothers and sisters in Christ? This is our calling, as Christians, to each and every one of us. We are all called to be good witnesses of our Lord’s truth and Resurrection in our respective communities, and as such, we should be good role models and examples for our fellow men and women, and through our actions, words and deeds grounded in our Christian faith, we should be the shining beacons of truth to all others.

Let us all as we journey through this season of Easter be renewed in our commitment to the Lord and be more willing to do our best to serve the Lord for His greater glory. Let us all be true to our calling as Christians and dedicate ourselves ever more to God, from now on. May God bless us all and our every endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 7 April 2021 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are reminded of the Lord’s Resurrection, and the healing and hope which His Resurrection has brought upon us. He has restored hope to us and bring healing into this world, and His work continues even after His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven. As we heard in our Scripture readings today, the Lord’s works continued through His Apostles and His Church.

In our first reading today, we heard of the miraculous healing of the disabled and paralytic man who had been suffering for long by the Beauty Gate of the Temple of Jerusalem. The Apostles St. Peter and St. John were there and they helped the man, healing him by the power of God and with the Name of the Lord through the authority that had been given to them. The paralytic man was healed and praising God, many people who witnessed the act came to believe in the Lord, and the two Apostles themselves spoke of the Lord’s providence through Christ, His Son, Our Saviour.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard of the moment when the two disciples of the Lord who were on their way to the village of Emmaus just outside of Jerusalem encountered the Lord on their way. At that time, it was just after the Lord had been crucified and then Risen from the dead, but many among the disciples had not known about the Resurrection just yet. Thus, as they walked away from Jerusalem, they were weighed down with sorrow and regret for the Lord’s fate, rejected by His own people and crucified, died a criminal and humiliated.

But the Risen Lord came to them and told them that it was the fate of the Saviour to suffer and to be the One to bear the faults and sins of the world, and to die for the sake of all the people. He strengthened them and rekindled the courage in them through His words and teachings, and He revealed to them in the end, that He Who had been talking with them was none other than the Risen Lord Himself. And we heard then of how those two disciples immediately went all the way back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples of what they had just seen and experienced.

As we listened to these readings from the Scriptures, we are reminded that this is what we have been called as Christians to do, to continue the good works of the Lord in the midst of our respective communities, in our communities, within our circles of friends and acquaintances, and definitely, within our own families and among our relatives. We are all called to be genuine Christians in faith, in words, deeds and actions, and not just being Christians in name only.

In this Easter season and beyond, we should make good use of the time and opportunities given to us to reach out to our fellow brethren, to those who have not been blessed by the light and hope in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We have been given this faith and all of the talents and abilities, all the blessings so that each and every one of us we may contribute our parts as the members of the Church to be the witnesses and the bearers of the truth of God.

Are we willing and able to commit ourselves, our time and efforts, and our concentration to be the bearers of our Christian faith and truth? Are we able to follow in the footsteps of the Apostles, who faithfully proclaimed the Lord despite the challenges, trials and opposition they encountered throughout their journey? Do we reflect our faith in our every single actions and deeds too? This is what we have been challenged to do as those whom the Lord had called and chosen to be His own beloved ones, His people.

During this time of great darkness and plenty of trials and difficulties, let us all reach out to our fellow men and women, and if we have been blessed with more, let us spare even a little to help others who are in need, taking care of the poor and the needy, and being there for those who are lonely and without help. Let us also take good care of our fellow family members, our friends and even those whom we encounter in life, in our workplaces, schools and more.

May the Lord continue to guide and strengthen us, and may He give us all the courage to remain faithful to Him, to be a people filled with genuine love for God and full of Easter joy, that we may always be ever closer to God, centred on Him and be encouraged to live a genuine Christian life, from now onwards of we have not done so earlier on. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 6 April 2021 : Tuesday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to progress through this week in the Easter Octave, we continue to hear the works of the Apostles and the events that happened surrounding those earliest moments in the history of the Church as first we heard about St. Peter the Apostle preaching to the people about the Risen Lord and the truth that He had brought into this world. And then, we heard of the encounter between Mary Magdalene and the Risen Lord, as He appeared before her right after His Resurrection.

In that first reading today, we heard how the Holy Spirit inspired testimony of faith by St. Peter stirred and touched so many among the people who listened to him and the other Apostles that at least three thousands among them chose to give themselves to be baptised, the event that marked the birth of the Church, the advent of the new Christian community blessed and guided by the Lord, as more and more people from then on would come to believe in the Lord and turn towards Him.

All these happened despite the challenges and trials that they had to face, the opposition they encountered from the Pharisees, the chief priests and many of the members of the Sanhedrin, who were opposed to the Lord Jesus and His teachings. They remained firm in their dedication and faith in the Lord, with the desire to serve Him faithfully and courageously even when faced with many problems, and as St. Stephen showed us all, even martyrdom and death for standing up for the Lord and His truth.

They proclaimed the same truth that Mary Magdalene had seen in the place where the Lord was buried, as detailed in our Gospel passage today. The Risen Lord made an appearance to Mary Magdalene who was sorrowful that the Body of the Lord could not be found. Initially she could not recognise Him, but then the Lord opened her eyes and she found out the truth of the Lord’s Resurrection.

Imagine Mary’s joy when she saw the Lord again and knew that He is alive. She went to the other disciples and told them about the Resurrection with great joy, which in a short moment was proven as the Lord Himself appeared to the disciples in several occasions. And that these faithful disciples of the Lord had seen Him risen in the flesh, they joyfully proclaimed His resurrection, His truth and teachings, despite the persecution they faced in so many occasions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us may not have seen the Risen Lord Himself in the flesh, but as what many of those early disciples had done, in suffering and enduring many persecutions for the truth, we know that whatever we have received in faith through the Church is indeed true, and those faithful disciples and martyrs endured so many things because they truly have witnessed the truth and suffered because of the truth, and they were glad to be able to suffer for the Lord.

And now, as we journey together through this season and time of Easter, we really should consider how we should live up to our Christian calling and life, in the footsteps of the disciples and followers of the Lord. As Christians, it is our calling and vocation to reach out to our fellow brothers and sisters, and we are called to be the living testimony of faith and of our Lord’s Resurrection just as St. Peter had done. There are still yet so many people out there who had not yet known the Lord, and it is up to us to bring the light of God’s truth to them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all spend our time and effort from now on to follow the Lord and to be His faithful witnesses through our every actions, through our dedication to His truth that in our every interactions with each other, we will always glorify His Name, and reveal Him to all those whom we encounter and interact with in life. May the Lord be with us all, and may He, Our Risen Lord be our source of strength and may He give us the courage to remain faithful to Him. Amen.

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Monday, 5 April 2021 : Monday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we enter into the weekdays of Easter Octave, we listened to the words of the Lord speaking to us regarding the matter how the Apostles and the disciples were trying their best to proclaim the Lord and His truth, especially with regards to His glorious Resurrection among the people, beginning with the testimony made by St. Peter the Apostle before the whole assembly of the people, and then also what had happened at the Resurrection of the Lord as we heard it again in today’s Gospel passage.

In our first reading today we heard St. Peter speaking before the large number of people gathered at the moment after the Pentecost, when the Apostles received the Holy Spirit from God and began proclaiming courageously their faith in the Lord, and spoke openly regarding the Lord Jesus before all assembled, even when the chief priests and the Sanhedrin had been against such actions and works, and warned against all those who preached in the Name of the Lord. St. Peter spoke clearly and with conviction, calling on the people to follow the Lord.

St. Peter spoke to the people of how the recently crucified Man was indeed the Messiah or the Saviour of God, the One Who had been promised to all the people, and the One through Whom God’s salvation had come. And this was the truth that the chief priests and many among the members of the Sanhedrin or the Jewish High Council were trying to suppress and prevent from spreading. As we heard in the Gospel passage today, they tried to bribe the guards to tell the people how the disciples had plotted to steal the Body of Jesus and used that to claim how the Lord had risen from the dead.

That was truly a heinous attempt to stop the message of the Lord’s truth from being spread, to snuff out the Christian faith at its very infancy. However, the Lord guided those who were faithful to Him, giving them the courage and strength to speak up the truth even amidst the challenges and trials, the difficulties and threats that they were facing. They were guided by the Holy Spirit Who gave them the hope and the fire in their hearts to speak out what was in their hearts and minds.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on these readings, let us all consider carefully what it truly means for us to be Christians, to be those who believe in Christ, in His truth and Resurrection. As shown in those Scripture passages and as was evident throughout the long history of the Church, the faithful often had to contend against the popular opinion and also the general society, norms and rules, as persecutions of the faithful happened from time to time, again and again at different places and among different peoples.

Many of our brethren are still suffering from all sorts of persecutions and prejudices, bias and being ostracised, and yet, they held on to the faith firmly in the Lord despite the trials that they had to face. Then how about us, brothers and sisters in Christ? Have we allowed ourselves to be complacent in faith and take our Christian faith for granted? Let us remember the courage that was shown by the Apostles and the members of the early Church in standing up for their faith in Christ.

What are we going to do, brothers and sisters in Christ? We have all received the truth of God, and the Risen Lord had been revealed to us. Are we then going to be His witnesses in our world today? We do not have to do wonderful or amazing things in order to do so. Rather, we need to begin from the simple acts and our own daily living, each and every moments and interactions we have with our fellow brothers and sisters, with our neighbours and even with strangers we encounter.

How are we going to convince others if we ourselves have not led an exemplary Christian life, and commit ourselves thoroughly to a Christian way of living and also in the way we carry ourselves and act in this world? Let us not be like those hypocrites who pretended to believe and yet, in their hearts they did not truly love God at all. And let us all also not harden our hearts like those chief priests and the members of the Sanhedrin either.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all live our lives from now on, as faithful Christians, as good role models of our faith, that we may truly be inspirations and beacons of light, of the light of Christ in the midst of all the darkness in this world. Let us all turn towards the Lord with renewed faith and dedication, with commitment and the courage to walk in the path that the Lord had set before us, following the examples of the Apostles.

May the Lord, our Risen Saviour and Master, be with us all, and may He bless us all and our good works and endeavours. May He continue to strengthen and encourage us all daily, as we continue to live our lives, hopefully ever more faithfully with each and every passing moments. Amen.

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Sunday, 4 April 2021 : Easter Sunday of the Lord’s Resurrection (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia! The Lord is Risen! This Sunday we have finally come to the culmination of the Holy Week and the conclusion of the season of Lent, entering into the Blessed time of Easter, as we commemorate the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, on the third day after He suffered and died, descending into hell. Through His glorious Resurrection that we celebrate, all mankind and all creation receive a new hope and light, the light of Our Lord’s saving grace.

Today, we mark the time when the light of Christ our Saviour triumphed over the darkness of sin and death. He has broken definitively the chains of sin and the bondage of evil, the power of death and the dominion of Satan and his fallen angels over us. By His Resurrection, He showed us that sin and death no longer hold any dominion over us. As He offered Himself on the Cross and died for us, the Lord truly suffered and died, not just being a superficial or for appearance. Hence, by His humanity truly united to His divinity, though distinct, God Himself had died for us.

And because we share in His humanity, we have therefore shared in His death, and through His Resurrection, we are sharing in the new life that He is bringing upon us, the promise of eternal life after, in the world to come, when we shall rise again with the Lord, and in body and soul, in our complete existence, glorify the Lord in perfect bliss and true joy for eternity. Through the Resurrection, God has broken the chains of sin and death that had held us down, and He has unbarred and opened the doors of Heaven to us.

Without the Crucifixion, there can be no Resurrection, and this is what we all need to remember as we come to celebrate this great Solemnity of Easter. The Lord truly suffered for us, and endured all the sufferings that were supposed to be for us. Thus, as we rejoice in the Lord’s Resurrection, we are all called to appreciate everything that He had done for us, all that He has endured for us, all that He had borne for us, the things that He did for us out of love.

This is the day of joy and happiness because after the long period of penitence and observance of fasting, abstinence and other practices throughout Lent, we finally enter into the time of Easter, just as how the Israelites must have been so joyful to enter into the Promised Land after having journeyed for so long in the desert, for forty years. After mankind had suffered for so long under the tyranny of sin and bondage of death and evil, we have finally seen the light of God’s salvation in the Resurrection.

We renew our baptismal promises today, and as we do so, we should remind ourselves well that those promises are not just mere formality or process to go through. Instead, when we make our solemn promises, and renew them, we should be as resolute as we are as on the day of our baptism. We must not make empty promises or only pay lip service to the Lord. On the contrary, as we begin this blessed time and season of Easter, we are constantly being reminded again and again what being a Christian is truly all about.

As those whom God had called and chosen to be His own people, and as we have willingly accepted Him as our Lord and Saviour, we are all called to be truly faithful in all things, and dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to His cause. We should not be complacent or lax in how we live our lives, but instead strive to do our best to be good examples to our fellow brothers and sisters, that we may truly be good Christian role models and inspire others to live their lives in the same way that we do, in obeying God and His will.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all gather together to celebrate this most amazing moment, when Our Lord, Risen from the dead, have led us to freedom and new graceful existence in Him, let us all discern well what we are to do in the coming days, weeks, months and even years, to be more faithful and dedicated to God. As those who have received the faith, and called to be the Lord’s disciples, we have been entrusted with the same truth that the Apostles had received, to be witnesses of the Lord’s truth and Resurrection to the world.

And we do not have to do magnificent and great things. We can begin all these from ourselves, from whatever little things that we can do in our respective lives, in our interactions with one another, in our commitment to walk the path of faith together. And we should also be filled with the same strength, courage and enthusiasm as those disciples of the Lord had, in proclaiming the Lord’s truth, like the two disciples who met the Risen Lord on their way to Emmaus, who went back all the way to Jerusalem after a long journey that they might proclaim the Risen Lord to the other disciples.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, just as the Lord has brought His light into this world, overcoming the darkness of sin and death, let us all be wonderful reflections of His light, and bear that same light into this darkened world, that we may be the beacons of hope and light through which many others who have been despairing, downtrodden and lost hope, suffering and in sorrow, may see the same light of hope in Christ through us. Are we willing and able to commit ourselves to be these beacons of God’s hope and light especially in this past year when there had been so much suffering and trials for so many people?

In our every words, actions and deeds, let us be an Easter people, a people of hope, faith and enthusiasm, of the hope we have in the Lord and the belief and trust in our Lord’s providence and in His salvation, which He has brought upon us through Jesus Christ, His Son. Let us all reach out to our fellow brothers and sisters, and be exemplary in everything, even in our little actions in life, to be guide and helper to those who are in need of the Lord’s light and strength in their lives.

May God, our Risen Lord and Saviour be with us all, as we continue to walk down this path of faith, and may He bless our Easter journey and celebration, that each and every one of us may be ever more faithful, and be ever firmer in our conviction to love and serve Him in our daily lives. May God bless us all, and may He strengthen us all, to be faithful as Christians, an Easter people, at all times. Amen.

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Sunday, 4 April 2021 : Easter Vigil Mass, Easter Sunday of the Lord’s Resurrection (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia! Today on this holiest of all nights and at the pinnacle of the Lord’s salvation of all mankind, on this Easter Vigil, we mark the moment almost two millennia ago when the Lord brought His salvation to all of us mankind, on a night that was truly extraordinary, a night above all other nights, the Mother of all Holy Vigils just as we have heard in our Easter Proclamations or the Exsultet earlier on. On this night, as we all keep this Vigil faithfully as one Church, we remember the night when God, through Christ, His Son, Our Saviour, delivered us from the tyranny of sin and from the power of death.

That is why, today, all of us are reminded through the many readings and lessons from the Sacred Scriptures, right back from the very beginning of time, detailing all that the Lord had done for us, starting with the time of the Creation of the world in the Book of Genesis, and then followed by the account of the sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah, and most importantly, the story of the Exodus from Egypt, how the Israelites were rescued from the land of Egypt, and how God overthrew their oppressors, and then through to the prophets who promised of God’s salvation for His people.

All of these events throughout history showed us how the Lord loved us so greatly and so wonderfully, that to rescue us all, a people whom He had created and loved, He had guided us throughout all of history, promising to us the liberation from the power of sin and death that had enslaved us since the beginning of Creation, with the fall of man into sin, by the disobedience against God and His will. Yet, God did not abandon us or reject us, and while we have to endure the consequences for those sins, He did not annihilate mankind although He could perfectly have done so.

Instead, He proclaimed right from the very beginning that He would save His people, that He would send His deliverance to them, right before Satan, as well as Adam and Eve in the Gardens of Eden, when He proclaimed that the Woman would come and crush the head of Satan, as the premonition for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, born through the Virgin, Mary, and how He would save all of mankind through His Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross, all that we have been celebrating and focusing on in the past one week, and culminating tonight at the celebration of the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord.

Tonight we mark the culmination of the entire Easter Triduum, the period of time spanning three days from the time of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday right up to the Resurrection at the end of the Sabbath. That is rightly celebrated together as such because we should see the entire Easter Triduum, the Last Supper, Our Lord’s Passion, suffering and crucifixion, His death and Resurrection as one single great event, the greatest event in the entire history of all mankind, the moment of our salvation and liberation, just as how the Israelites were saved from the hands of the Egyptians.

Earlier on in the celebration of Holy Thursday and Good Friday, I have been focusing on how the events of the Last Supper and all that happened on Good Friday were one great event of the new Passover of Our Lord, the new Passover and the New Covenant that He was establishing with us all mankind, which He initiated on the Last Supper, offering His own Precious Body and Blood through the bread and wine He blessed, broken and shared among His disciples, as the symbolic giving of Himself to all of us, and then, on Good Friday, He completed everything as He laid there on the Cross, bloodied, bruised and dying.

This was the sacrifice alluded in the reading from the Book of Genesis on the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his beloved and promised son Isaac to Him, on Mount Moriah. When God saw Abraham’s faith and dedication, not holding back even from giving his own son, He told Abraham that He had seen his faith, and spared Isaac, instead placing a ram in Isaac’s place. And how is this related to what we are celebrating? That is because Christ has suffered and died in our place, putting upon Himself all the burdens and blame that were ours, so that we do not perish but live.

God did not spare His own beloved, only begotten Son, giving Him to us as the Source of Life and the Hope of eternal life. He sent us Christ, His Son, that He may become the Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, by Whose Blood all of us have been redeemed, just as the Israelites were saved from death in the original Passover, being ‘passed over’ by death because of the blood of the unblemished lamb that was marked upon the doors and lintels of their houses. Thus, by the shedding of the Body of Christ, our Paschal Lamb and His Precious Blood, we have been marked as God’s beloved ones.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, then in one of the most important of the readings tonight, that of the crossing of the Red Sea, all of us are brought to attention on what we have been going through this Holy Week and through these events, together with God. As the Israelites were pursued by the Egyptians to the edge of the Red Sea, God opened the Sea before them and they all crossed on the dry seabed to the other side, towards their freedom and the Promised Land, marking the definitive moment when they gained their complete freedom from the rule of the Egyptians, as God crushed the Egyptians right behind them.

Hence, tonight, on this holiest and Mother of all Holy Vigils, we celebrate the moment when the Lord brought us all, who have shared in His humanity and therefore His death on the Cross, into the new life and existence, through His glorious Resurrection that we therefore will also share, and which we have entered through the Sacrament of Baptism when all of us, as Christians, were welcomed into the Church be it as infants or as adults. And we remember therefore this most sacred and wonderful night when the Lord led us through the valleys of darkness and death, and into life everlasting.

For through the waters of baptism, we have passed through death and into new life, just as water is capable both of destruction as well as giving life. For the Lord has, by the authority and the efforts of His Church, gathered all of us from among the nations and brought us into His embrace, that we may not be separated any longer, instead being reconciled and reunited fully with God, cleansed from the taints of our original sin, the sin of disobedience against God, and the corruption which had separated us from the love and grace of God.

Through the waters of baptism, God restored the grace and life to us and our existence, purified and cleansed, ready to start again with God and walking with Him. We have been made whole once again through baptism, and we have received pardon and absolution for those sins we committed or for those things that we failed to do. A new life has been given to us, which is possible thanks to Christ Himself, Who has gone through suffering and death, and finally the Resurrection to overcome death for all of us.

Thus, by His Resurrection, Christ showed us that sin and death do not have the final say over us. For He has conquered death itself by rising gloriously from the dead. Through His Resurrection, the Lord broke free the chains that kept mankind trapped through sin, and led them to a new future, one where sin no longer have any power and dominion over any of us. He proved to all of us that while all of us mortals will experience death and the end of our earthly life one day, but that is not the end of the road for us.

Through baptism, all of us have been gathered into the one Body of Christ, the Church, and have been given the assurance of eternal life, in the world to come, where we shall share in the glory of the Lord, the blissful life and existence of fullness of grace. However, all these will be ours in due time. And if we are wondering why is it that although we have been baptised, that we still need to regularly confess our sins and resist the temptations to sin, it is because through baptism, we have received the assurance of eternal life through Christ and sin no longer has power or dominion over us, but it is also our free will to choose to be enslaved by sin again and to reject God and His love.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, hence, tonight as we gather together to celebrate this most holy of all nights, the time of the Lord’s triumph and victory over evil and sin, over the darkness and death, let us all renew our baptismal promises with great vigour and zeal, with renewed desire to love God and to be closer to Him, to be more obedient and committed to Him. Let us make that commitment with genuine intention and the courage to live our lives henceforth as dedicated Christians at all times.

Our baptism is just the beginning of a great and new journey, just as the Israelites began their journey through the desert after crossing the Red Sea and after making the Covenant with God at Mount Sinai. They fell many times and they were tempted many times, disobeying God and fell into the darkness again and again. But God patiently continued to love them and tried to bring them back from the wrong path. The same therefore applies to us as well, brothers and sisters. Our Christian life is one of struggle and also filled with challenges, often daily, in which we often may have to choose between following and obeying God, or following the norms of the world and the society, among others.

As we enter into this season of Easter, let us all pass through this night as a renewed person, in each and every one of us. For those who are baptised this night, it is a momentous event, when they accept God fully as their Lord and Saviour, and enter into this new life, the Christian life blessed by God. And for all of us otherwise, we are renewing our baptismal promises tonight as mentioned, in this Easter Vigil Mass, and it should also be a momentous event in our lives, as we are reminded yet again, year after year, to keep ourselves holy and devoted to God, and not to fall again into the temptations of sin.

Let us all pray for one another that we may persevere ever more in the struggle against evil, and that we may always be faithful and find the courage in us to stand up for the truth and for our faith. Let us all pray for all those around the world, our fellow brethren who are unable to celebrate the Easter joy properly due to various reasons, either because of persecution, civil unrest and disturbances, war and conflict, among many other reasons. We pray that God will continue to watch over them, and if there are things that we can do to help, let us contribute in whatever way we can.

Most importantly, let us all live our lives henceforth as a liberated people, free from sin, if our past have been often troubled and filled with the darkness. Let us reject Satan, his many temptations, and sin in all of its forms, and let us be exemplary in our way of living from now on, that we may become truly an Easter people, a people who truly belong to the Lord, and everyone will know that we are Christians because of our actions, words and deeds in life, that is centred on Christ, Our Risen Lord and Saviour, upholding His truth and living virtuously according to His Law and teachings.

Let us be inspiration for one another, and help support each other especially if we see our brothers or sisters who are struggling, either in the worldly matters or even more importantly, in their spiritual matters and their faith. There have already been enough troubles in the past few months and years, and we should be the bearers of the Light of Christ in this world, bearing forth that Light by which Christ, Our Lord and Saviour triumphed over the darkness of evil and sin. By our lives and our faith, let us bring Christ’s light and truth to the nations, that more and more may come to believe in Him and become His disciples and followers.

May God bless us all, and may He guide us in our journey, particularly through this blessed season of Easter, so that all of us may grow ever stronger in our faith and dedication, and that we may be ever better examples to our fellow men and women, and together as one Church, let us all bear witness to Our Lord’s Resurrection, and do what we can to glorify His Name, through our daily lives and actions. May all of us have a most blessed and wonderful Easter, and may God, Our Risen Lord and Saviour be with us all. Amen.