Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)
Psalm 65 : 1-3a, 5 and 16-17
Shout with joy to God, all you on earth; sing to the glory of His Name; proclaim His glorious praise. Say to God, "How great are Your deeds!"
Come, and see God's wonders; His deeds, awesome for humans. All you, who fear God, come, and listen; let me tell you what He has done. I cried aloud to Him, extolling Him with my tongue.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints)
Deuteronomy 34 : 1-12
From the barren plain of Moab, Moses went up to Mount Nebo, to the summit of Pisgah, opposite Jericho. And YHVH showed him all the Land : from Gilead to Dan, the whole of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim, and of Manasseh, the whole land of Judah, as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, the Plains, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.
And YHVH said to him : "This is the land about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, promising it to their descendants. I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not enter it."
Moses, the servant of God, died there in the land of Moab, according to the will of YHVH. They buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but to this very day, no one knows where his tomb is. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died. He did not lose his vigour and his eyes still saw clearly.
The children of Israel mourned for him in the plains of Moab for thirty days. But Joshua, son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands upon him. The children of Israel obeyed him and did as YHVH had commanded Moses.
No prophet like Moses has appeared again. YHVH conversed with him face to face. What signs and wonders he worked in Egypt against Pharaoh, against his people and all his land! He displayed great power and awesome might in view of all Israel!
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard from the Holy Scriptures about the Law of God which we all mankind should listen to and obey to, as it has been given by God to us as the means through which our salvation would come from. God had given us these laws as the guides by which we may find our way to return to the Lord our God, especially after we have been wayward on our path to Him.
For while we may think that it is easy and convenient to speak about love, but it is in reality not as easy as it seems. Love is not as what we all often think about, as in our minds and in our understanding, we often look at love as the love and even the lust existing between two peoples, between a man and a woman, who desire each other, and then developing into a relationship.
No, it is not just this kind of love, as the problem is that, in our limited human understanding, we see love as the twisted love that it is in our world today. Let us just see how it was a few weeks ago when the secular world is celebrating in its own way the Valentine’s Day, as a day of romancing and as a day of materialistic craze as one tries to outdo the other in trying to impress their respective lovers.
And we see the amount of advertising, commercialisation and the monetisation of love, where it becomes a commodity for trading and selling, instead of what love is in accordance to what God had told us and shown us. This is the kind of love that we know, not true love but a selfish love, love that cares only about ourselves and those to whom we share that love, but often at the expense of the others whom we do not care about.
You all may be asking, why did I spend so much time going through love and its concept, and how it is realised in our world today, while the Gospel today speaks of God’s Law? That is because, just as in the first reading from the Book of the prophet Hosea spoke about the love that God is pouring down on us all mankind, and how He wants to release us from the suffering of this world due to our sins, and how He wants to make us pure and clean once again, then it was His Law that was an instrument through which He was trying to help us to accomplish this.
And that Law of God is about love, and is indeed Love itself, for God is Love. If God is true and real Love, then surely all that He brings into this world will be filled with love. And in the Gospel, Jesus summarised aptly that God’s Law is truly about two fundamental things that we have to do, that is to first of all, love God before all other things, and do so with all of our hearts’ strength, with all of our focus and effort, and then do the same for the others around us, our fellow men.
In order to understand this fully, we have to realise the context in which the Gospel passage happened in the past. During the time of Jesus, and particularly throughout His ministry, the Pharisees, the elders and the teachers of the Law were often against Jesus and His works, and they always tried to find fault in Him and to condemn Him, because in their eyes and in their minds, He had violated and disobeyed the Law of God as they knew it.
That is because to them, the Law has become empty and devoid of its true meaning, and instead become an instrument of oppression and punishment, and through their way of observing the Law, they did these without true understanding of the purpose of the Law that is the love of God, made through the Law for His desire to bring mankind filled with sin to repentance and thus to receive from Him the eternal redemption.
Therefore, on this day, all of us are called to find out more about God’s commandments of love, and then after understanding them, their purpose and attention, let us all not stop there but continue to commit ourselves to do what the Lord had asked us to do in our own lives. And this season of Lent is the perfect time and opportunity for us to do what is good, filled with charity, care and concern for our brethren around us, and thus devoting ourselves to love God all the more.
Today we mark the feast of St. Casimir of Poland, a faithful and devoted servant of God who devoted his whole life to the Lord. St. Casimir was a royal prince and indeed the crown prince of both the kingdoms of Poland and Lithuania, a mighty Christian kingdom at that time. He was destined to succeed as king, but he never let that fact to hold him back and to distract him, as he continued to devote himself fully to God and to the people.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Casimir showed by his actions, by his ministry and service to the weak and the poor, the rejected ones and the ostracised, he helped them and showed the love of God to them. He was a humble and pious man, who obeyed the Lord and His commandments at every opportunity. He showed true understanding of the Law, by his loving actions and by his dedication. And through this, he showed us how to be a real disciple of the Lord.
May God help us all to draw ever nearer to Him, and may all of us be strengthened in our hearts to love God and our fellow men ever more, without condition and without selfishness and desire attached, but instead with great sincerity. Let us all follow the examples of St. Casimir of Poland and also the examples of the other saints and holy people of God, and be made worthy and holy ourselves, and be worthy of the kingdom of God. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Mark 12 : 28b-34
At that time, a teacher of the Law came up to Jesus and asked Him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is : Hear, Israel! The Lord, our God, is One Lord; and you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”
“After this comes a second commandment : You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these two.” The teacher of the Law said to Him, “Well spoken, Master; You are right when You say that He is One, and there is no other besides Him. To love Him with all our heart, with all our understanding and with all our strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves is more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.”
Jesus approved this answer and said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask Him any more questions.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 80 : 6c-8a, 8bc-9, 10-11ab, 14 and 17
They heard a voice they did not know : “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. I relieved your shoulder from burden; I freed your hands. You called in distress, and I saved you.”
“Unseen, I answered you in thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear, My people, as I admonish you. If only you would listen, o Israel!
There shall be no strange god among you, you shall not worship any alien god, for I the Lord am your God, Who led you forth from the land of Egypt.
If only My people would listen, if only Israel would walk in My ways. I would feed you with the finest wheat and satisfy you with honey from the rock.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Hosea 14 : 2-10
Return to your God YHVH, o Israel! Your sins have caused your downfall. Return to YHVH with humble words. Say to Him, “Oh You Who show compassion to the fatherless, forgive our debt, be appeased. Instead of bulls and sacrifices, accept the praise from our lips. Assyria will not save us : no longer shall we look for horses, nor ever again shall we say ‘our gods’ to the work of our hands.”
YHVH said, “I will heal their wavering and love them with all My heart for My anger has turned from them. I shall be like dew to Israel, like lily will he blossom. Like a cedar he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow and spread. His splendour will be like an olive tree, his fragrance, like a Lebanon cedar.”
“They will dwell in My shade again, they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like a vine, and their fame will be like Lebanon wine. What would Ephraim do with idols, when it is I Who hear and make him prosper? I am like an ever-green cypress tree; all your fruitfulness comes from Me.”
“Who is wise enough to grasp all this? Who is discerning and will understand? Straight are the ways of YHVH : the just walk in them, but the sinners stumble.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about how Jesus spoke to the people in parables, using stories and examples that link to the meaning which He wanted to convey to the people. And in the Gospel He explained how He told these parables because of the stubbornness of the people and their refusal to believe, even though they have seen the many great works of the Lord.
And this is linked to what we heard in the first reading today from the Book of Exodus, which told us about the moment after Israel had been brought out of Egypt into the presence of God at His holy mountain, Mount Horeb, where they would encounter the Lord, and renewed the covenant which God had established with their ancestors.
And we know how the people of Israel rebelled against God during that occasion. Moses went up the mountain to speak with God and to receive His commandments and laws, and the people below having seen Moses gone for many days to the mountain, obscured by the clouds of the glory of God, lost faith in the Lord and in Moses, and they forced Aaron his brother to make for them a god of gold, the golden calf.
In direct defiance and disobedience against God, even after they have seen the glorious works and power of God who freed them from slavery in Egypt, the people sinned by abandoning their God and sought for themselves a pagan idol that had done nothing for them. This was a great insult to the Lord, who punished all those who have rebelled against Him and did not repent from their mistakes.
Throughout the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, we see repeatedly how the people of God continued in their sinful ways many, many times, and despite having been shown the works and the blessings of God numerous times, their hearts and minds were often unfazed. God did not cease to call on His people to follow Him, but there were indeed too many times when they did not obey Him and refused to listen to His call.
Thus, for their indignant behaviour and stubbornness, God also refused to reveal the fullness of His truth, and held it back for those who are truly willing to listen to Him and walk in His ways. He only showed the fullness of His truth to those who were willing to commit themselves fully to Him, such as the Apostles, the saints and martyrs of the faith, many of whom had their faith tested in tribulation by sword and fire, by persecution and oppression, and by the pain of death.
We should consider ourselves fortunate, for we have received the revelation of God’s truth through the Church and we received therefore the teachings of our Lord passed down through the Apostles and the disciples. Yet, by our own nature, we can still be wayward, and we can still close ourselves from the love of God and acting in the same way as that of our predecessors.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day let us all reflect on our own actions. Have all of us been truly faithful to our Lord, and have we listened to Him and obeyed His will? Or have we rather followed the pagan idols and gods of wealth, money, possessions and worldly goods? Today let us look at the examples shown by St. Bridget of Sweden, whose feast we celebrate on this day.
St. Bridget of Sweden was born during the Middle Ages, and she was married into a noble Swedish family, and gained a high prestige life during her time as a member of the noble family, whose descendants were counted among the queens and prominent saints of that country. But all these did not get her to be proud and haughty, and instead these made her even more committed to help others around her using what she had to assist those who were poor and suffering.
She joined religious life after her husband was deceased, and she ventured to help many of the poor and less fortunate in the society around her. And she travelled in well-known pilgrimages to sites such as Jerusalem and Rome to garner support for her efforts to help the plight of the poor. She was renowned for her great piety and dedication to the Lord and to her fellow men, even though she was born into privilege and had once lived a life in power.
The examples and the charitable works of St. Bridget of Sweden should inspire us all to live like she had done, resisting the temptations of the flesh and this world, and instead seek to devote ourselves in faith to the Lord our God. The choice is ours alone, whether we would be like the people of God of old, who have seen what great things the Lord had done, and refused to believe, or for us to accept Him as our Lord and God.
God will bless all those who have kept their faith in Him, and He will graciously grant the needs of those who placed their trust in Him. Thus, let us all pray so that He may strengthen in us the faith which we ought to have for Him. Let us all devote ourselves ever more to our Lord and God who had given so much for our sake.
May Almighty God, through the intercession of St. Bridget of Sweden, help us on this path of life, that we may find Him and be blessed by His grace forevermore. God bless us all. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)
Matthew 13 : 10-17
At that time, the disciples of Jesus came to Him and said, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but not to these people. For the one who has, will be given more and he will have in abundance. But the one who does not have will be deprived of even what he has.”
“That is why I speak to them in parables, because they look and do not see; they hear, but they do not listen or understand. In the words of the prophet Isaiah are fulfilled : However much you hear, you do not understand; however much you see, you do not perceive.”
“For the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears hardly hear and their eyes dare not see. If they were to see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their heart, they would turn back, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears, because they hear.”
“For I tell you that many prophets and upright people have longed to see the things you see, but they did not see them, and to hear the things you hear, but they did not hear them.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)
Daniel 3 : 52a, 53, 54, 55, 56
Blessed are You, Lord, God of our fathers, be praised and exalted forever.
Blessed are You in the Temple of Your sacred glory, Your praises are sung forever.
Blessed are You on the throne of Your kingdom, honoured and glorified forever.
Blessed are You who fathom the depths, who are enthroned on the cherubim, praised and exalted forever.
Blessed are You in the firmament of heaven, praised and glorified forever.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Religious)
Exodus 19 : 1-2, 9-11, 16-20b
Exactly two months after the Israelites had left Egypt, they arrived at the wilderness of Sinai. They arrived there coming from Rephidim and camped in the wilderness of Sinai.
YHVH spoke to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud so that the people may hear Me speaking with you and trust you always.” Then Moses related to YHVH what the people had said. Again YHVH spoke to Moses, “Go to the people and have them sanctified today and tomorrow; let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day YHVH will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.”
On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning and a dense cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast was heard. All the people in the camp trembled. Moses then made the people leave the camp to meet God and stand at the foot of the mountain.
Mount Sinai was completely covered in smoke because YHVH had come down in fire, and the smoke rose as from a furnace. The whole mountain shook violently, while the blast of the trumpet became louder and louder. Moses spoke and God replied in thunder. When YHVH had come down to the summit of Mount Sinai, God called Moses who went to the summit.
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