sacrifice

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Monday, 8 April 2013 : Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (Second Reading)

Hebrews 10 : 4-10

Never will the blood of bulls and goats take away these sins. This is why on entering the world, Christ says : ‘You did not desire sacrifice and offering; You were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin offerings. Then I said : ‘Here I am. It was written of Me in the scroll. I will do Your will, o God.”

First He says : ‘Sacrifice, offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire nor were You pleased with them – although they were required by the Law.’ Then He says : ‘Here I am to do Your will.’

This is enough to nullify the first will and establish the new. Now, by this will of God, we are sanctified once and for all by the sacrifice of the Body of Christ Jesus.

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Monday, 8 April 2013 : Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (Psalm)

Psalm 39 : 7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 11

Sacrifice and oblation You did not desire; this You had me understand. Burnt offering and sin offering You do not require. Then I said, “Here I come!”

As the scroll says of me, to do Your will is my delight, o God, for Your law is within my heart.

In the great assembly I have proclaimed Your saving help. My lips, o Lord, I did not seal – You know that very well.

I have not locked up in my heart Your saving help, but have spoken about it – Your deliverance and Your faithfulness.

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Sunday, 7 April 2013 : Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday (Scripture Reflection)

Doubt no more, but believe! Christ had returned to the land of the living after He harrowed hell and freed the just from the hands of the evil one. He returned as our Risen Lord, who represents the triumph of life over death, and the triumph of God against the rebellion of the evil one. The evil one tried his best to destroy God’s creations when he failed to take what to him what his right, that is the Throne of God. He enslaved us under sin and death, and kept us from returning to our most loving Father. Yet God did not give up, and to redeem us from Satan, He sent His only Son to us, that through His death and resurrection, we have hope of eternal life, and no longer be separated from God.

Yet, Satan would definitely not stay quiet and he will definitely tries his best to seize us back from God. This he had done many times so far through his cunning use of our contemporary world and its developments to corrupt us and to cause us to doubt on Christ and His goodness. Already he had sown the doubt in the hearts of the disciples, and most importantly, in the hearts of Thomas the Twin. Yet they believed because they eventually saw Christ when He appeared to them. It is indeed much easier for people to believe in something when they had witnessed it themselves. But what about us? Christ may no longer be physically walking among us, and therefore we may have greater difficulty in believing in Him. But should we then give up to Satan instead? No!

Indeed, Satan is more visible to us in our world today than Christ. He is everywhere, in our contemporary music, thoughts, and even our secular teachings. Many of our contemporary music, even in the Christian worship no longer represents Christ and praising God, and instead praise the greatness of men and therefore embodies the values that Satan had pushed for, that is pride and self-vanity. We are taught that God is no longer relevant to our daily lives, and there is such a disconnect from the greatness of God in all the things that we do, that whenever we discover something, we do it for our own glory rather than to glorify God, to whom glory should have been given.

We should instead put our trust in God, and return the glory that we should give due to Him, as indeed He is the One who made eternal life a possibility for us. We should have suffered eternal damnation and separation from God for our rebellion, and for us siding with Satan, beginning with our ancestors, since the times of Adam the first man. The evil one is just too glad that men were under his thrall, just as the Pharaoh enthralling the people of Israel, until their deliverance from Egypt through Moses. Christ too, had delivered us from Satan and his thrall, through His own death and resurrection, which we celebrate in this glorious Easter season.

But remember, that the people of Israel did not always remain faithful throughout their journey. They complained and rebelled and turned their heart against God. Despite of the numerous aids and gifts God had given them through Moses along the way, in the form of manna and many others, they continued to rebel against the Lord, and even wanting to return back to Egypt, where they said that life, even under slavery would have been much more enjoyable and better than freedom.

The same can also happen to us if we are not careful, because we too are prone to rebellion and temptations by the evil one. If we are careless, we would end up falling into the traps of Satan, and be engulfed by his false and empty promises. Yes, we do complain and rebel against the Lord, especially whenever we commit a sin before the eyes of God. Despite all His kindness and love, we do still reject Him at times, and inflict great pains upon our Lord who sacrificed His life that we may be saved.

Yet, the Lord is great in His mercy, if only we are open to accept His infinite mercy and love. Yes, today we commemorate the Feast of the Divine Mercy, on which day we rejoice and praise our God whose Divine Mercy had made possible the salvation of many, whom through Saint Faustina Kowalska, He wanted to make His mercy known to all the world, and so that mankind would do acts of contrition, presenting to our Lord our sincere and contrite hearts, which longed for His mercy and kindness.

Never be afraid, and never fear the Lord, for He is kind as He is merciful. If we remain stubborn in our sinful ways and behaviours, yes, He would punish us, for He hates sin just as much as He loves us. He is just, and cannot allow sin and rebellion against Him be left unpunished. But yet, great also is His mercy that He showed to us, and offered to us freely. It is always men who rejected this offer of mercy, even though He had offered it for our own benefit, because we love Satan, the evil one, more than our Lord, just because Satan seems to offer the better incentives through worldly goods and pleasures.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be reminded that on this Divine Mercy Sunday, our Lord is willing to forgive us from our faults if we ourselves are receptive to His offer of mercy, and if we offer our contrite hearts and sincere will for atonement from our sins. Let us not waste this chance at getting our Lord’s mercy and be returned into His favour once again. Let us humble ourselves that we would be able to cast away the filthy veil of doubt and evil from our eyes, our minds, and our hearts, so that we can humble ourselves before our God and petition Him to show mercy to us, His sinful children.

May this season of Easter be a season of renewal to all of us, and become the time of joy, when we know that our Lord had shown great mercy upon us, and forgiven our sins. May God bless us all in this journey, that all of us would travel towards His infinite mercy and love. Amen.

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On Liturgical Music and Proper Worship (Video by Cardinal Francis Arinze)

A very nice argument by Cardinal Arinze, who was the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. This is how and why music, liturgy and all parts of the Mass must be proper (to refute those who says that these are irrelevant), because exactly they help us to be closer to God, to make the worship at the Mass truly a worship, and not instead becoming a glorification of the priest, self, or anyone else besides God.

The parish priests, anywhere in the world, Singapore, Asia, Africa, Europe, and others must make sure that rock music, loud music, clapping in the Mass, even within song is not relevant and therefore must not be used. A hymn, a proper Catholic hymn sung with reverence is much more appropriate and should be promoted.

The way to evangelise to our Catholic youths and youths in general is not to include contemporary music into our worship that makes it less than appropriate, just so that we can attract them. Those music and clapping actions, are more suitable for rally sessions or praise and worship, but NOT for the Mass.

The best way? Introduce our youths to the proper and solemn music, many of which are beautiful and no longer heard today, sunk by all the ugly contemporary music the likes of those by Lady Gaga, Psy, and so many others, which are contemptuous twisting of the true beauty of music, which purpose, like what the angels are doing in heaven, is to praise the Lord in His glory. Gregorian chants in Latin and other chants and hymns in the vernacular languages are the way to go.

We are the Church, and we worship the Lord in the Mass. We are not going to a marketplace or attending music concert when we attend the Mass, instead in the Mass we are with the Lord and through our tongues we praise Him with glorious and beautiful hymns appropriate to worship Him!

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Wednesday, 3 April 2013 : Wednesday of the Easter Octave (Scripture Reflection)

Christ is risen and He lives! Yes, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all know, this Easter season, we celebrate Christ who is not dead, and who does not suffer the penalty of death in hell, but who rose in glory, that through Him all mankind may have hope of eternal life through His resurrection.

Yet, many of us are like the disciples on their way to Emmaus, blinded in their spiritual eyes to see God’s presence in their midst, and the doubt that evil had sown in their heart shook their faith, when they knew and saw Christ crucified and died on the cross. Their fear and doubt prevented them from recognising and proclaiming that Christ is alive, and that He is not dead.

Yes, the suffering and death of Christ formed a great part of our faith, where we see the Messiah carrying the cross of sin and suffering that is due to mankind and took it upon Himself that all of us can be saved. It is through the suffering and death of Christ that our death may be averted, not in the sense of the death that will indeed claim us all in the end of our lives, but the eternal death in which we are completely separated from Christ.

This will not happen since Christ did not remain among the dead, for just as God is the God of the living, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who did not stay dead, but arisen again to live forever with Him in heaven, therefore Christ too, as God’s greatest servant, the Son of Man, was arisen in glory, that all who bask in His Resurrection may have hope of eternal life through Him.

Our faith is based upon the centrepiece of Christ’s mission in this world, that is His Resurrection. For without the Resurrection, our faith in Him has no base, for He stayed dead just as others did, but because He returned to life in glory, He became the first to be risen, that we too someday may be risen ourselves with Him.

Jesus is calling upon us to follow Him, and to follow His teachings and examples. He is calling on us to cast away the veil of doubt and fear from our hearts. He came to save us, and saved we are, if we remain firm and strong in our faith in Him. Do not fear, and do not fret, for God is with us, all the times of our life. He is there to share our joy in times of happiness, and to help us bear our burdens in times of sorrow and fear.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray, that God will strengthen us, in faith, hope, and love, that we will become shining beacon of truth and the love of God in this world. May through our hands, God will do great wonders in our broken and darkened world, to make it anew and bright once again. Amen.

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Monday, 1 April 2013 : Monday of the Easter Octave (Scripture Reflection)

Christ is risen! He has risen from the dead!

That is the key to our faith, that is our faith in God. God who has loved us so much since the time of creation till now, and his everlasting love made Him to give us the only means to salvation, that is through Christ who died and then returned to life in the glorious Resurrection, which we commemorate in this Easter season. Such is the joy that our joy overflowed and lasted the entire fifty days since Easter Sunday to the day of Pentecost.

For in Christ, the keys to the kingdom of heaven is finally available to us, for Christ destroyed evil’s hold on us and sin’s slavery of mankind through His death. He descended into hell though He was sinless and pure, all because He did so out of pure love for us, and to release our forefathers who had died before us, who had been righteous but were still enslaved by the power of sin, because of mankind’s rebellion against God.

That was why Christ came into this world, to be the servant of our Lord who sent Him. He was rejected, vilified, and eventually was condemned to death like a criminal on a cross. That was so that the servant of God would be glorified, and lifted up high for all to see. For in Him, lies the salvation of this very world. As I had often mentioned, the Most Precious Blood which He offered to all of us through the Last Supper with His disciples, was poured down the wood of the cross, as a cleansing font of salvation, in which, if we choose to do so, we can cleanse ourselves and purify our beings in the blood of the Lamb.

Yes, Christ who is our Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, who did not resist, and pure as He was, He bought off our sins into Himself, that in His purity, our sins will be destroyed. And yet, as King David had mentioned, that God will not suffer His Son to suffer for such great injustice, that He suffered no corruption, because He who suffered for our sins was indeed still and always will be unblemished. This is why God brought Him up again on the third day as Christ Himself had mentioned.

If Christ died on the cross and remained dead, we would then have no hope, since Christ Himself succumbed to that same power of death which had enthralled us all this while. Death is our just punishment for our rebellion against God who is good and perfect. But Christ, through His Resurrection, showed His triumph over death, and He, who is the first to be risen from the dead in glory, through His own glory, conquered death, and threw a final rebuke against Satan, releasing all of us from the same bonds of death.

His victory gave us a new hope and indeed, the hope in Him, He who conquered death, and conquered evil in the same time. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us, in this Easter season, strive to put our trust and hope in Christ, our Lord, and strive to grow deeper in our faith in our God, and also our love for Him and for our neighbour. That we will grow ever stronger in faith, hope, and love, the three virtues that mark us as truly belonging to God, our Lord. Pray for one another as well.

Amen.

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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 30 March 2013 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Scripture Reflection)

Today marks the greatest day in our entire year, and marks the greatest event that there ever was in the history of all mankind and the history of the world. For today, our Lord, who had died for us on the cross, did not stay dead, but was risen by the glory of God to Father in the most glorious Resurrection.

Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is Risen Lord, has harrowed hell in His descent there after His death,  He has liberated souls of sinners imprisoned and enchained by Satan, but having true faith in the Lord, freed from their bonds, and now join our Lord in His glorious Resurrection. Yes, glorious indeed is  His Resurrection. For in His Resurrection, our life are restored, in a new life in Him, just as our past is dead, when Christ died for us on that cross on Calvary.

Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord, had given His life that all of us who shared in His death through baptism, just as St. Paul said in his letter to the Romans, we can also be freed from eternal death in sin, and enter into eternal life and be Resurrected to true life just together with Christ’s resurrection. All of us who had been baptised in Christ, had been marked by Christ, our Lord as His, and His alone. The devil and his snares of sin no longer has any power over us.

Indeed, we who had been baptised, had received the gift of life through our faith in the living God, the resurrected Christ, who triumphed over Satan and death. But we must always stay vigilant, that Satan certainly will not stay silent while his dominions over sinful men are being assailed. He will fight back hard, and all of us must be ready, and must be strong.

As in what we had heard in all the readings we have today, today we hear the story of God’s love and His love for all of us, from the time when He created us and all the earth, through all the tribulations that His people encountered in Egypt, and through His salvation of them through Moses, His servant, and finally through the prophets, and ended in the greatest love and salvation of all that is, the salvation of all mankind through Christ, who died for us, and risen for us, that all of us join Him to once again return to the Father who loves us, and who created us out of His breath of life though we are dust.

So great is God’s love that He laid down His life for us, for His is the only worthy life that when surrendered in death, worth all of our iniquities and faults, that we who believe in Him can be rid of those, and becoming truly perfect in virtue, in our being and our soul, that we are worthy of being one with God, and be in His Presence again.

For when our forefathers rejected God through their rebellion, through Adam and Eve’s disobedience of eating the forbidden fruits of the tree of knowledge, we had been marred, and therefore, we could not stand before God in our imperfections, for God is perfect, and though He loves us so much indeed, no imperfections or iniquities can stand in His presence and survive.

A great chasm had appeared between us and God the Father, our creator. Ever since Adam and Eve were banished from the Gardens of Eden for their disobedience, we have ever since wonder around in this earth, separated from the fullness of God’s love, which Adam and Eve enjoyed in their early life of bliss in Eden before the fall of mankind to sin, and which we are to enjoy again, if we truly believe in Christ, and allow Him to transform us through His death and resurrection, to be purified, and therefore, worthy once again of the fullness of love of our God.

For, just like the slavery of the people of Israel, God’s people in Egypt shows to us, this separation from God is just temporary. For as God sent Moses, His servant to free the people of Israel from their bondage under Pharaoh, so He had sent His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver all of us, not just Israel, God’s first chosen people, but now through Christ, He delivers all of us, His new chosen people, from the bondage under sin and Satan, the evil one.

Just as He split open the Red Sea through Moses, to allow the people of Israel to walk dryshod through the sea, so He also opened the path to Himself, through Christ, to allow us to walk and return to He who loves us. For that great chasm between us and Him is insurmountable and infinite in span, but yet, Christ, our Lord, who gave His life for us, had become that great bridge through His Resurrection, that this bridge, like the dry land of the Red Sea’s seafloor, it allows us to pass through despite the chasm, to return back to our Father in heaven.

Yet, the path would not be easy, and we may fall along the way. Indeed, we had been chosen and marked by Christ through baptism, that we reflect His death and resurrection in ourselves, within our heart, but just as God’s chosen people, the people of Israel had shown, we can fall in our way. We knew it well that Israel often rebelled against the Lord, beginning from when they had been brought out of Egypt, when they often brought the Lord to the test, and made numerous complaints to the Lord, and even established rival gods like that of the golden calf, and the false gods of the people of Midian and Canaan.

We too can falter in our way, and can also fall into the same kind of trap that had befallen Israel. Therefore, we must always be vigilant, and keep at all times, our focus in Christ, our Lord, in His love and trust in His authority. Let us keep one another strong in faith, strong in God’s love, and strong in our hope for eternal life through Christ. Help out one another, especially those who are struggling with the faith.

Though the people of Israel, the chosen people, constantly rebelled against God and His commandments, and slaughtering many of His chosen prophets, and ultimately crucified His Son, God incarnate in Christ Jesus, He still readily forgave them, since in His own words that they do not know what they are doing, that in their ignorance, and in the blindness of their eyes and hearts, they failed to see God and His wonderful mission of redemption.

Therefore brothers and sisters in Christ. Today let us make true the mission that God has entrusted to all of us through His Apostles, that is to spread the Good News to all the nations, and to baptise them in the Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. As we commemorate the Resurrection of our Lord today, let this moment be a moment of renewal of our commitment to evangelise the Good News of the Lord to all the people.

That through evangelisation and knowledge of the Lord, the people will no longer rebel against the Lord who loves them, and will no longer dwell in sin and darkness, but will return to the light, just as all of us had been redeemed into light by our own baptism.

Let us pray fervently for our brethren who will be baptised in the ceremony today, either in the Easter Vigil or the Easter Sunday celebrations, that the love and fear of the Lord will continue to grow stronger in their hearts, that the call which they had received to become catechumens, will continue to resonate loudly within their beings and their hearts even after their baptism. May the Holy Spirit descend upon them and dwell in their hearts, and through them and their actions, and also in all of us gathered as one community of the faithful ones in Christ, bear much fruits of the Holy Spirit, most important of which is love.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I wish you all a most happy and blessed Easter, that in this holy season of Easter, may all of us rejoice in the glorious Resurrection of our Lord, and commit ourselves to further the evangelisation of our Lord’s Good News, that many more will be able to join our Lord too, in new life, born out of baptism, and be resurrected like Christ was resurrected, from our past lives and die to ourselves, so that we can be born into a new life in Christ. God bless us all. Amen.

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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 30 March 2013 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Psalm after Seventh Reading)

Psalm 41 : 3, 5 and Psalm 42 : 3, 4

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I go and see the face of God?

Now as I pour out my soul, I remember all this – how I used to lead the faithful in procession to the house of God, amid shouts of joy and thanksgiving, among the feasting throng.

Send forth your light and your truth; let them be my guide, let them take me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You reside.

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my gladness and delight. I will praise You with the lyre and harp, o God, my God.

 

Alternative Psalm (If there is baptism)

 

Psalm 50 : 12-15, 18, 19

Create in me, o God, a pure heart; give me a new and steadfast spirit. Do not cast me out of Your presence nor take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Give me again the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will show wrongdoers Your ways and sinners will return to You.

You take no pleasure in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, You would not delight in it.

O God, my sacrifice is a broken spirit; a contrite heart You will not despise.

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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 30 March 2013 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Second Reading)

Genesis 22 : 1-18

Some time later God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.” Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I shall point out to you.”

Abraham rose early next morning and saddled his donkey and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He chopped wood for the burnt offering and set out for the place to which God had directed him.

On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance, and he said to the young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He carried in his hand the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, “Father!” And Abraham replied, “Yes, my son?” Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” Abraham replied, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the sacrifice.”

They went on, the two of them together, until they came to the place to which God had directed them. When Abraham had built the altar and set the wood on it, he bound his son Isaac and laid him on the wood placed on the altar. He then stretched out his hand to seize the knife and slay his son. But the Angel of YHVH called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

And he said, “Here I am.” “Do not lay your hand on the boy; do not harm him, for now I know that you fear God, and you have not held back from Me your only son.”

Abraham looked around and saw behind him a ram caught by its horns in a bush. He offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place ‘The Lord will provide.’ And the saying has lasted to this day.

And the Angel of YHVH called from heaven a second time, “By Myself I have sworn, it is YHVH who speaks, because you have done this and not held back your son, your only son. I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore.

“Your descendants will take possession of the lands of their enemies. All the nations of the earth will be blessed through your descendants because you have obeyed Me.”

 

Alternative reading (Shorter version)

 

Genesis 22 : 1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18

Some time later God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.” Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I shall point out to you.”

They came to the place to which God had directed them. He then stretched out his hand to seize the knife and slay his son. But the Angel of YHVH called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

And he said, “Here I am.” “Do not lay your hand on the boy; do not harm him, for now I know that you fear God, and you have not held back from Me your only son.”

Abraham looked around and saw behind him a ram caught by its horns in a bush. He offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.

And the Angel of YHVH called from heaven a second time, “By Myself I have sworn, it is YHVH who speaks, because you have done this and not held back your son, your only son. I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore.

“Your descendants will take possession of the lands of their enemies. All the nations of the earth will be blessed through your descendants because you have obeyed Me.”

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(Good Friday) Friday, 29 March 2013 : Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Week (First Reading)

Isaiah 52 : 13 – Isaiah 53 : 12

It is now when My servant will succeed; He will be exalted and highly praised. Just as many have been horrified at His disfigured appearance : “Is this a man? He does not look like one,” so will nations be astounded, kings will stand speechless, for they will see something never told, they will witness something never heard of.

Who could believe what we have heard, and to whom has YHVH revealed His feat? Like a root out of dry ground, like a sapling He grew up before us, with nothing attractive in His appearance, no beauty, no majesty.

He was despised and rejected, a Man of sorrows familiar with grief, a Man from whom people hide their face, spurned and considered of no account. Yet ours were the sorrows He bore, ours were the sufferings He endured, although we considered Him as one punished by God, stricken and brought low.

Destroyed because of our sins, He was crushed for our wickedness. Through His punishment, we are made whole; by His wounds we are healed. Like sheep we had all gone astray, each following His own way; but YHVH laid upon Him all our guilt.

He was harshly treated, but unresisting and silent, He humbly submitted. Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearer, He did not open His mouth. He was taken away to detention and judgment – what an unthinkable fate! He was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for His people’s sin.

They made His tomb with the wicked, they put Him in the graveyard of the oppressors, though He had done no violence nor spoken in deceit. Yet it was the will of YHVH to crush Him with grief. When He makes Himself an offering for sin, He will have a long life and see His descendants. Through Him the will of YHVH is done.

For the anguish He suffered, He will see the light and obtain perfect knowledge. My just Servant will justify the multitude; He will bear and take away their guilt.

Therefore I will give Him His portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong. For He surrendered Himself to death and was even counted among the wicked, bearing the sins of the multitude and interceding for sinners.