Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 118 : 1-2, 4-5, 7-8
Blessed are they whose ways are upright, who follow the Law of the Lord. Blessed are they who treasure His word and seek Him with all their heart.
You have laid down precepts to be obeyed. O, that my ways were steadfast in observing Your statutes!
I will praise You with an upright spirit when I learn Your just precepts by heart. I mean to observe Your commandments. O, never abandon me.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Deuteronomy 26 : 16-19
On this day, YHVH, your God, commands you to fulfil these norms and these commandments. Obey them now and put them into practice with all your heart and with all your soul.
Today YHVH has declared to you that He will be your God, and so you shall follow His ways, observing His norms, His commandments and His laws, and listening to His voice. Today YHVH has declared that you will be His very own people even as He had promised you, and you must obey all His commandments.
He, for His part, will give you honour, renown and glory, and set you high above all the nations He has made, and you will become a nation consecrated to YHVH, your God, as He has declared.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we continue to progress through the season of Lent, each and every one of us are reminded through the Scripture passages today of the need for all of us to heed the Lord’s call for us to return to Him, abandoning our sinful actions and stubborn attitudes, listening to Him calling us to follow Him and to return once again to His loving embrace. Each and every one of us as Christians have been given the privilege of receiving the truth of God and we have witnessed this same truth being delivered and passed down to us through the Church and by the Wisdom given to us through the Holy Spirit. That is why all the more we should be more obedient to the Lord and dedicate ourselves and our time more to Him, and being more faithful to Him. But the reality is that, many among us Christians are lukewarm in our faith.
In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah,we heard the prophet speaking to the people of God about how if they were to stop committing sins and wickedness in their lives, distancing themselves from the many actions they had done in the past which were unworthy of their status as God’s chosen people. Historically and contextually, the prophet Isaiah made this comment and reminder to the people of God during a time when the people had been facing a lot of hardships and trials, difficulties, challenges and troubles. Back then, the remnants of the people of God only remained in Judah, the southern part of the once great and glorious kingdom of David and Solomon, as the northern kingdom that had separated and then committed grievous sins against the Lord had finally been destroyed, and most of its people were brought away by their Assyrian conquerors to distant lands in exile.
Then, the same forces of the Assyrians came up against Judah and Jerusalem itself, and almost conquered the city and the kingdom, bringing the same fate to all of the people of God there if not for God’s most timely and loving intervention. God crushed the forces of the Assyrians upon the prayers of the faithful king of Judah, King Hezekiah and the people of Judah, and through the intercession of the prophet Isaiah himself. Through all these experiences and examples, the Lord wanted all of His people to know that if they chose to remain in their state of sin and rebellion against Him, they would suffer the same fate as those who had rebelled and sinned against God. The Lord reminded all of them that on the other hand, if they were to repent from their sins and turn back to Him, they would receive the grace and blessings, the wonderful things that their faithful predecessors had once received.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the Lord calling one particular tax collector named Levi, whom He called to follow Him, to become one of His disciples. This Levi as we all should know, would become St. Matthew, one of the Twelve Apostles and the Four Evangelists. Back then, the tax collectors were greatly hated and reviled by most of the society, and especially by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who deemed them as irredeemable sinners, wicked and greedy, and even as traitors to the Jewish nation, as their roles in collecting taxes and money for the Romans and the other rulers of the land, made them complicit in the minds of the people in betraying their own people to these rulers and conquerers. They were therefore often ostracised and rejected, hated and despised by much of the community of the people of God.
It was exactly to these people that the Lord went to minister, reaching out to them and calling on them to follow Him, just as He had done with Levi. While those Pharisees and teachers of the Law shunned and reviled the tax collectors and others whom they deemed as wicked sinners and those unworthy of God, God came straight at those people and reached out to them, showing them His love and kindness, the desire to be reconciled and reunited with them. He showed that He loved us all equally, and everyone had the same chance to be reconciled with the Lord and be saved, and in fact, as the Lord Himself said, it was those who were seemingly the furthest away from His salvation who needed the most help. That was why the Lord went straight at them and called them to come back to Him, and the response was truly amazing, as those tax collectors and others came to the Lord, and for St. Matthew, he even dedicated himself wholeheartedly to Him.
On the contrary, many among those Pharisees and teachers of the Law refused to believe in the Lord, all because they were full of pride and ego, thinking that they were superior and better than all others, and that they could not have been wrong in their way and judgments, and as such, they viewed the Lord’s actions negatively, in line with their prejudices and biases that they maintained, and refused to let go. They hardened their hearts and minds against the Lord and His teachings, His truth and Wisdom and hence remained in the state of sin and darkness, being dragged down by their own pride and wicked desires and greed for power, fame and glory. All these are reminders for each one of us that we should not let ourselves be swayed by those temptations, and we should instead follow the example of Levi, in rejecting the wickedness of sin and return to the Lord with faith.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to progress through this season of Lent, let us all therefore reflect and discern carefully on our lives so that we may learn to walk down the right path in life, and journey well in faith. May all of us continue to live our lives with renewed zeal and dedication to God, keeping in mind what we do and say, so that we do not end up walking down the path of sin and wickedness. Let us remind ourselves that sin and disobedience against God will lead us down the path of ruin, while obeying God and persevering in faith in Him will lead us to true justification and happiness with God. Let us choose the right path and commit ourselves to follow the Lord, becoming good and worthy examples of our faith for others to follow, so that more and more may be inspired to follow the Lord through us, just as St. Matthew and many other innumerable saints turned sinners had done to inspire us.
Let us all remember that the Church is truly a hospital for sinners, and that even the worst of sinners who turn to the Lord and repent sincerely from their sins will be forgiven, and can become the greatest of the saints. Let us all look forward to a life truly worthy of the Lord and journey well through this holy and blessed season of Lent. May God be with us always and may He empower and strengthen us so that we may always be true to Him, and be strong in facing and enduring the many challenges of this world. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Luke 5 : 27-32
At that time, after Jesus healed a paralytic man, He went out, and noticing a tax collector named Levi, sitting in the tax office, He said to him, “Follow Me!” So Levi, leaving everything, got up and followed Jesus.
Levi gave a great feast for Jesus, and many tax collectors came to his house, and took their places at the table with the other people. Then the Pharisees and their followers complained to Jesus’ disciples, “How is it, that you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
But Jesus spoke up, “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. I have not come to call the just, but sinners, to a change of heart.”
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 85 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6
Listen, o YHVH, and answer me, for I am afflicted and needy. Preserve my life, for I am God-fearing; save Your servant who trusts in You.
Have mercy on me, o YHVH, for I cry to You all day. Bring joy to the soul of Your servant; for You, o YHVH, I lift up my soul.
You are good and forgiving, o YHVH, caring for those who call on You. Listen, o YHVH, to my prayer, hear the voice of my pleading.
Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Isaiah 58 : 9b-14
If you remove from your midst the yoke, the clenched fist and the wicked word. If you share your food with the hungry and give relief to the oppressed, then your light will rise in the dark, your night will be like noon.
YHVH will guide you always and give you relief in desert places. He will strengthen your bones; He will make you as a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fall. Your ancient ruins will be rebuilt, the age-old foundations will be raised. You will be called the Breach-mender, and the Restorer of ruined houses.
If you stop profaning the Sabbath and doing as you please on the holy day, if you call the Sabbath a day of delight and keep sacred YHVH’s holy day, if you honour it by not going your own way, not doing as you please and not speaking with malice, then you will find happiness in YHVH, over the heights you will ride triumphantly, and feast joyfully on the inheritance of your father Jacob. The mouth of YHVH has spoken.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of our faith in God, which underlines our very existence and life, and which we ought to take seriously if we have not yet done so. Faith is very important for us as without genuine faith, it is very easy for us to fall into the temptations of Satan and all the other persuasions, temptations and pressures for us to abandon God’s path and to disobey Him, leading to us falling ever further away from the salvation and grace of God. Without faith, our existence will become meaningless and sundered from God’s grace and love, and hence, through what we heard in our Scripture passages today, we are yet again reminded to have true, genuine faith in God.
In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, we essentially heard the summary of what we have been listening to in the past two weeks if we have been attending weekday liturgies and Masses, in which the history of the salvation of mankind had been put up in detail, showing us all the history of how mankind had fallen and then rose again from the depth of sin and their wickedness. We have heard in those preceding days how mankind was created out of the greatest love from God, and how they fell into sin through their disobedience and refusal to listen to God, preferring instead to follow their own pride, ego, ambitions and worldly desires that eventually led them down the path of sin and to their downfall. This had been highlighted again and again in these past two weeks, as we heard how our ancestors fell into sin against God.
However, amidst all the sins that our ancestors committed, the sins of Adam and Eve in disobeying God, the murder of Abel by his own brother Cain, the wickedness of mankind that led to the Great Flood, and also the hubris and pride of man that led to the events surrounding the Tower of Babel, there were still moments of goodness, reminding us all that we mankind have the capacity to do good if we so desire it and make the effort to do so, as we heard of the faith of Abel who devoted his whole offering to God, giving Him only the best of what he had. Then we have also heard of the story of Enoch, while not highlighted in the readings of the previous days, but Enoch was the only one among all mankind back then not to suffer death, but raised up to Heaven because of his righteousness and obedience to God.
And of course we heard again and are reminded of the faith of Noah, who remained faithful to God when the rest of the world were full of wickedness and refused to listen to God. Noah devoted his life and all his efforts to build the Great Ark, through which God saved him and his family while the rest of the wicked men and women were destroyed by the Great Flood. All those examples highlighted to us all share the same pattern and characteristic, in that all these people, our holy predecessors, had great faith in God and listened to Him, while allowing Him to do His will through them, and they consequently received great grace and help from God, reminding us yet again that we are all beloved by God, despite our many sins and disobedience. God wants to be reconciled with us and to forgive us our sins, and to this extent, He has given us His own beloved Son, to be our Saviour.
In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of that same Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Saviour of the whole world, Who revealed Himself to three of His disciples, St. Peter, St. James and St. John on top of Mount Tabor, in the event known as the Transfiguration of the Lord, when Jesus revealed the truth about Himself before His disciples, how He was not merely just the Son of Man and a Prophet of God, but was also the Son of God Most High, the Holy One, Who has come down into this world, the Divine Word of God, incarnate in the Flesh to be the Son of Man. As He revealed Himself, being present with Moses and Elijah atop Mount Tabor, He revealed to the disciples and to all of us, how He has fulfilled everything that He Himself had said through His servants, in promising salvation and liberation to all of them.
Moses represented the Law that God had given to all of us, which Christ would indeed renew and remind to all of the people, reminding everyone of the true purpose, intention and meaning of the Law, which is God’s Love for each and every one of us, and also the love that mankind ought to have for Him, as well as for one another. Without faith in God, we cannot be truly obedient to Him and His Law and commandments, and that is why we are reminded to always be willing to listen to the Lord, in His reminders to us to obey His Law and commandments wholeheartedly and sincerely, and not just paying mere lip service or obeying things just for appearances like many of the people in Lord Jesus’ time liked to do. All of us are reminded to be truly devoted to the Lord, doing our best to follow the ways of the Lord as He has taught us through His Church.
Meanwhile, Elijah represented the Prophets of God, and all that the Lord has spoken and promised to His people throughout time. The Lord came into this world as the proof and fulfilment of all of His past promises, and through this example, all of us are reminded that God is forever faithful to the Covenant which He has made with us, and He will not abandon any of us to darkness and destruction, unless we ourselves have chosen to side with the devil and disobey the Lord willingly, as many of our predecessors had done. Just as Abel, Enoch, Noah, as well as Abraham, David and many others of the worthy and holy people in the Scriptures have shown us, God will reward all those who have been faithful to Him, while He also still patiently called and wanted all those who have not walked in His path to follow Him, right up to the very end. But should we still choose to disobey Him to the end, then there is nothing else that awaits us other than eternal damnation.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect upon the Scripture readings we have heard from today, all of us are called and reminded of the responsibilities that we all have as Christians to be the bearers of God’s light and truth, as the ones to proclaim His love and mercy to the world, and to help one another in our journey of faith that we all may be ever closer to God and His salvation. May the Lord continue to help us and strengthen us all in our faith, so that we do not lose our faith and trust in God even through the darkest and most difficult moments of our lives. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Mark 9 : 2-13
At that time, six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain. There His appearance was changed before their eyes. Even His clothes shone, becoming as white as no bleach of this world could make them. Elijah and Moses appeared to them; the two were talking with Jesus.
Then Peter spoke and said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to say : they were overcome with awe. But a cloud formed, covering them in a shadow, and from the cloud came a voice, “This is My Son, the Beloved; listen to Him.”
And suddenly, as they looked around, they no longer saw anyone except Jesus with them. As they came down the mountain, He ordered them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept this to themselves, although they discussed with one another what ‘to rise from the dead’ could mean.
Finally they asked Him, “Why then do the teachers of the Law say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus answered them, “Of course Elijah will come first, so that everything may be as it should be. But why do the Scriptures say that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be despised? I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they have treated him as they pleased, as the Scriptures say of him.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Psalm 144 : 2-3, 4-5, 10-11
I will praise You day after day and exalt Your Name forever. Great is the Lord, most worthy of praise; and His deeds are beyond measure.
Parents commend Your works to their children and tell them Your feats. They proclaim the splendour of Your majesty and recall Your wondrous works.
All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o Lord, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your power.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Hebrews 11 : 1-7
Faith is the assurance of what we hope for, being certain of what we cannot see. Because of their faith our ancestors were approved. By faith we understand that the stages of creation were disposed by God’s word, and what is visible came from what cannot be seen.
Because of Abel’s faith his offering was more acceptable than that of his brother Cain, which meant he was upright, and God Himself approved his offering. Because of this faith he cried to God, as said in Scripture, even after he died.
By faith Enoch was taken to heaven, instead of experiencing death : he could not be found because God had taken him. In fact, it is said that before being taken up he had pleased God. Yet without faith it is impossible to please Him : no one draws near to God without first believing that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him earnestly.
By faith Noah was instructed of events which could not yet be seen and, heeding what he heard, he built a boat in which to save his family. The faith of Noah condemned the world and he reached holiness born of faith.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 