Scripture Reflections

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Friday, 21 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jesus spoke about Himself when He talked about the parable of the evil tenants in today’s Gospel reading. And indeed everything came true as He spoke of. Jesus was the son of the owner of the vineyard, and the owner is God the Father, while the vineyard is this world where we live in. The grapes and the grapevine are all of us, the people of God.

The evil tenants are, in specific terms, the Pharisees and the elders of Israel, those who rejected Jesus the Son, and who later crucified Him to death on the cross. But in more general terms, they can also refer to anyone with power or holding any positions of power. They can also refer to any of us, brethren. For we mankind are prone to temptations of power and they may come at any time.

Why are we like the evil tenants? That is because we relish in the glories and joys of this world, that we grow attached to them, and we became obsessive over them, not wanting to give them up. That is what had happened to the Pharisees and the chief priests by the time of Jesus. They who had been entrusted with power and authority over the people, grew attached to that power, and it consumed them with desire for power, and jealousy for anyone they saw as threat to that power.

That explained why they were so stubborn and tried their best to undermine the works of Jesus and His disciples wherever they went to. They followed Jesus and heard Him as He taught the people of the revelation of God’s truth and salvation, but they did not listen to Him. Yes, they keep their ears and hearts closed against the Lord who tried to reach out to them and reconcile them with Him.

They tried to come out with plots after plots, and plotted they did, against the Lord and Messiah whom they are supposed to serve and preach for. They hardened their hearts against Him and branded Him a heretic and a blasphemer while in fact it was they themselves who had blasphemed against God through their wicked actions.

It is a lesson that all of us can learn from, that we should not let our human pride and ambition to get in our way as we go to seek the Lord and ask Him for His saving power. We cannot let ourselves be manipulated by the evil one, who sowed the seeds of lie in us, making us think that it is good for us to disobey and break the law of God as long as it suits our own desires and purposes.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we be like the Pharisees and those whose greed for power and control had obstructed their acknowledgment of the Lord’s authority? Or shall we be meek and humble, asking our Lord for guidance and for Him to lead us into a blessed life with Him? The choice here is clearly ours and we have to act upon it.

Let us not be brought down by the trap of power, and the pull of desire and wants, that we end up being great obstacles in the Lord’s work of salvation. Instead, let us learn to be humble, to set aside our own greed and human pride, and allow the Lord to be our guide and our leader, entrusting with Him and truly trusting Him to make the decisions that will be good to our own lives.

May the Lord our God help us to be reconciled with Himself, and to cast out all semblances of evil and wickedness from ourselves, that we may once again be made worthy, that we will not be judged to be among those who are unworthy of His salvation and those destined for damnation in hell. Let us pray for one another, and support one another, that our faith in God may be always strong. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 20 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are introduced today to an important catechesis of the faith, that is on the fate of our soul, when we go to the afterlife after our life in this world ends. And it was made clear to us by the story of Lazarus and the rich man, to show the contrast between the two fates that are possible for all of us.

Nevertheless, I would like to warn all of you first to be very careful in reading and understanding this part of the Gospels, as it is easy to be misunderstood and misrepresented, as if Jesus is advocating a sort of class war or conflict between the poor and the rich. And neither should we equate poverty with salvation and riches with damnation. Not all poor will end up in eternal joy, and many rich ones will also be saved.

In order to truly understand the meaning behind the passage, we have to understand the context behind Jesus’ teaching of the parables to His students. At the time of Jesus, and as it is similar in our world today, the divide and gap in the society in terms of wealth and affluence was very pronounced, and the rich ones were very rich with great excess, while the poor was very poor, having almost nothing on themselves.

Thus, it is easier for Jesus to teach the people, if He said them in a manner which can be easily understandable to the people, and hence His choice of characters and the story, to highlight the disparity between the two. Lazarus the poor man had nothing, and sat down in front of the rich man’s mansion hoping that the rich man would spare him some food from his table.

The rich man spared him nothing, and continued to live in splendour and great excess, partying day after day without any concern for those who were less fortunate than him. So that is why, after he died, the Lord gave him his due that is hopelessness, and eternal suffering in hell, to suffer with the devil and his fellow fallen angels.

Meanwhile Lazarus was welcomed into heaven, to enjoy forever the fruits of God’s love, to enjoy the food of everlasting life and he will no longer experience hunger, unlike what he had to go through in life. This is certainly what we all want as well. After all, who will choose hell over heaven? Nobody wants suffering, because we all want happiness.

This certainly should have taught us a good lesson, that if we forget to do what is expected from us by God, then we will be judged and deemed unworthy of heaven. Remember, brethren, that the wealth and possessions that we have is a gift for us, and it is not evil. There is nothing wrong in fact with people having more wealth than others.

However, wealth itself is neutral, but it can be used for either good or bad purposes. Like the rich man, who ignored the plight of Lazarus, he failed to utilise his abundance for a good purpose, and thus he was judged against. He failed to love another mankind, and therefore this ignorance spoke out against him when he is judged by the Judge of all life.

What is of concern to us is regarding the culture of waste and excess that often permeates in our society, and we often do not think about those who do not even have enough. We often consume more than what we need, even to the point of gluttony. We forget that the excesses can be given to those who have little and none that they may have enough.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on the story of Lazarus and the rich man, that we may from now on consider our own lifestyle, whether we have been charitable to those who have little or none, giving up our excesses to them, so they too can enjoy together with us. Being rich is fine, brothers and sisters, but just make sure that we keep our less fortunate brethren in mind! God bless. Amen.

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Wednesday, 19 March 2014 : Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Today we celebrate the feast day of one of the greatest saints in the Church, none other than St. Joseph himself, the protector and head of the Holy Family, husband and spouse of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, and the foster-father of Jesus Christ our Lord. Today is a great feast day because we are celebrating the feast of an important persona, whose role in our salvation in Jesus is perhaps second only to the Blessed Virgin Mary herself.

St. Joseph wedded the Blessed Virgin and became her protector and guardian. He was a carpenter at the small village of Nazareth in Galilee, and as history told us, he was already quite old at that time of her marriage to Mary, who was still very young, and it may be likely that it was not his first marriage. And Joseph was initially hesitant to marry her when he found out that she was with Child Jesus in her womb.

Even here the quality of St. Joseph was clearly visible, as he was an upright and virtuous person, who did not wish evil upon others but only good. He wanted good on others, even on Mary after she somehow ‘cheated’ him by being pregnant even before their marriage. But after Joseph discovered the truth through the angel of God, he married her and protected both her and her Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

St. Joseph certainly taught our Lord Jesus many things, just as other fathers do. St. Joseph, even though as a sort of stepfather to Jesus, loved Him as if He is his own son. With the guidance of St. Joseph, Jesus grew to a strong and loving man, as a well-mannered and God-loving Son of God.

Most likely, by the time Jesus began His ministry upon His baptism, St. Joseph had passed away due to his old age. Yet, what he had taught Jesus certainly helped Him during His ministry, and He knew about the world and its situation at the time, also likely through the tutelage of St. Joseph, who taught Him about it.

The example set by St. Joseph still inspires us today, first is to be obedient and have a strong faith to the Lord, as what he showed, obeying the Lord and playing his part in the scheme of God’s salvation. He obeyed the angel’s warning to bring Jesus out of harm when King Herod tried to kill Him. He was a loving father and an upright man, who followed God’s will and did his best to show it in his actions.

He certainly worked hard to provide for his family, for Mary his wife and for Jesus his adopted Son. That is why St. Joseph is also the patron saint of workers, showing them how to work hard and yet remain devoted to the Lord in his actions and deeds. He is truly a role model to all of us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, the challenge to us now is that are we able to follow and walk in the footsteps of St. Joseph? Are we able to follow what he had done, in his virtue and righteousness? That is the challenge for all of us now. We do not have to emulate entirely what he had done, as it will not be easy to us. But we have to at least make the effort, is it not?

So, brethren, let us use this opportunity to reflect on our own life and our own actions, whether we have done what is righteous in the eyes of God, or whether we have failed to do so, either by ignoring His commandments and staying idle, or by committing sins and what is evil to God.

Let us change our ways for the better, that from now on we may live in God’s grace and be blessed by His presence among us. Let us resolve to remain always in the light of God and reject the darkness of Satan and the world. May God help us all and guide us to Himself. Amen.

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Tuesday, 18 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Bishops)

Brothers and sisters, humility and love are the two most important aspects of our faith, which we should always keep in mind, especially as we live in this world. We must always be humble, before God and men, and be loving to our brethren, to our neighbours, and ultimately towards God.

We are all sinners, equal before the eyes of God, that is why we should not exalt ourselves or trumpet our achievements before us. We should come to a full realisation of the full extent and gravity of our sins and faults, that we may move towards doing something to change that and make ourselves once again worthy of the Lord our God.

It is not easy to be humble, brethren, because especially the greater we are, the more things that we possess in our lives, and the more affluent and influential we are in our society, there are more and more things that can prevent us from showing humility, not only before men, but also before God.

It is natural for us to boast about what is great about us, and to flaunt whatever we possess, be it wealth, influence, or power. And if we do so, it becomes a vicious cycle. By showing off our power and greatness, we are likely to be praised for it, and therefore, we will be even more eager to show more of our power, and to gain more of it.

And it is this pursuit of more power, wealth, greatness and other things that often likely to keep us away from the path of the Lord, that we no longer walk in His path, but following our own path, that will end in destruction for us. That was why Jesus emphasised to us using the examples of the Pharisees and the chief priests, for us not to be tainted and taken over by the corrupting power of desire and human greed.

For the Pharisees liked to boast their piety, in their observation of the law and the strict guidelines they themselves had established. They liked to show off their piety and teaching authority to others, whom they deemed to be inferior to themselves. They have made themselves to be a caste and a group on its own, whom they themselves deemed to be righteous and holy.

The Pharisees acted as if they were the righteous and the just, even to the point of condemning others whom they deemed as sinners and unworthy people. But they themselves had sin inside them, and even a greater sin because they not only failed to recognise their own sins, but they also condemn others for their sins, thinking in their pride, that they are better than them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Pharisees showed us the example of how we should not be in our faith. We cannot be judgmental and critical of others, not least if we cannot be critical of ourselves. We should instead follow the example of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, whose feast we are celebrating today. St. Cyril was the bishop of Jerusalem, who was renowned for his great charitable works for the poor, who sold even imperial gifts to the Church to help them.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem was truly devoted to the Lord, and he showed that not just in his charity acts and love for the people of God, but also in his numerous writings in which He described the Lord and His love, and in the nature of Jesus and His salvation, which helped many to understand better about the faith.

You all now see the contrast between them, so let us all seek to renew and strengthen our faith. Let us be beacons of light for one another, guiding our ways as we reach out to the Lord. May God also help us on our way, that we may be with Him at the end of all, and not fall along the way to the temptation of power and worldly corruptions. Amen.

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Monday, 17 March 2014 : 2nd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Brothers and sisters in Christ, once again we are exhorted to practice our faith and be genuine and active in living up our faith, through action and devotion, particularly through the act of mercy, by forgiving others who had done wrong to us, and by giving of our love to them, and to those who had hated us and resented us.

Today, brethren, we celebrate the feast of St. Patrick, the Bishop and Patron saint of Ireland. Patrick was born in the Roman Britain, and was initially a pagan shepherd, who was captured by Irish raiders and was made a slave. During his slavery, St. Patrick learnt about the faith through missionaries, and he had a change of heart.

St. Patrick learnt much about the faith and spent his time knowing more and more about God. He was released from his captivity after a few years and returned to his homeland, but not before knowing from God that he will one day return to the land of his enslavement to bring it to the hand of God through conversion.

Eventually St. Patrick returned to Ireland and set about doing many good things there, preaching about the faith and teaching the people about God. St. Patrick performed many miracles and great feats, which helped to bring the people to greater understanding of the greatness and the nature of God and faith in Him.

St. Patrick and his works laid the foundation for the faith in the once untamed and pagan land, where all the people worshipped the spirits of the land. He used many methods to teach them how to devote themselves to God, using shamrock leaves with their three lobes to describe the concept of the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And despite all the oppositions and works arrayed against him during his missionary works, St. Patrick prevailed and continued to baptise thousand upon thousands, converting many to the cause of Christ, even among the nobles, lords, and kings and princes. He made the spread of the faith in that godless land possible.

What is most important from St. Patrick and his actions was that he practiced his faith and do the things that he had said. That was why so many people listened to him, and finding the good things that he had taught them, they believed and were saved through baptism. St. Patrick had a solid and living faith in God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called to also be witnesses for the Lord, to be the ones showing God and His teachings to those who had yet to know Him, much as what St. Patrick had done. Shall we follow the example of St. Patrick and did what he had done for the glory of God?

Let us be righteous, loving and merciful as the Lord had taught us through Jesus, that we may truly be seen as the children of God, and through our actions, may other people see the love of God and know Him through us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 16 March 2014 : 2nd Sunday of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Today we heard about the well-known account on the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ our Lord on the mountain, when He was transformed and assumed His glory, as a premonition of what was to come for Him and for the world. Jesus was revealed to the three disciples, His closest ones, Peter, James and John, to be truly the One whom the Lord has favour with, the One who would save the world and renew it.

In the Transfiguration of Christ, the world is preempted with the rare look into the glory of Christ, before He is truly glorified at His resurrection from the dead. For Christ is the Logos, the Son of God, the Word of God who created everything, who is God and who is with God since the beginning of time and before. And as such, He is God Himself, who came down into this world in the form of human flesh in Jesus. And in Transfiguration, the glorious self that is His was revealed in its fullness for the first time to the world.

And the event of the Transfiguration itself would set the tone for the rest of the mission of Jesus in this world, leading up to His suffering and death on the cross, as the culmination of His divinely appointed mission. First of all, the Transfiguration established firmly without question that Jesus is the Messiah and the Holy One of God, whom the prophets and elders of the people had prophesied for, in many years leading up to His coming.

Moses and Elijah, who appeared to Jesus confirmed this fact, and again showed yet another fact about Christ, that He is to be a Leader and a Prophet, much as Moses and Elijah had done. As what Moses had done, in delivering the people of God from the slavery in Egypt, Jesus would, as the new Leader of all, bring all mankind, all peoples and take them away from their slavery to sin and evil.

And with Elijah, it was shown that Jesus was the culmination of the prophecies of the prophets, and He was the complete fulfillment of the law of God as revealed through the leaders and the prophets. And Jesus came to fulfill and make perfect the law of God, bringing them to the clear understanding by the people of God. Jesus is to lead us to a new life and one that is blessed and filled with the wisdom of God.

The Transfiguration reminds us of the many challenges and responsibilities that Jesus had taken up upon Himself. He brought Himself to be the atonement for the sins of the innumerable, and He made Himself punished so that we will not be punished as we deserve. Jesus on that mountain affirmed His love and dedication to the Lord, and He from then on was prepared to walk down the path towards His Passion, to die on the cross for our sake.

But in all His glory and power, Jesus did not become proud or boastful of what He has. He did not revel in His glory but remained perfectly obedient to the will of God His Father. And that was why, He did not remain there in His Transfiguration for eternity or for a long time, for He left the peak and went down the mountain with His disciples.

How does this relate to us then? If we remember that the disciples of Christ, led by Peter, asked the Lord whether they should pitch up a tent for each Jesus, Moses and Elijah, that they may stay there longer. When someone pitches a tent somewhere, he certainly will want to stay longer in the locality and remain there until the tent was removed.

We are often like Peter, that we are often reluctant to leave our comfort zone and lingered long in areas that gave us the greatest happiness and pleasure. That means, we do not want to go down the mountain, but remain there forever. This is why the Lord kindly reminded them, and all of us, through His words, that we ought to obey Him, and obeying Him means that we have to go down the mountain, and in doing so, face the reality of our lives.

Yes, we have our ups and downs. We certainly cannot always remain as either up or down, because we need to face the reality of this life, that there are often good things that we can enjoy, but there will also be hardships and inequalities, which we have to face eventually. We cannot remain on top of the mountain forever, for doing so means that we indulge in our power and glory.

Jesus willingly went down the mountain, knowing full well that He was heading to His own death, and yet He continued on and obeyed perfectly the will of God. Can we also do the same? Can we also seek to leave our zones of comfort and embrace the will of God as our own? Can we die to our pride and live humbly before God?

The answer to all of these is yes. And indeed, yes, we can, because what matters now is to give of ourselves to the Lord our God. Let us begin from now on, if we have not done so, to dedicate ourselves to the Lord, wholly obedient to the will of God. May He continue to bless us and keep us in His grace. Amen.

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Saturday, 15 March 2014 : 1st Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we all belong to God, just as He had mentioned it in the first reading we heard today. Just as He had claimed Israel to be His chosen ones, to be His chosen people, we too, in the new covenant that Jesus had established with all mankind, have been made to be the people of God, and consecrated to Him in His love.

And as He Himself mentioned, that those who belong to Him ought to be like Him in our actions, words and deeds, that we may reflect Him in all the things that we do. And therefore, we should follow all of His commandments and laws He had revealed to us through the prophets as written in the Scriptures, and through Jesus His Son.

We are God’s children, and like all children do, we ought to follow what our parents are doing, imitating them in their actions, deeds and thoughts. And as God our Father and Lord is Love Himself, we too have to love then, and love just as God loved us. And the commandments of God itself is love, designed to help us to be able to better love one another and to love and dedicate ourselves to God.

And in love, this love is not the kind of love that we often know in this world. There are many kinds and forms of love, but true and genuine love does not equate with lust and desire for pleasure, and neither can it be associated entirely with the love that someone express for another, between a man and a woman, or love that exists between those who had already loved one another in the first place.

Instead, true and genuine love means to love without discrimination and conditions. It is an unconditional love which we offer to all. Genuine love means to do what Christ had told us to do, that is to love even our enemies and pray for them, that they too may know love through the power of our prayer and the example of our unconditional and genuine love.

Yes, brethren, too often we have tried to fight fire with fire, and adding even more fuel to the fire, which ends up in everything being destroyed. And that is what usually happens, when we try to confront hatred and violence with even more violence. Everything will be destroyed and crushed in the end. That is what will happen if we response to someone’s hatred and enmity with even more enmity and hatred from our side.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why it is important for us to instead fight the fire with water, to cool down the fire and let it die down, that in the end everything may be calm again, and through the water, the barren and burnt ground may once again hold life in it. The same therefore, we should practice in our own faith. We have to confront hatred and enmity with love, even if the other side does not yet love us.

Counter their curses with blessings, and show them that we can bring to them a valuable piece of truth, that hatred and violence does not solve everything, and instead will bring things to complete disarray and destruction. Love is the way out of things, as well as peace. We have to always remember this whenever we act.

Make peace with one another and love, and let us all come together in devotion to God in love. Let us show those who still linger in darkness and in the shadow of hatred, that love is the way, and may our actions based in love and forgiveness, help them to get out of the darkness and into the light that together, we may be saved. God be with us all, to the end of time. Amen.

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Friday, 14 March 2014 : 1st Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

In our faith, brothers and sisters, we must always be genuine. We cannot take our faith for granted, and neither can we only keep an outward profession for faith, but inside we truly lack the faith and do not believe in God. True faith in God requires us to devote ourselves to Him and be committed in our actions and deeds to show our true faith to God.

We must heed what the Lord wants from us, in our actions and deeds, in every single aspects of our lives. We often end up doing lip-service to the Lord and following superficially the laws and rules He had given us, instead of truly devoting ourselves to His cause. This we cannot do, brothers and sisters in Christ.

And we certainly will have to do and act in the way that we preach. We cannot say one thing and yet do another, different thing from what we had said. If we do so then our faith is shallow and not genuine, and can be easily swayed by the wickedness that is in this world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord loves us, and I have to repeat it again and again, that God loves us, very much, that He gave us Jesus His Son to be our helper, and to show us the way, how to devote ourselves entirely to Him, by teaching us and showing us the examples of being a good and faithful servant of God.

The key thing of all these is that we have to love, and we have to base all our actions on love, and in all of our actions and dealings, we have to always align ourselves with the ways of the Lord, that is righteousness. We have to adhere to the principles that God had established, in His laws and tenets that we ought to know, understand, and obey.

God wants all of us to love, and to love tenderly, and to forgive when someone slighted us or made mistakes to us. He wants us to do the same too, when we have slighted someone else. He wants us to be reconciled with one another, and forgoing all the hatred and differences that kept us apart, that we all may once again serve Him together as one, united people, united in love.

And He wants to show us that faith in Him cannot be just limited to observations of rituals and obligations according to the law. We cannot be just bystanders and followers, following the instructions of our faith to the letter, without understanding it. What I mean is that, we have to truly understand what we are doing, and in doing so we will make our faith much more meaningful.

And that is why God wants us to forgive one another first and be reconciled before we make our offerings to Him. What He wants from us is a heart of love, untainted by hatred, jealousy and all the other negative feelings that mar the perfection of our hearts. Let this be a lesson to all of us, that we may take note of it, whenever we do something, and whenever we say something, that we truly reflect that we belong to God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us make a resolution before the Lord, that we will be ever better servants of His will, that we will forsake the way of hatred, jealousy and other negative ill-feelings, and change them for the way of love, practicing what we have believed in, that is our faith in the One and only True God, Jesus Christ, who came to us in love to save us. Amen.

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Thursday, 13 March 2014 : 1st Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

We often forget, brothers and sisters, in our busy life and hectic schedules, that first and foremost, we should have no need to worry about this and that at all. We tend to forget this basic fact, and ending up to worry without end, and to fill our days with endless concerns and wants.

Brethren, our Lord provided us with all the things we need, and He provides us along the way, to help us with our respective lives. We may not realise this because He did so secretly, quietly helping us to make through things. It is often ourselves who screwed things up, because of our worries and concerns, which made us to take wrong decisions in life which may cost us dearly in the future.

And we know and should know that our Lord loves us very much, and He is willing to bless us and help us, but what He needs from us is that for us to ask Him and beseech Him for that help. It would be as simple as asking Him and knocking at His door, to seek for the Lord’s help, simple indeed or so it may seem to be.

But, we often forgot about this and did not realise this fact, and we often ended up depending solely on our own human power and based our decisions on our flawed judgment, which led to problems and uncertainties in our own lives. All these because we failed to recognise that in life, we cannot succeed if we do not depend on God, His love and loving help.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God knows our needs and He will give us what is good, only if we go to Him and ask Him for it. He will not makes us to fall into a disaster or destroy us purposely simply because He cares and loves us very much. It is entirely against His character and will to cause trouble and problems for us. It is we ourselves who make problems for ourselves.

The Lord provides for all of His servants, to those who keep to His laws and commandments, for those who did not look away from His ways and keep themselves always in His grace. He gives all of them the best of His blessings and inheritance, as He had proven to the Queen Esther of Persia, His servant, when she asked Him for His help.

In today’s first reading, the prayer of Queen Esther, to put things into context, the Queen Esther of Persia, the wife of the then Emperor of Persia, Xerxes the Great, the greatest of the Emperors of Persia, was a Jew with a Jewish background, and a great enemy rose in the court of the Emperor, in the person of Hamman the Agagite, who despised Mordechai, the Queen’s uncle.

Hamman devised a plan and gained the heart of the king, and this plan, which was devised against all the people of Mordechai, that is the Jews, were to be slaughtered and killed without mercy and have their possessions taken away from them. This was where Queen Esther came into the scene, as she, as the Queen, tried to use her position and relations with the Emperor, to prevent that catastrophe from facing her own people.

That was what she was praying for, she prayed for strength, guidance and help, that she may be guided in her dangerous attempt to prevent the plans and devices of those who hated God’s people. And God heard her and the prayers of His people, by first destroying Hamman the great enemy, and by delivering the enemies of His people into the hands of justice.

Now you see how powerful God’s help is, and all we need to do is to sincerely and genuinely ask for His help, seeking for Him to show mercy towards us. If we do so, He will certainly come to help us, and provide us with all that we will need. May God help to open our minds and our hearts, that we may, in great humility, always seek for Him and ask for His mercy. Amen.

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Wednesday, 12 March 2014 : 1st Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Today brethren, we see how even a people, who were often prejudiced against by the faithful, as the pagan nations, and a pagan people, with their pagan practices and pagan idols, can turn their back to their sinful ways, and sincerely asking and begging God for forgiveness. That was why Jesus used them as an example to the wayward people of God.

The contrast between what the pagan people of Nineveh had done, with the lack of faith in the supposedly righteous and faithful chosen people of God can be seen very clearly in the two readings. The faithful people of God did not listen to the words of Christ, or at most did not take His message very seriously.

They continued in their debauched and misled way of life, and they even doubted and questioned the authority of Christ in His teachings, by asking Him for signs and miracles, as if what He had done all that time He had spent with them were not enough to them. They refused to believe because they had hardened their hearts against the Lord and closed their ears to His words.

On the contrary, the supposedly pagan and therefore condemned people of Nineveh, the capital of the powerful and all-conquering Assyrian Empire, when they heard the warnings of Jonah the prophet, immediately, from their king to the lowest of the people bowed themselves down, very, very low before God, and humbled themselves with fasting and penitence, showing their genuine regret and repentance for their past sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, an important lesson that we ought to take from today’s readings is that we must never judge on others based on our prejudice or any preformed opinions, and we must never be judgmental in general. We have no right to judge others because we too will be judged with them as one people of the same God.

And God wanted to teach us that no one is beyond redemption or help. What matters is not nationality, race, or any other categories of peoples that will help us to achieve salvation. What matters is how genuine we are in our faith and devotion to the Lord and in following His commandments and teachings. If we are true to our faith and be fully devoted to the ways of the Lord, then we will be considered righteous.

What the Lord wants from each one of us is not blind obedience or empty profession of faith, not substantiated by the action that makes our faith truly genuine and real. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us keep in mind of what God wants from us, that is our love and devotion! We cannot be half-hearted in our dedication to Him and certainly we will have to live up to our faith.

We cannot be like the people of Jesus’ time who professed outwardly as faithful and religious and yet did not show it in their actions which in fact showed the contrary. We should rather follow the example of the people of Nineveh, who showed their genuine faith and that they believe, not by empty words but through real and concrete actions.

We too, brothers and sisters, ought to show our love for God, by listening to Him, accepting Him in our lives and acknowledging at all times, the love He has for us, and the unworthiness of our sins, which we made and tainted ourselves. And yet our loving God is willing to forgive us from all of that and allow us to be reunited once again with Him.

Let us now therefore pray, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we may be like the people of Nineveh and be sincere in our faith, that we may give a hundred percent of our devotion to God and nothing else. May God too guide us as we make our way towards Him. God bless us all and be with us always. Amen.