St. Patrick’s Day

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Thursday, 17 March 2016 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all reminded today of the covenant which God had established first with Abraham, His faithful servant, a renewal of the covenant which He had established with mankind, and yet which they had broken when they first sinned before the Lord. Sin had broken the covenant of God with men, but God Who loves us all mankind, wanted to renew that covenant with even greater love.

When God created us mankind with love, He wanted us all to live in bliss and perfect harmony with Him in heaven, in the Gardens of Eden, to enjoy forever the company of His grace and love forevermore without end. All that He asked for, is for us all to obey Him and to love Him back just as He had loved us first. That is what is meant by a covenant, namely a two-way contract between two parties. Both parties and sides of the covenant or the agreement must obey the rules and the responsibilities attached to the covenant or else, it would no longer be in force.

Thus, what happened was that mankind was tempted by Satan, the old enemy, the evil deceiver and the rebel who was jealous against God and mankind alike, and thus decided to ruin the ones whom God had loved the most out of all creation. His intention was to ruin us just in the same way as he had been ruined by his pride and rebellion, and thus just as he was cast out of heaven, mankind too would follow him into eternal damnation. That is the sinister design that the evil one is planning for us too.

By breaking our part of the covenant, we have deemed ourselves unworthy of God’s love and grace, and thus we were cast out of Eden, and we were made to suffer the painful suffering in the world, enduring tribulations and challenges, as our immortality became one of mortality, and death would come to devour us and destroy us forever, except that, God Himself still loved us despite all of the things we had done.

And that is why, even though the covenant that God had established with Abraham had been broken many times, and always by men, for God is always forever faithful to His covenant with us, He continued to renew it and reestablish it, giving encouragement to all those who hope in Him and put their trust in Him. He shall not disappoint all those who had given themselves to His cause, for these are the ones who would inherit the covenant of God.

And thus lastly, He sent us all His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, the Divine Word of God, equal and inseparable part of the triune unity of our Lord, the One and only God, One in existence, but Three in Godhead and nature, Father, Son and Holy Spirit all working together as one in the attempt to reestablish a perfect and everlasting covenant once and for all, for our sake.

Indeed, to seal that everlasting covenant, and to make clear the great and infinite love which He has for all of us, He sealed His covenant not with the mere blood of animals, goats, bulls or birds, but with His own Most Precious Blood, poured down in great suffering from the cross, as our Lord Himself was made to bear the burden of everyone’s sins, and through His suffering and death, He had made everyone clean and justified, and all those who believe in Him shall receive the fullness of God’s mercy, forgiveness and love.

That is the great extent how much our Lord is willing to give of Himself when we are in need for help. As that is because, if we are to be lost to the darkness of this world, to our wickedness and all the things coming between us and God, then we are lost to God our loving Father forever. And just as fathers love their children, He loves us all too, without exception, and He wants us to be thoroughly changed for the better.

And in this season of Lent, in the remaining time we have this week and next week, let us all realise that we have so many homework to do, for us all to learn from our mistakes, learning to forgive and to be better and more devoted disciples of our Lord. There is the time for us to turn back from our sinfulness and to find our way to the truth of God and walk in His light.

And today, we celebrate the great feast day of St. Patrick of Ireland, a great bishop and missionary, whose life was dedicated to the spreading of the Gospel and the Good News of God. There are many things that we can learn from his life and from his teachings. St. Patrick was sent by the Pope to the distant country which is now known as Ireland, to bring the salvation of God to the pagan peoples living there, who have not yet heard the Word of God.

St. Patrick travelled around the island of Ireland, visiting from places to places, working with people from the kings, the nobles and to the common people. He did not have it easy, as the people ridiculed him, rejected him and even persecuted him for his efforts. But he did not give up, and he taught the people there about the faith, until eventually many of them repented from their sins and converted to the faith in God.

In one of the most famous thing attributed to him, he used the three-leaf clover as the method for him to teach about God, and explaining the difficult nature of God, just as we have discussed earlier on, God as One, but yet Three, Three and yet only One. Yes, St. Patrick used the analogy how the three-leaf clover, once a portion is taken away is no longer a clover, and yet still three leafed as it is, it constitutes only just one leaf, indivisible and yet with distinct parts.

From this, we can gain so much inspiration of what we can do. There are so many things we can do in this world, to walk in the light in the path of St. Patrick of Ireland. We should use this opportunity we have in life, not just to turn away from our sins, but also to spread the Good News of God, and help one another to reach out to the Lord our God. May we all find our path to the Lord and be brought into the life everlasting. St. Patrick of Ireland, pray for us, that we may find our path to God and remain faithful to Him. Amen.

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Thursday, 17 March 2016 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 8 : 51-59

At that time, Jesus said to the Jews, “Truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, He will never experience death.” The Jews replied, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died and the prophets as well, but You say, ‘Whoever keeps My word will never experience death.’ Who do You claim to be? Do You claim to be greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets also died.

Then Jesus said, “If I were to praise Myself, it would count for nothing. But He Who gives glory to Me is the Father, the very One You claim as your God, although you do not know Him. I know Him, and if I were to say that I do not know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I know Him and I keep His word.”

“As for Abraham, your ancestor, he looked forward to the day when I would come; and he rejoiced when he saw it.” The Jews then said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old and You have seen Abraham?” And Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

They then picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and left the Temple.

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Thursday, 17 March 2016 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 104 : 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Look to the Lord and be strong; seek His face always. Remember His wonderful works, His miracles and His judgments.

You descendants of His servant Abraham, you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; His judgments reach the whole world.

He remembers His covenant forever, His promise to a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham, the promise He swore to Isaac.

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Thursday, 17 March 2016 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Genesis 17 : 3-9

Abram fell face down and God said to him, “This is My covenant with you : you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer will you be called Abram, but Abraham, because I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you more and more famous; I will multiply your descendants; nations shall spring from you, kings shall be among your descendants.”

“And I will establish a covenant, an everlasting covenant between Myself and you and your descendants after you; from now on I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you, for generations to come. I will give to you and your descendants after you the land you are living in, all the lands of Canaan, as an everlasting possession and I will be the God of your race.”

God said to Abraham, “For your part, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you, generation after generation.”

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Tuesday, 17 March 2015 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the memory of the well known bishop of Ireland, and also its patron saint, St. Patrick, whose life some of us may be familiar with, but most of us may not be aware of, beyond the common perceptions of the world, in who St. Patrick was and what he had done to the benefit of the people of God.

St. Patrick was a Romano-British missionary, who went to Ireland, first as a slave during his youth, when he was assailed by pirates, and later on, after his freedom, he went there as a missionary of the Faith in his elder years, during the time after the ending of the Roman Empire in Western Europe. Many lands at that time were still having pagan practices and many people were still ignorant of the Lord and the Faith, and it is to these people that St. Patrick had been sent to.

He was himself once one of the pagans, but his experiences during his slavery years and the liberation that came henceforth, pushed him on to be converted to the true Faith in God. When he went to Ireland to preach about the true Faith, the experiences of his conversion years and the years of his growth in the Faith empowered him in his mission, and he converted many thousands to the cause of the Lord.

He explained the concept of the Lord and the Faith using examples and clear messages, and sometimes even using comparisons such as the three-leaf clover, which is now one of the symbols of the Holy Trinity, because it was St. Patrick who once used the same leaf to explain the concept of the Trinity, three Godhead but united as One and inseparable, to the kings and to the people of Ireland.

Now that many people from Ireland had migrated all over the world, the great Irish diaspora and the contributions they made to the Faith is considerable. The fact why St. Patrick was so well known and devotions to him are abundant is largely because of this. These migrants too, indeed walked in the footsteps of St. Patrick, bringing the faith to all those who have not heard of the Lord, and also to those who have erred and become wayward in their faith.

Today we heard in our first reading from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, the reading used at the consecration of churches and holy places, as it shows the Temple of God in heaven, shown in a vision to Ezekiel, from where life-giving water comes forth, and this represents the purity and the holiness of the place, as the holy dwelling of the Lord Himself.

And in the Gospel, we heard about how Jesus healed the person who had been sick for thirty-eight years, healing him from his afflictions so that he was able to walk once again. Jesus healed the sick person and by that He had mercy on him. Yet, the Pharisees were angry at what He had done, and they criticised Him for having done the healing on the Sabbath day, the holy day according to the laws of Moses, where one was supposedly not allowed to do any work.

What our Lord wanted us all to understand, through the readings of the Holy Scriptures today as well, is that all of us are sick, sickened and afflicted with the disease of sin inside each one of us. We are like the sick people lying down at the galleries beside the pool of Bethzatha, waiting for the Lord’s salvation and healing. And it shows us the nature of how we deal with our sin. Just as some of the sick were faster and the others, and some took their time to get to the pool to be healed, therefore, we too come to realise our sinfulness and repent at different moments in our lives.

But the Lord shows that forgiveness itself, while it comes through effort, it also definitely requires His grace. God forgives all of us freely, and He is willing to let go of our sins, and He wants us indeed to be made pure and holy, that we are no longer sinners but truly His children and His disciples. We make the effort to change ourselves and sin no more, and all the good works we are doing are proof of our love for God, but we cannot say that our works saved us, but rather that, God’s grace and mercy made its work in us, which we manifested through our good works.

This means that, while God forgives us our sins, but we cannot continue to live in sin. Jesus always said that, “Sin no more” whenever He healed sinners and afflicted people. This means that our faith in God cannot be one of stagnant faith, or that of one-off faith. We must continue to live up to our faith and do things as commanded by our Faith, so that the faith we have within us will justify us before the Lord, because it is supported by the concrete evidence of our hard and good works, done in fulfillment of that same faith.

Remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we are all God’s Temple and Holy Residence, for God Himself dwells in us. This Lent is a time for us to reflect on this, and on whatever actions we have taken in this life which had brought about defilement and filth to the Holy Temple of God. It is a time for us to change our ways and be converted, and truly be converted as what had happened to St. Patrick, and also as those whom St. Patrick had preached to.

Thus, we have two tasks to do. First, we have to reevaluate ourselves and our actions, so that we may truly be reflections of who we are, namely the children and followers of our Lord. And then, and only then, secondly, that we are able to go forth and preach to the nations, asking the people of God to return to Him and be converted from their sinful ways, and as we lead by our own examples, let us inspire more and more people to be saved, and to receive God’s grace and mercy. God bless us all this day. St. Patrick, pray for us sinners. Amen.

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Tuesday, 17 March 2015 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 5 : 1-16

At that time, after Jesus healed the son of an official, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, by the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, there is a pool (called Bethzatha in Hebrew) surrounded by five galleries. In these galleries lay a multitude of sick people : blind, lame and paralysed.

(All were waiting for the water to move, for at times an angel of the Lord would descend into the pool and stir up the water; and the first person to enter the pool, after this movement of the water, would be healed of whatever disease that he had.)

There was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. Jesus saw him, and because He knew how long this man had been lying there, He said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” And the sick man answered, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; so while I am still on my way, another steps down before me.”

Jesus then said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk!” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his mat and walked. Now that day happened to be the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had just been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and the Law does not allow you to carry your mat.”

He answered them, “The One who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk!'” They asked him, “Who is the One who said to you : Take up your mat and walk?” But the sick man had no idea who it was who had cured him, for Jesus had slipped away among the crowd that filled the place.

Afterwards Jesus met him in the Temple court and told him, “Now you are well; do not sin again, lest something worse happen to you.” And the man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. So the Jews persecuted Jesus because He performed healings like that on the Sabbath.

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Tuesday, 17 March 2015 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 45 : 2-3, 5-6, 8-9ab

God is our strength and protection, an ever-present help in affliction. We will not fear, therefore, though the earth be shaken and the mountains plunge into the seas.

There is a river whose streams bring joy to the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within, the city cannot quake, for God’s help is upon it at the break of day.

For with us is the Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob, our Refuge. Come, see the works of the Lord – the marvellous things He has done in the world.

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Tuesday, 17 March 2015 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Ezekiel 47 : 1-9, 12

The Man brought me back to the entrance of the Temple and I saw water coming out from the threshold of the Temple and flowing eastwards. The Temple faced the east and the water flowed from the south side of the Temple, from the south side of the altar.

He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing the east and there I saw the stream coming from the south side. The Man had a measuring cord in His hand. As He went towards the east He measured off a thousand cubits and led me across the water which was up to my ankles.

He measured off another thousand cubits and made me cross the water which came to my knees. He measured off another thousand cubits and we crossed the water which was up to my waist. When He had again measured a thousand cubits, I could not cross the torrent for it had swollen to a depth which was impossible to cross without swimming.

The Man then said to me, “Son of man, did you see?” He led me on further and then brought me back to the bank of the river. There I saw a number of trees on both sides of the river. He said to me, “This water goes to the east, down to the Arabah, and when it flows into the sea of foul-smelling water, the water will become wholesome.”

“Wherever the river flows, swarms of creatures will live in it; fish will be plentiful and the sea water will become fresh. Wherever it flows, life will abound. Near the river on both banks there will be all kinds of fruit trees with foliage that will not wither and fruit that will never fail; each month they will bear a fresh crop because the water comes from the Temple. The fruit will be good to eat and the leaves will be used for healing.”