Sunday Mass homily

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Tuesday, 19 April 2022 : Tuesday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all called to reflect again on this Easter Octave, the true meaning of what it means to be Christians. As Christians, each and every one of us are called to serve the Lord with faith and commitment. All of us are called to be missionaries of our Christian faith in our world today, to proclaim the Risen Lord in our respective communities and among all those whom we encounter each day and at each moments of our lives.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles of the testimony of faith which was delivered by St. Peter the Apostle to the people assembled in Jerusalem for the festival of the Pentecost. St. Peter told the people to be faithful in the Lord and to believe in Him, for everything that He had done for the sake of His beloved people. God has given us such a great and unsurpassed gift in His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, that He has done everything, even to the point of enduring the worst of sufferings, punishments, humiliation and pain for our sake. He did not hold Himself back from doing all these because He truly loved us.

And through His death and resurrection, Christ has broken the doors of death, and the chains of sin that had long kept the people of God enslaved and suffering under their dominion and power. St. Peter called all those people to turn towards the Lord and to discover the love by which God has rescued them from the darkness of sin and evil in this world. He courageously proclaimed the truth despite having no proper education, and despite having hidden himself with the other disciples earlier on due to the opposition and oppression by the Jewish authorities.

That is because as the power of the Holy Spirit was working through him, St. Peter allowed himself to be the witness of the Lord’s Resurrection, and to be filled with the courage and strength from the Spirit of God, in bringing the Good News and the truth to the people despite the risks that he had to face in doing so. He spoke with the wisdom and the eloquence that God granted him through the Holy Spirit. And in doing so, he turned the hearts of many towards God, and revealed the great love that God had for all of them, such as shown by Christ’s death on the Cross.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard again the account of the Lord’s resurrection and His appearance to Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene witnessed the Lord’s suffering and death on the cross, and she was distraught when she found out that the Lord’s Body had disappeared from His tomb due to His Resurrection. That was when the Lord showed Himself to her in all of His risen glory, although she did not initially recognise Him likely because she was still distraught, until the Lord called her and revealed Himself to her.

Mary believed in the Lord and she proclaimed the news of the Lord’s resurrection to the other disciples, the Apostles. In this way is why she is also known as the Apostle to the Apostles. She told them all of what she had seen and experienced, revealing the Risen Lord to the disciples, with great joy and courage. Mary Magdalene did exactly the same as what Peter had done, in proclaiming the truth of the Lord and turning people on the their ways towards the Lord and His salvation. This is exactly what each one of us are called to do as well.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us have been called to follow the Lord faithfully and to embrace His path with sincerity and love, genuine love for Him as well as for His people, our fellow brothers and sisters. Are we willing and able to follow the Lord in this manner, brethren? In the way that St. Peter and St. Mary Magdalene had done, and in the way that many other saints and martyrs had done in the past, in proclaiming the Risen Lord courageously and truthfully among the many people and in the various communities that they encountered and lived in? We too should do the same in our own communities and be the living witnesses of the Lord in every moments we have.

May God, our Risen Lord and Saviour, bless us all and be with us always, and may He strengthen each and every one of us that we may always be strong and be able to persevere despite the trials, challenges and difficulties that we may encounter in our path towards Him. May God bless all of our actions and works, that in all things we will always glorify Him and bring His truth to ever more and more people, throughout the world, and bring the salvation He has promised us to those who have not yet known Him. Amen.

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Monday, 18 April 2022 : Monday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we begin to embark through this journey of the Easter season in this Easter Octave, we are constantly being reminded of what we have to do as Christians in living our daily lives especially as we progress through this Easter season and beyond. In our Scripture passages we are reminded that our Christian faith is about proclaiming our Risen Lord and Saviour to the best of our ability, and to proclaim Him with joy and pride in our community and in whichever places we go to, following in the footsteps of the Apostles and saints.

In our first reading today, we heard of the testimony of faith that St. Peter courageously proclaimed before all e assembled people in Jerusalem at the moment right after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. The Apostles had been hiding in fear of the Jewish authorities and all who had threatened action against the Lord’s disciples and everyone who were found to be the followers of Christ, and thus they used to hide and avoid attention for those several weeks after the Lord’s Resurrection and later Ascension into Heaven.

But through His Holy Spirit, the Lord inflamed in the hearts of the Apostles a great courage and desire to serve and love the Lord, the energy and power to proclaim the Good News and truth of God and His salvation among His people. Thus, we heard St. Peter speaking up with great courage and eloquence, with wisdom and zeal, in proclaiming the Lord’s glorious Resurrection and all that He had done in the midst of His people, reminding the people of the most loving sacrifice that He had made on the Cross. He proclaimed before all the people the Christ Crucified, Who had risen from the dead in glory.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard of how the Risen Lord appeared to some of the women, likely Mary Magdalene and the other women who used to follow the Lord Jesus. The Lord showed Himself in all of His Risen glory before all of them, and this was just one of the occasions in which the Risen Lord appeared before His disciples. The Lord showed that it was truly Him in the flesh, and not some spirit or mere illusion. He has truly risen from the dead, and seeing that the Lord is alive and has risen, that was what encouraged the woman, and they must have been so jubilant in telling the other disciples of what they had seen.

But on the other hand, the chief priests and all those who had condemned the Lord to death were all perplexed and confused at what they heard on how the Lord’s Body had disappeared from His tomb, as told to them by the guards who guarded His tomb. And instead of trying to find out more about the Lord and the truth about His Resurrection, they doubled down on their stubbornness and intense refusal to believe in the truth that the Lord Himself has presented to them. That was why they persecuted the disciples and tried to forbid them from preaching the Lord’s truth and Good News, and even spread false rumours and informations to try to hide the truth.

Yet, the Apostles were never deterred or scared to speak the truth, all because they had faith in the Lord and trusted in Him. They believed in Him wholeheartedly, and through the Spirit that God had sent to them, they helped each other to remain strong in faith, and as St. Peter has shown us in our first reading today, he, who was once an illiterate fisherman from Galilee, had performed such great wonders, miracles and spoke so eloquently by the power and wisdom of God, turning the hearts of thousands and more towards the Lord and convincing them to follow Him as well.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us are called to serve the Lord and to walk in His path and presence in the same way as the Apostles had lived their lives wholly in the path that the Lord had led and guide them. We are all called to be witnesses of Our Lord’s truth and to proclaim His Good News in our communities, in our families and wherever it is that we are working, residing and living in. Through us, many people may come to believe in the Lord as well. We must never think that we could not contribute a lot to the works of the Church. Even in the smallest things we do, we may still do things that will have immense impacts on others whose lives we have touched.

Let us all therefore be filled with the Spirit of God this Easter season, and strive to do our best in proclaiming God’s truth, love, His Good News and salvation among those who have not yet known Him. We do not have to worry what we have to do or say, or even feeling inferior or reluctant to do more just because we think that we are not good enough. Ultimately, as mentioned earlier, God chose even among illiterate fishermen, among zealots and thieves, tax collectors and many more to be His disciples. If He had chosen even among the worst to be His chief disciples, then why can’t He choose us then? It is actually whether we are willing to follow Him should He call us.

May all of us be ever more committed and courageous in living our lives actively as Christians, so that in everything we do and say, in all of our interactions and dealings with one another, we will always be exemplary and be good sources of inspiration for our fellow Christians, and for many others out there who have not yet known the Lord and His truth yet. May the joy, love, courage, strength and the guidance of Our Risen Lord be with us all, and may He bless us in our every actions and deeds, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 17 April 2022 : Easter Sunday of the Lord’s Resurrection (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we mark the glorious occasion of Easter, that after the forty long days of our Lenten observance and the six Sundays of Lent, we have finally reached the glorious Easter time. We rejoice greatly this Sunday together because Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, has triumphed over sin and death, overcoming their hold and dominion over each and every one of us. All of us have seen the salvation of God in the flesh, appearing before us in Jesus Christ. And it is our core belief that we believe in the Lord Jesus, Who has suffered, died and then rose in glory from the dead for our salvation.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles about the testimony of faith that St. Peter, the leader of the Apostles and the Church spoke to the assembled people during the time when he paid a visit to Cornelius, a Roman centurion who came to believe in God with his family. At that time, St. Peter had been hesitant to visit Cornelius because visiting the house of a Gentile or non-Jew was frowned upon by the Jews and many of the early Christians had been Jewish in origin, and many of them still held strongly to their Jewish traditions, customs, as well as prejudices.

That was when the Lord showed St. Peter a vision of a great cloth coming down from heaven within which there were contained many animals deemed unclean by the laws of Moses. The Lord told St. Peter to eat of those animals, but he refused to do so citing that those animals were unclean and unfitting for him to eat. This was where the Lord then told St. Peter that whatever God had deemed to be clean and worthy, he must not deem to be unclean. As this was repeated three times, St. Peter finally realised the Lord’s intentions as he came to visit Cornelius and saw a large number of people gathering after he visited the house of Cornelius.

The assembled people were likely consisting of many Jewish people as well as non-Jews or Gentiles alike. Some of the Jews were wondering why St. Peter would go to visit the house of a foreigner, an act that would defile him and made him unclean himself in the sight of the Jews. Meanwhile, many among the Gentiles were likely curious with St. Peter and what he brought into their midst, with the teachings about this Jesus that the whole of Judea, Samaria and Galilee had been talking about, especially with the recent crucifixion, death and resurrection of the Lord.

Thus, many of the people must have been curious to learn more about the Lord, both among the Jews and the Gentiles alike, and it was at that occasion, St. Peter spoke courageously proclaiming His Lord and Master before all the assembled people, and how God had sent Christ into this world to be its Saviour, to bring salvation to all the peoples, to all of mankind. The Lord has shown His great love, compassion and mercy through Christ, Who has endured the worst of sufferings and pain, trials, humiliation and torture, all for our sake. Through His wounds we have been healed and by sharing in His death we have died to our old way of life and sinful past, and by sharing in His resurrection, we have been called to a new life and existence with Him, a new life blessed by God.

That was exactly what St. Paul spoke about in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth which makes up our second reading passage today. All of us Christians through baptism have shared in Our Lord’s death and resurrection. We have passed through the waters of baptism, the water that cleansed our past sins and destroyed our old way of life, and the water of rebirth that brought into us a new life, a life blessed by God. That is essentially what the joy of Easter is all about, brothers and sisters in Christ. The joy of Easter is the joy of knowing that we are no longer shackled and enslaved by the power of sin and death, because the Lord Himself has come into our midst and freed us.

However, as we rejoice and celebrate this Easter with great festivities and exultation, at the same time we also need to reflect carefully on our own attitudes and actions. As Christians, have we truly believed in the Resurrection and in all the truth that the Lord has revealed and taught to us through His Church? Or have we instead been lukewarm and end up only resorting to attending Mass on Sundays but without any further activities as actually required by our Christian faith? How many of us did not even spend quality time with the Lord, and only looked for Him when we needed Him? And while it is good that many of us attend the Holy Week and Easter celebrations, how many of us only willingly came to take part in those celebrations and nothing else?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today on this great Easter Sunday, the glorious Sunday of the Resurrection of Our Lord, we are all reminded that just as the Lord’s Resurrection has been celebrated every year as a reminder of all that the Lord had done for our sake, each and every one of us are also reminded of the obligations and calling we have received as Christians, to be fellow disciples and followers of Our Lord. We cannot be idle in living our lives but we have to be ready to proclaim our faith in the Risen Lord much as how St. Peter had done in the midst of many people who questioned him and some even doubting him.

Then we may be worried or are concerned that we will not be able to carry out great works at evangelisation and in reaching out to others. But this should be the least of our concern, brothers and sisters. Do not forget that St. Peter and many among the Apostles were illiterate, and by the many standards of the world, they were way less than ‘worthy’ to do the great works that were required of them as Apostles and the chief disciples of the Lord. Yet, they persevered and let the Lord to lead them and guide them in whatever they were called to do, and wherever they had been sent to work the good works of the Lord.

The Lord does not only call the qualified but instead He qualifies those whom He has called and chosen, and then answered His call. That was how the Apostles were able to carry out so many great and wonderful works that brought so many people closer to God and to His path, introducing Him and revealing Him to many people who have not yet known Him. They listened to the Lord, opened their hearts and minds to Him, and did their best to contribute their works and efforts to glorify the Lord at all possible opportunities. They were willing to labour hard, and even suffer and die for the sake of the Lord and His people, which all of them except for St. John did. St. John himself while dying of a natural old age, had seen a lot of persecution in his long life.

In the Gospel reading that is used for the Easter Sunday evening Mass, the reading of the two disciples of the Lord who went on their way to the village of Emmaus and encountering the Lord on their way, we are reminded through it that many of us are perhaps like those two disciples, who were unsure and uncertain, doubtful and had not given ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord just yet. We are like the two disciples who went away with fear in their hearts, with uncertainties and unwillingness to commit to the Lord, and they were also unable to recognise the Lord being present in their midst. Yet, we heard how the Lord patiently opened their eyes and minds by explaining to them the Scriptures and all that He had done in saving the whole world, and they eventually recognised Him, returning to the Apostles and the other disciples and proclaiming the truth about the Risen Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to open our hearts and minds to the Lord as well. Just as we rejoice in this glorious Resurrection of Our Lord, we have to remember to bring this Easter joy to our own various communities and to the different people whom we encounter in life. As Pope St. John Paul II famously mentioned, ‘We are all Easter people and Alleluia is our song!’, this serves as a reminder to us that we have to proclaim the Lord joyfully through our lives, through our actions and attitudes in life. In our interactions with one another, we have to show the love of God, the love of the Risen Lord and Saviour, that whoever whose lives we touch, they may come to know our Risen Lord through us.

As we renew our baptismal promises this Easter Sunday, we are called again to remember what we need to do as Christians, to be filled with God’s love and to do our best in whatever even little things we do, to be exemplary in our faith and way of life that our lives may inspire many others to follow us in the path that the Lord has shown us. We must not forget that we too are witnesses of Our Lord’s truth and love, His resurrection and the salvation that He has promised all those who are faithful to Him. We are the beacons of Christ’s light in this world, that through us the Light of Christ may penetrate the darkness in the heart of many of our fellow brothers and sisters.

May our Risen Lord and Saviour, Our Lord Jesus Christ, be with us all and may He bless all of our works, actions and good deeds, all for the greater glory of His Name. May God strengthen us with the courage to persevere, no matter what trials and challenges we may encounter, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 10 April 2022 : Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday marks the beginning of the Holy Week, the most solemn time and occasion in the entire liturgical year, as rightfully we should turn away from all of our other matters and concerns, and spend more time with the Lord, reflecting and immersing ourselves deeply in the mystery and events surrounding Our Lord’s Passion, His suffering, death and eventual glorious resurrection from the dead. On this Sunday, which we celebrate as the Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, we mark the beginning of this very important series of event in the history of our salvation.

For this Sunday marks the moment when the Lord entered into the moment of His Passion, beginning the final stage of His mission and work in this world. The Lord travelled to Judea and Jerusalem for the last time after approximately three years of His ministry, and this time, He knew that this was the moment of His greatest work, when He would have to suffer for the sake of all mankind. But at the same time, He willingly went through with it, obeying perfectly the will of His heavenly Father, and because all of us are truly beloved by Him, so much so that He was willing to endure all that for our sake.

Today we heard first of all the reading of the Gospel at the beginning, in which the celebration of the Lord’s glorious entry to Jerusalem is celebrated. The palms are blessed and we all gather together to celebrate and glorify the Lord, our Saviour and King, Who has come into our midst, as He came to Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy of the prophets, that the King would come to His people on a humble and lowly donkey. The Lord Jesus came into Jerusalem upon the glorious cries and shout of joy, of people praising God, with the words, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!’

The people raised palm fronds and branches, putting their cloaks and clothes on the floor, welcoming the Lord with great pomp and circumstance, a welcome fit for a king. And indeed, the Lord is the King of all, and not just the King of Israel but also the King of Kings, the Lord and Master over all of creation. Yet, He came to His people not as a mighty conqueror or warrior, riding on a warhorse or carried on a golden throne, and instead, He came riding on a mere, lowly donkey, an animal which people at that time often derided and under-appreciate, for its demeanour and lack of majesty unlike that of a great horse.

But that was exactly where the real nature of our Lord’s Kingship is revealed to us. Our Lord is the King Who came not to seek to be served but to serve us. He is a King Who did not need to depend on all the pomps and glamour to boost His credentials and power. He is the true Source of all power and authority, the One true King over all the kings and lords of this world, the true Master of all creation. He came to us revealing the nature of His love for each one of us. Here is our Lord and King, Who has humbled Himself and obeyed His Father’s will so perfectly, that even as He entered Jerusalem with such great pomp and circumstance, it was also a reminder of what would happen within just merely within the same week.

For the very same people who had cheered on the Lord that day would likely be the same people who also cried out just a few days later, ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ at the instigation of the members of the Sanhedrin or the Jewish High Council. The same people who welcomed the Lord as their King would also be the same people who denied Him just a few days later and said that they had no king except for Caesar, the Roman Emperor. We can see how quickly everything turned, and all of those things happening within just merely within the span of a week’s time.

That is why today on this Palm Sunday marking the beginning of Holy Week, we celebrate two distinct yet connected events, namely the triumphal entry of the Lord into Jerusalem and the Passion of Our Lord, meaning His suffering and death, the events surrounding the Last Supper and the condemnation of Jesus, and His crucifixion and death on the Cross at Calvary. That is why today we call the celebration as the Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, because by His entry into Jerusalem, the Lord came to finally fulfil the promises He had made to His people, the salvation that He would bring into their midst.

He has already made it known on several prior occasions on what would happen to Him, how He would be rejected and persecuted, condemned to death like a criminal and be raised up before all to see, much like how Moses raised up the bronze serpent that saved many Israelites from the death due to their own sins. Thus, the Lord came to Jerusalem to fulfil everything as foretold and prophesied, that He would, in just a short time after, be raised up on His Cross, at the culmination of His ministry and the Passion He endured for our sake, out of His overflowing love, to save us from certain annihilation and destruction.

For through His death and resurrection, the Lord has established anew the Covenant between us and God, with His Cross as the Bridge that bridges the gap between us sinners and our Lord and Creator. Through sin we have been made unworthy of God and corrupted. We have been separated from God and should have been condemned to eternal damnation. There existed that uncrossable and impassable chasm between God and us, ever since we first fell into the traps of sin. However, God made the impossible into possibility because He Himself built the bridge that helped to reconnect us to God, by His Cross.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on the important events celebrated in this Palm Sunday, the glorious and triumphant Entry to Jerusalem and the Passion of Our Lord and the way of His suffering all the way to the Cross, we are all invited to spend more time this week, during this holiest of all weeks, the Holy Week, to be closer to God, to be more attuned to Him and to walk ever more faithfully in His path. All of us are called to make good use of this time of the Holy Week beginning today to prepare ourselves, if we have not yet done so, to be ever more worthy of celebrating the greatest mysteries of our salvation and liberation from sin.

Let us remind ourselves of the great love that God has constantly shown us, all these while, that He has always willingly reached out to us, embracing us with genuine love and ever-patient compassion and mercy, that despite our constant stubbornness and disobedience, He has come to be with us, dwelling with us and to gather us back to Himself, to be our Lord and King forever. And now, let us also ask ourselves, if we have responded to His love with the same love and the same commitment to the Covenant that He has established with each and every one of us. If we have not done so, then we have to ask ourselves, why we have not done so yet.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, one aspect of the Palm Sunday celebrations that we may easily overlook is the symbolic representation of the Lord riding on the donkey, in which the Lord specifically told His disciples to bring a tied colt that had not been ridden before to be His ride. It was this colt that would become His donkey as mentioned earlier. The tied colt represent the attitude of the people of Israel, who had tied themselves to the old ways, their past sinfulness and refusal to obey the will of God. Meanwhile, the untying of the colt represent the freedom that the Lord brought to them, and a reminder of how He had freed their ancestors from the tyranny of the Egyptians.

At the same time, the colt that had not been ridden before also serves as a the representation of the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people, who had not been burdened by the Law as interpreted by the Pharisees and the generations of the additions that burdened the Jewish people. The Lord taking this colt as His ride itself is according to the Church tradition and understanding serves to remind us that He came into this world to gather us all, His beloved people, to gather all His children, be it Jews or Gentiles. All are beloved equally by God, whether they belong to the race of the people called earlier by God and bound by the Law of Moses, or whether they were outside this chosen race. Everyone through Christ has become one united people in faith, not bound by blood, race, or any other artificial constructs or divisions that we often placed to divide us into ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Lord and King has brought us the assurance of hope and eternal life. All of us who believe in Him shall experience the fullness of His love and grace, the fullness of His inheritance and glory. All that remains is for us to answer His call and commit ourselves to follow Him. As we raise our blessed palms and praising the Lord, let us ask ourselves, ‘Is the Lord Jesus truly the King of our hearts, our minds, and indeed, the King of our whole entire beings?’ And if we consider Him as our Lord and King, then naturally we have to live our lives in accordance with His ways. Otherwise then we are behaving like hypocrites, who pretend to believe in something and yet act in an entirely different way in life.

As we enter into this solemn occasion of the Holy Week, let us all renew our commitment to the Lord that we may deepen our relationship with Him and spend more quality time with Him. Let us all turn away from our sinful paths and our stubborn attitudes, and let us truly recognise Him as our Lord and King, and welcome Him into our hearts and beings, into our houses and families. Let our Holy Week observance and actions be filled with rich faith and true desire to love the Lord more and more with each and every passing moments. We have to follow the examples set by Our Lord Himself, Who obeyed His Father’s will so perfectly and humbled Himself such that through Him, all of us have gained the assurance of eternal life. Follow Christ, and we will follow Him to eternal life.

Let us all be inspiration for one another in how we live our lives righteously and faithfully from now on, not only for the duration of Holy Week and Easter, but all through to the end of our lives. May God be with us all, and may He strengthen us in our desire to love Him and walk in His path, now and evermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 3 April 2022 : Fifth Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we gather together to celebrate this Fifth Sunday of Lent, we are all called yet again to embrace God’s ever wonderful and patient love and mercy, His enduring desire to be reconciled with us and to love us wholeheartedly. He has called us to abandon our sinful ways and our wicked deeds, and to come to Him with contrite hearts and the desire to love Him once again. We are all reminded of this call to repentance and holiness this Sunday, as we continue to progress ever closer to Holy Week and Easter.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard of the words of the Lord to His people reassuring them of His providence and love. He reminded them of everything that He had done in the past in rescuing them from their predicament. He spoke of the moment when He brought their ancestors out from Egypt, opening the sea before them and destroying their enemies, the armies and chariots of the Pharaoh before their own eyes. The Lord reminded them of everything that He had done for their sake, and not only that, He reassured them that He would do even more things in the future to come.

He will send to them the promised deliverance and salvation, by sending them His own beloved Son as the Saviour to all of them, a promise to be fulfilled by the coming of Christ, the Son of God into this world. He would gather all of mankind, all His beloved ones to Himself, and they shall enjoy forever the bounty and grace of eternal life and true happiness of being together with Him in the glory of Heaven. The Lord has always intended for us all to enjoy the true happiness and joy of this wonderful world that He had created, and He did create us out of love that He has for each one of us.

We were never intended to endure the bitterness of suffering in this world. However, our inability to resist the temptations to sin essentially ruined all of that. We fell into the temptations of our own desires and fell to the devil’s lies and temptations as he tempted our first ancestors to follow him and his advice instead of believing in God as they should have. By sin we have been separated and sundered from the presence of God, cast out of Eden as our just punishment and the consequence for our sins. Yet, that was not the end for us. God could have destroyed and crushed us for our sins and wickedness. But, His love for us surpassed even His disgust for our sins.

Nonetheless, the reality is that no sin can remain unaccounted for, and we have to answer for every one of these taints and corruptions on our very own souls and beings. As long as sin taints us, we will have to answer for every single one of them, and those who pass on from this world with sins still unforgiven and unaccounted for will be judged by those sins we have committed, as well as by those sins of omission we made when we ignored the opportunities when we could have done good things with our lives, be it for the benefit of our fellow brothers and sisters or for the greater community.

That is why in our Gospel passage today we are reminded through the well-known interaction between the Lord Jesus and the woman who had committed adultery and were caught in the midst of doing so, and also how the Lord interacted with the crowd assembled there, some of whom with the malicious intent of using the opportunity to try to put the Lord into a trap and to get Him into a corner and to find reasons to persecute and condemn Him. Why so? That is because the whole event was likely the effort of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in trying to discredit or even persecute the Lord, Who was well-known for His frequent interactions and works among those considered as sinners, such as the tax collectors, the prostitutes and people who were possessed, ill and had disabilities.

At that time, associating with those people were often abhorred and discouraged, and this went even to the extent that coming close into contact with them causing someone to be considered unclean and unworthy. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in particular were very convinced of their own piety, their righteous and worthy way of life, through their strict interpretation, enforcement and living of the ways of the Law of God. However, they failed to realise one very important thing that, in the end, it is not they who determine whether they are worthy of God or not. Instead, God is the One Who will determine all of that.

Through the example of the Lord’s interaction with the convicted adulterous woman, the Lord made it very clear that what He wants is not the destruction of sinners like us. Instead, as I mentioned earlier, that His love for us is indeed so great that it surpasses even the wickedness of our sins. Of course it does not mean that He condones or accepts our sins and evil actions. Rather, He wants us to distance ourselves from those actions and sins, to turn away wholeheartedly from those evil deeds and ways, and embrace wholly His love and mercy, walking ever always in His righteous path.

That was why the Lord told the woman that He did not condemn her, just as no one gathered there did not dare to do so either. When the Lord told the assembled people who pressed Him to take action against the woman, and He said that the one who was without sin ought to cast the first stone at her, it reminds us all that each and every one of us are sinners, no matter how small or insignificant, how great or serious our sins may be. Sin is sin, and as long as we have sin in us, we are unworthy of God and cannot come close to Him. And yet, it was God Who first made the move to close up the distance between us.

He told the woman that He did not condemn her either, but wanting her to turn away from those sins she committed, sinning no more and embracing fully His forgiveness and mercy. It proves that God hates not the sinner but the sin. He does not despise us as a person, but rather our attachment to sin, our stubbornness in remaining attached and obsessed over those worldly desires and all the other temptations that we often fail to resist and even indulge ourselves in. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were so fixated on their own sense of pride and self-righteousness that they failed to realise that they themselves too, were sinners.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, should we allow our pride and ego, our desires and the many other distractions in life to prevent us from finding our way to God and His salvation? We must not let ourselves be dissuaded and distracted by all those things that may end up getting us further and further away from the Lord’s path. And that is why we must remind ourselves yet again to seek the Lord with renewed faith, genuine desire to be reconciled with Him and with a contrite heart full of regret for our many sins and wickedness, with the commitment to make amends and to get closer to Him, Our Lord and Saviour once again.

As St. Paul said in our second reading today, in his Epistle to the Philippians, all of us have to seek Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, find Him and do whatever we can to walk with Him together, and we have to seek Him as in Him is worth everything and more than whatever we can find and gather in this world. He has willingly reached out to us, with plenty of mercy and compassion, willing to forgive us our sins if we desire to have them forgiven, and as long as we sincerely show contrition and regret over those faults and mistakes that we had done. What better reward and prize we can get as compared to these?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we gather together this Sunday in the Lord’s presence, let us all remind ourselves of our sinfulness and how we all are in need of God’s healing and mercy. We are all in need of this forgiveness for God alone can forgive us our sins. Otherwise, we will have to answer for every sins we have with us that are still unaccounted for and unforgiven as I mentioned. And if we do not change our ways, remaining in our state and path of sin, we will be judged by those same sins we committed. God generously wants to forgive us our sins, but it is often we who reject Him and His love.

And are we going to be like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who gloated over those whom they deemed to be less worthy and more wicked than they were? This is a reminder that this is not the attitude that we should adopt at any point of time, as this kind of attitude truly prevents us from humbling ourselves and realising that we are always in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. While the tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners are all fast going forward in the path towards God’s forgiveness and eternal life as they realised their sins and made the efforts to be forgiven by God, those who kept their pride and ego will perish because of that pride.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us remind ourselves and one another to be humble before God, and to make good use of the time and opportunities that have been given to us, such that we may benefit from the gift of Our Lord’s ever generous mercy and compassion. He has proven to us again and again of how faithful He has been to the Covenant that He had made and sealed with us and our ancestors, while we have proven yet again and again, how unfaithful we have been to Him, and how terrible we have been in living our lives so far, in not following God’s path and in walking down our own paths towards doom.

Can we do our best and strive to reject those temptations to sin, brothers and sisters in Christ? Can we reject the devil and all the wicked things that he has been persuading us to do, and all the lies and falsehoods that he has presented before us? Let us follow the Lord’s advice and call, for us to sin no more and turn wholeheartedly towards Him, knowing that in God alone there is true happiness and satisfaction. Let us remember that while God loves us and does not despise us, He still despises our sins and wickedness. Let us do our best in the remaining time of this Lenten season, to purify ourselves and to make a good habit of living virtuously in God’s path, so that from now on we may be ever better Christians, ever more committed disciples of Our Lord.

May the Lord be with all of us as we journey together with Him, as we walk down the path of reconciliation and forgiveness. May He grant us the courage and strength to follow Him with commitment and strong desire to love Him in each and every moments of our lives, and may we also be good examples, role models and inspirations for one another in how we live our lives so that many more people may also share in God’s salvation and eternal life with us. Amen.

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Sunday, 27 March 2022 : Fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Rose (Laetare Sunday) or Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday, the fourth one in the season of Lent, we celebrate what is known as Laetare Sunday, one of the only two occasions in the entire liturgical year when the colour rose is used. The other occasion is the Gaudete Sunday during the season of Advent. The word Laetare has the meaning of ‘rejoice’ just as Gaudete is, both having similar meanings. This word comes from the beginning of today’s Introit at the start of the Holy Mass, namely, ‘Laetare Jerusalem, et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam…’ which means ‘Rejoice, o Jerusalem, and gather round, all you who love her…’

Today, just as on Gaudete Sunday in Advent, we have a reprieve and more joyful celebration amidst the more sombre and penitential nature of this season. We have something like a break amidst the usually more toned down nature of our Lenten observances, as music and flowers are allowed to be used again, unlike how it is during the other parts of the Lenten season. Why is that so? That is because today we focus on the Joy that we are looking forward to and have been preparing ourselves for in these past few weeks of Lent. We look forward to the joy of the coming of Christ, and the salvation that He has given to all of us in Easter.

We remember the great love of God and how He patiently reached out to us, desiring to forgive us our sins and be reconciled with us. We must consider ourselves truly very fortunate to have such a loving God by our side. We are a people who have deserved destruction and annihilation, condemnation and eternal suffering because of our many sins, our disobedience against God, our waywardness and wickedness. Yet, because of God’s enduring love for each and every one of us, even to the greatest among sinners, He desires to be reconciled with us, so that we, having been forgiven from our sins through our repentance and genuine desire to change for the better, may enjoy once again the fullness of His love and grace.

In our first reading today, we heard the story of the joyful moment when the Israelites under the leadership of Joshua, Moses’ successor, finally entered the Promised Land after forty long years of wandering in the desert and wilderness after their Exodus out of Egypt. God led them to the land promised to their ancestors, and they would have reached it much earlier if not for the stubbornness of many of them who gave in to their fears and lacking trust in God, chose to rebel against God and did not trust Him to guide them safely into the land promised to them. And hence, they had to wander the desert and the wilderness for those forty long years.

That forty long years is symbolically marked by us as well every year when we observe the season of Lent, the time of purification and internal reorientation of our focus in life, for the forty days as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the great and most joyful occasion in the coming of Easter. And Our Lord Himself also spent the same forty days in the desert after He was baptised in the Jordan and before He began His ministry, fasting and praying to God at that moment, tempted and rejecting the temptations of the devil. In the end, the Lord triumphed against the devil and through that, we have hope of our salvation in Christ, Our Lord and Saviour.

The Israelites rejoiced greatly at that moment when they finally entered the Promised Land after forty years long, and they celebrated there, and renewed their Covenant with God. The Lord also from then on did not provide them with manna any longer as He had done for the previous forty years, as they could already live off from the bounty of the land, the promised land overflowing with milk and honey that had been promised to them. And we all today share in their rejoicing, remembering the joy that they had felt, as we remind ourselves why we observe this season of Lent in the first place.

First and foremost, we celebrate this season of Lent because we desire to return to the Lord, to be reconciled with Him as mentioned just earlier. We have erred, made mistakes and disobeyed the Lord, and yet, the Lord Who is ever merciful has always extended His mercy to us, which we are free to accept and reject. For us to accept this mercy fully, we have to go through a thorough internal reorganisation and retrospection, changing our way of life and outlook, rejecting our past, sinful way of life and instead committing ourselves to a new way of life that is in accordance with God and His ways.

In our second reading today, we heard of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians reminding us that God has willingly reconciled us to Himself, through Christ, His Son, reminding us all that He has done so much for us, even to the extent of bearing the burdens of our sins, all the punishments due for our sins and took them all up onto His own shoulders. We can rejoice today because of everything He has done for us, in breaking His back and getting all the bruises and wounds, which were caused by our own infidelity and wickedness, all the sins we have committed. Those sins separated us from God, but God Who has always loved us sent us His Son to be the bridge connecting us back to Himself, through His Cross and His sacrifice on that Cross.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard the famous parable of the prodigal son, a reminder for us all yet again of who we are, sinners wandering in this world in great need of healing and reconciliation with God, our ever loving Father and Creator. We are the prodigal sons of God, Who had been swayed by sin and by the temptations to sin, to walk away from God and His path, like the prodigal son who asked for his inheritance from his father and then went off to a distant land to live his life with pleasure, until he had nothing left and was forced to beg to survive.

This is a reminder to us that no matter whatever riches and wonders we have in life, in our world today, none of these will last us and they will not avail us, and eventually they will even become our downfall if we depend on them as what happened to the prodigal son in the parable of the Lord. That prodigal son had to suffer and wander off in a foreign land because of his disobedience against his father and his downfall into sin. Yet, what is important and what each one of us must take note of is what he decided to do next. He could remain proud and refuse to return to his father, as it would have been shameful to do so, and therefore perish in that foreign land, but he did not do so.

Instead, the prodigal son decided to return to his father, swallowing his pride and ego, seeking his forgiveness and mercy. He chose to abandon his way of sin and coming back to the father full of regret and desire to be forgiven, and even humbling himself as such, abashing himself and ready to be treated like one of his father’s slaves. He himself reasoned that it was better for him to live as one of his father’s slaves rather than to die in pride and perish in a land where no one knew him or even would mourn his passing. All his so-called friends and benefactors must have left him behind once he had no more money or possessions with him.

Yet, when he returned, we all know how happy and joyful the father was when the prodigal son came back. The prodigal son had been worried that the father must have been angry. But in truth, whatever anger the father might have felt, his love far surpassed that anger, and seeing his son, as wayward as he might be, coming back to him and desiring to be reconciled with him, full of regret for his own past actions, it was more than enough for the father to welcome his child back to his embrace. The repentant prodigal son was welcomed back with great joy, and he was once again a beloved son of the father’s household.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through the story of the parable of the prodigal son, all of us are again reminded of how fortunate we are to have God Who is always loving us and has always been kind to us, and desires to be reconciled with us. Even though we are sinners, He has always waited patiently for us to return to Him. But are we willing to return to Him and be reconciled with Him? Are we willing to return to our Lord and Father just as how the prodigal son decided to return to his father with contrite heart full of regrets and sorrow over his faults and mistakes?

We have to realise that it is often our pride and ego that often come before us and God’s salvation. Too often we are too proud to admit that we had been wrong and are in the need for healing and reconciliation with God. And unless we let go of our pride and be willing to embrace God with genuine faith and love once again, we are likely going to still be separated from God and His love. If we allow our attachments to worldly desires and other temptations to distract us from the path of righteousness, we will end up falling into the path towards damnation.

At the same time, we must also not behave like the elder son who was envious and jealous that the younger, prodigal son was welcomed with great fanfare while he, who had always remained at the side of his father, did not have such an opportunity. This is a reminder for all of us not to look down upon or discriminate against our less fortunate brothers and sisters, and more importantly, never be judgmental and be condescending in our attitude towards others, like what the Pharisees did, in looking down on others and thinking that we are better, holier and more worthy and deserving of God’s blessings and graces than others. We are all sinners after all, and in doing what the elder son did, we may forget this fact, and end up derailing our own path towards full reconciliation with God.

Instead, we have to help one another, and remind each other of the joy awaiting us at the end of our respective journeys of faith through life. In this world, we are all still wandering through the darkness and called towards the light, much as how the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years. This season of Lent is a reminder for us of this reality, and especially the need for all of us for God’s forgiveness and healing, to be reconciled with Him, our most loving Father. We have to draw closer to Him and to humble ourselves, like that of the prodigal son, that we may overcome the obstacles of our pride, ego and all the other things preventing us from coming back to our heavenly Father.

Let us rejoice today with the hope of the true joy that we will enjoy forevermore with our Lord, an eternity of true happiness with God, as we continue living our lives with faith. Let our rejoicing today on Laetare Sunday be a preparation for us to enter worthily into the celebrations of Holy Week and Easter that are coming soon. Let us make good use of the opportunities and time given to us, especially during this time of Lent, to find our way towards the Lord, as prodigal children, wayward sons and daughters, all sinners in need of healing and reconciliation with our God. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 20 March 2022 : Third Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we are all reminded of the call that the Lord had made to all of us, His beloved ones, to follow Him and to dedicate ourselves to Him. All of us have been called to leave behind our past lives and our state of sin, and enter into a new existence with God through grace, and by His ever generous love, mercy and forgiveness. Each and every one of us are God’s chosen people, His beloved children, whom He had called from this world to be with Him. Our Scripture passages this Sunday remind us of this reality and truth, and we are reminded to turn towards the Lord with renewed love, zeal and vigour.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Exodus the account of the calling of Moses at Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, during the time when Moses was in the land of the Midianites while in exile from Egypt. At that time, Moses, who had been raised by the Pharaoh’s sister as her own son after having been rescued from the River Nile, had been accused of misconduct and treason for having killed an Egyptian that persecuted an Israelite slave worker. Moses then fled away from Egypt to avoid being punished and killed although what he did was truly right and just.

In the land of the Midianites, Moses had become a shepherd and was eventually married to the daughter of his benefactor, Jethro the Midianite. And then, as we heard in our first reading today, Moses witnessed a great vision from God at Mount Horeb, as he saw a great burning bush, which an Angel of God set fire on and Moses went up the mountain to see the marvellous sight when God spoke to him, calling on him to go back to the land of Egypt and be the bearer of God’s words to the Egyptians and their Pharaoh, proclaiming the liberation of the Israelites who had long been enslaved by the former.

Through what we heard in our first reading today, we are all presented with the enduring love and compassion that God has for His people, as He told Moses of what He would do for His beloved people, as He has always remembered the Covenant He made with their forefathers, and He would bring them out from the place of their sufferings and agony, into the new place He would lead them towards, a land flowing with milk and honey, the Promised Land of Canaan that He has promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the forefathers of the Israelites.

In our second reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth, we heard of the accounts of St. Paul reminding the faithful of all that God had done for the people of Israel during the time of their Exodus from Egypt. He reminded all of them how God had provided for the Israelites during the time of their long sojourn in the desert, as they journeyed from place to place, God always going before them and leading them to where they were brought to go to. And despite the rebelliousness and disobedience that they had shown at the time, that led them to endure forty years of suffering and atonement, God still cared for them all daily.

The Lord has always showed His love and mercy, which He has patiently and generously offered to His people despite their constant rebelliousness, their lack of faith in Him, the betrayal and all the other wicked deeds that they had committed. He could have annihilated us all the moment that our first ancestors fell into sin, and He could have destroyed us there and then. Yet, He gave us all a chance, because He believed in us and He loved us, which was why He created us all in the first place. He would not have created us if He did not love us. He showed us that while we may have frequently been unfaithful to Him, but He never ceased to be faithful to the promises that He had made to us since the very beginning.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the Lord speaking to the people regarding of what had then happened regarding a group of Galileans who were massacred by the Romans under the governor, Pontius Pilate and also of another accident involving a group of people in the town of Shiloh who had perished due to that accident. He told all those assembled that those who perished were sinners just as they who listened to the Lord were sinners too. However, He pointed out how unless they repented, then they would perish as well in the end.

What the Lord wanted to point out through this particular encounter was that we are all mortals and we will eventually reach the end of our worldly life and existence. All of us will face death sooner or later, and this is one certainty that will happen to us. Due to sin we have to face the consequences and that is we have to experience death. Yet, at the same time, the most uncertain thing in life for us is the exact time and moment of our death and passing from this world. No one knew, knows and will ever know the exact time and moment of their death, and yet, all will die and go through the gates of death.

However, the Lord has also provided us His mercy and compassionate love, and through His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, He has given us the sure path out of the darkness and the tyranny of sin. He took upon Himself the burden of our sins, and He did the most marvellous thing in reaching out to us with love and compassion, that through Him we may receive the assurance of eternal life and true happiness, by His most loving and selfless sacrifice on the Cross for our sake. We are reminded again and again that all of us are really very fortunate to have been beloved so much by the Lord, and we must not take it for granted that we have been given this grace and the many opportunities presented to us, as God has always been ever patient in calling on us to return to Him.

However, we must also remember that in the end, sin is a corruption of our mind, body, heart and soul, and no sin can remain in us unforgiven and not repented upon. For God Who is perfect and all good and great cannot have sin existent before Him, or else, those sins would have brought us down to our doom and annihilation. Essentially, while God has always ever been merciful and loving towards us, but there is a limit and boundary that we must always be aware of, and that is, as long as we still reject God’s mercy and forgiveness, freely and generously given to us, then our sins shall remain and we shall be judged and condemned by those same sins.

This Lent, all of us are called and reminded of God’s ever generous love and how each and every one of us have a share in this love and generous mercy. Unfortunately, it is very often that our pride and ego, our human desires and inability to resist the temptations of the world have led to us faltering again and again, delaying our return towards the Lord, hardening our hearts against Him and closing off the doors of His mercy when He has extended it so openly and freely towards us. It is often us who have spurned His advances of love and mercy, all the generous kindness that He has presented to us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on these words from the Sacred Scriptures this Sunday, already the Third one in the season of Lent, are we all still idling by in our lives and not heeding God’s calling, His constant invitations and pleas for us to return to Him with contrite and repentant hearts? Are we still going to allow our pride, ego, our sinfulness and our refusal to listen to the Lord’s words be serious obstacles in the way of our reconciliation with Him? Are we going to continue to rebel against the Lord just as how the people of Israel in the past have always often disobeyed Him, doubted and even betrayed Him for other gods and idols?

That is why we have to make good use of the opportunities we have been given most generously this Lent to reconnect ourselves with God, and to rediscover the unity which we once had with Him, but which had been ruined and broken due to our sins. That is why this Lent all of us are called to deepen our relationship with God, remove from our hearts and minds the temptation of pride and ego, and of all negativities and the various obstacles that have often prevented us from returning to God with faith. This Lent, all of us should do our best to reach out to one another, and to help each other in our journey back towards the Lord.

Let us all strive therefore to renew the relationship we have with God and endeavour to overcome the temptations and pressures of the world that are always pulling us away from God and His path. Let us put our focus on God and His love for each and every one of us, and remember to be grateful and thankful for everything that He had done for us. May He continue to watch over us and bless us in our Lenten journey and observances. May He remain with us always and strengthen us with faith, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 13 March 2022 : Second Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we celebrate the Second Sunday in the season of Lent, reminding us that it has been about ten days now since the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Today as we listened and remembered the words of the Sacred Scriptures, all of us are called and reminded by God to look upon what it is that each and every one of us are expected to do as Christians, as God’s followers and people. We are all the children of God and therefore our way of life ought to be a reflection of God’s ways and truth.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis, of the moment when God made His Covenant with Abram, the one who would later be known as Abraham, the father of many nations, and progenitor of the Israelites. God had chosen Abram to be the one with whom He would make a new Covenant with His people, with mankind, as He had seen in Abram the true and genuine faith that is unparalleled and unmatched by anyone else, the desire to love God and to obey Him and His Law wholeheartedly.

Abram was then already a man of relatively advanced age, with a barren wife, Sarai and no son or any child at all. He had answered God’s call in following Him to the land that He had shown him, the land of Canaan, uprooting himself from the land of his forefathers and leaving his family behind to follow God. God then made this Covenant with Abram, promising him that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on earth. At that moment, Abram was transformed into Abraham, the change in name signifying this new status as the progenitor of God’s chosen people. His wife, Sarai, also then changed her name to Sarah.

Abraham trusted in the Lord and followed Him wholeheartedly, devoting his life to God and followed wherever the Lord led him to go. He became the father of Isaac and Ishmael, and through them, became the father of innumerable nations to this day. Not only that, but because of the Covenant that God had made with him, his faith and righteousness, Abraham has also become our father in faith as well. He is our role model in faith and our inspiration, as the one whom we can look upon for inspiration for our own path in life.

In our second reading passage today, the Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians relate to us that as Christians, all of us are called to be like Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, and remember that we are truly called to the glory of heaven, our ultimate destination in life. All of us are truly the citizens of Heaven, God’s beloved ones who have always been intended for greatness and eternity of happiness, perfection and glory with God, our most loving Father and Creator. And because of this, our attitudes and way of life have to reflect this nature, our true nature that is righteousness, justice and full of Christian virtues.

In the Gospel today that is why we heard the reading of the account of the Transfiguration of the Lord, in which we heard of how the Lord was glorified and revealed His true divine nature to His three disciples, Peter, James and John on Mount Tabor. The Lord revealed that He was indeed not just the Son of Man, but also the Son of God, the two natures of Divinity and Humanity distinct and yet inseparable in His one Person, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world and the Lord of all. And by Him sharing in our humanity, the Lord wants to show us that we too ought to share in this glory to come.

Essentially, through His Transfiguration, the Lord has shown us what our future state is going to be, when our bodies and existences are glorified much in the same way as the Lord has been glorified. It is reminiscent of what will happen when at the end times, our bodies will be reunited with our souls, to live perfectly with God forever in a blissful eternal existence, full of grace and happiness. This is what the Lord has always intended to us, for us to live happily ever after with Him, in His presence, and why He created us all in the first place.

Unfortunately, mankind succumbed to the temptations of the devil and their desires, and they allowed those desires and temptations to cloud their judgment, leading them to disobey God, His Law and commandments. And because of sin, we have been defiled and corrupted, and our glorified and perfect nature has been tarnished. When God created us mankind, He never intended for us to suffer in this world, and if we recall the Book of Genesis, all that God had created and made were all perfect and all good, including us mankind, made in image and likeness of God Himself, the most beloved of all His creations.

It was by our conscious rejection of God’s love and truth that we have ended up in this fallen state, losing our perfection and true nature due to sin. And through sin we have been separated from God and we have to endure these sufferings in the world because we have not yet fully reconciled ourselves with God. And yet, God gave us His only Son, to be our Saviour. Through Him, not only that He gave us hope through His Transfiguration, reminding us of who we truly and actually are, but He also took it upon Himself to offer on our behalf, during His Passion and death, the most worthy offering for our salvation.

We are reminded that our true nature is to reflect the light of Christ within us and to show forth the truth about that nature, to all the people. We are all called to overcome the temptations of sin, the corruptions of those wickedness and the allures of evil. We are all called to resist those temptations and rediscover the light within us, the light of Christ long hidden by the darkness of sin and evil. We are all called to uncover these truth about our nature, by our pious observance of Lent.

In our observance of this Lenten season, when we fast and abstain, from meat or from any other of our usual pleasures in life, we are all called to turn away from our desires and the darkness of our world, turning towards the light of God, following the examples of our forefather, Abraham in his faith and dedication to the Lord, as well as our many other holy predecessors who have gone before us, the glorious saints and martyrs, who even now enjoy the beatific vision and experience of Heaven, while waiting for the final Day of Judgment, the end of time. We are reminded through the Transfiguration of the Lord in our Gospel today, that we too will enjoy this one day, should we remain faithful and committed to the Lord, to the very end.

God has made a New and Eternal Covenant with us through Jesus Christ, His Son, Who gave His life, poured our His Most Precious Blood and broken His Most Precious Body on the Cross, to be the Mediator of this New and everlasting Covenant, as the One through Whom all of us can finally be reconciled fully with God. By His suffering and death, He has brought us to share in His humanity, freeing us from the tyranny of sin and death, as by His glorious Resurrection He has unlocked the gates of Heaven to us. Through Him we have been given the sure means of coming free from our fallen state and to be restored to our graceful existence as God had always intended.

Now, the question is, are we all willing to make the sacrifices for this to happen? Are we all willing to embrace the Lord wholeheartedly with faith from now on, and rejecting the temptations of the world and the corruption of sin? To be Christians we are never called to remain idle in life, but instead we have to always be ever active in each and every moments, to be ever closer to God, to reflect His light and truth, His ways and love in our lives, to be righteous and just, virtuous and good in all things just as He is all good and virtuous, perfect and full of love. And we can show this through our actions, by being more generous with our love and giving for others.

Let us all therefore seek the Lord with a renewed faith, with contrite heart full of desire to be forgiven from our many faults and sins. Let us draw ever closer to God and put our trust more in Him, be ever more generous in showing our tender care and love, especially to the less fortunate, to those who are unloved and with no one to care for them, those who are oppressed and ostracised. Let us do our best as Christians to reach out to them, just as Our Lord Himself has reached out to us first, we wretched sinners deserving not of God’s grace and love, and yet He has always loved us without fail. He reestablished and renewed the Covenant He had made with us, because He never ceased to love us, and neither should we cease to love Him.

May the Lord continue to awaken in us the love that each and every one of us ought to have for Him, strengthening our resolve and courage to walk down His path despite the challenges and trials that we may have to face as His disciples. May God bless all of our good works and our Lenten observances, that they may not be just spiritually beneficial to us, but also that they may become great inspirations for our fellow brothers and sisters, to follow us together in our journey towards God and His salvation. Amen.

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Sunday, 6 March 2022 : First Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we celebrate the first Sunday in the season of Lent, as we enter more deeply into this time of reconciliation and call to repentance that is characteristic of this season of Lent. On this Sunday, we are all reminded that God is our refuge, our salvation, our hope and the light amidst the darkness that surround us in this world. In Him alone lies our true happiness and freedom, and it is for this purpose that we observe this blessed season of Lent. All of our fasting, abstinence, almsgiving and other actions during this Lent are meant to lead us ever closer to God.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, we heard of the words of Moses, the leader of the Israelites, who at that time in the later part of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, exhorted all the people of God to remember everything that God had done to them and to their ancestors. He reminded them all how God had loved and taken good care of their forefathers from the time of Abraham, his descendants and all who went to Egypt and where they prospered greatly as a nation, and where they were later persecuted and oppressed, enslaved and maltreated.

Yet the Lord showed His continued love for them, rescuing them all from their predicament and leading them out from the land of Egypt, as He led them by the might of His hands, crushing the Egyptians with ten great plagues and many other deeds, opening the sea itself to allow the people to walk through them without harm. These were all that the Lord had done for the sake of His people, and Moses was therefore reminding the people that they have to remain faithful to the Lord and renew their commitments to Him, rejecting the path of sin and evil.

The Psalm today echoed this sentiment as we heard its opening part, that those who come to rest in the shelter of the Lord, who entrusted themselves to Him shall always be provided for and will not be disappointed. For God has indeed shown us again and again His boundless love and compassion, and He has reassured us that no one who trusted in Him and placed their faith in Him would be lost to Him in the end. Sufferings and trials may come for the people of God, but they will triumph in the end with God.

Then in our second reading we heard the words of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in Rome, through his Epistle to the Romans. In that passage we heard the affirmation of the salvation that has been given to us freely through Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. As long as we believe in Him, trust in Him, and focus our attention on Him, our true and living faith will bring us towards God, regardless of our background, our history and our differences. We are all God’s one flock and people, all called to return to Him and be reconciled with Him.

In our Gospel passage then we heard the famous encounter between the Lord Jesus and Satan, His great enemy, as the latter tried to prevent the Lord from doing His mission in this world. At that time, just right after the Lord was baptised by St. John the Baptist at the River Jordan, He fasted for forty days in the wilderness, and Satan came to Him in order to tempt Him. Satan had dominion over the world through sin, because sin has held onto the hearts and souls of the children of man, enslaving them and keeping them chained just as how the Israelites was once enslaved by the Egyptians.

We may be wondering if Satan actually knew what the Lord was about to do and what His mission was. As the evil spirits in the occasions when the Lord performed exorcisms on the possessed testified, that they recognised Him as the Holy One of God, it was unlikely that Satan did not know Who the Lord Jesus truly was. Although He was in the form of Man, the flesh of the descendants of Adam and Eve that he once tempted and corrupted, but the devil must have recognised the Lord’s true Divine nature that was concealed within His person.

But the devil clearly knew that whatever the Lord had intended to do for mankind, it would not be a good one for him, for the Lord loved all mankind, all of His children and people, and He would surely not let the devil and all of his fellow demons, the fallen angels and wicked spirits from having their way and dominion over His beloved ones any longer. Thus, Satan must have attempted to tempt the Lord through His human nature and flesh, to manipulate the usual human weaknesses and desires in the manner that he had done towards Eve and countless other sons and daughters of man.

In the first temptation, we heard the devil tempting the Lord with food to eat, as He has been fasting for forty days without food or any sustenance. He must have been really hungry, for He is truly Man just as He is Divine. Hunger is a part of our human existence, one of the things that we can feel whenever we have not consumed any food. The devil told the Lord that He could just turn the stones there into bread and food for Him to eat, testing Him by saying that if He was indeed the Son of God, He could have done so easily. However, the Lord refused to listen to the devil and pointed out that one’s true sustenance came from the Lord and His words, and obedience to those words.

In the second temptation, we heard how the devil brought the Lord to a very high mountain and showed Him all the glory and wonders of the world, and told Him that He could have everything if only He bowed down in worship, worshipping Satan, for all the glory and wealth of the world. This was immediately rebuked by the Lord, Who told Satan off and clearly spoke that the Lord alone is worthy of worship, nothing and no one else is worthy of that, clearly not Satan or any other beings. This was the temptation of desire and greed, for worldly wealth and material goods.

Then finally, the last temptation is often the most dangerous of all, as the devil brought the Lord to the peak of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, telling Him that if He were to fall down from that height, according to the Scriptures, the Lord would not let Him to be hurt, and He would send His Angels to save and protect His Son. But in doing so, one would then test the Lord, testing Him whether He would really say what He had said He would do, and also, most crucially, in doing so, that would have revealed His great wonders and majesty before the many people gathered there, and would have therefore suited someone’s ego and pride in doing so. He rebuked Satan, and the latter, knowing that he had been defeated, went away.

Essentially, the devil was trying to tempt the Lord to be selfish, to be filled with greed and ultimately to succumb to pride, all of which would lead anyone to sin against God, disobeying His will, His Law and commandments for one’s own personal ambitions, desires and ego. Satan knew it all too well, for he himself had fallen into that state because of his pride and ambition, as Lucifer, the most brilliant and mighty among God’s Angels, who fell into the sin of pride, in desiring to rule over the Angels of God and in desiring the Throne of God for himself. He was defeated and cast out from Heaven, and then he tried to bring down man, God’s most beloved creation.

Satan himself fell, the many other fallen angels followed Satan to his rebellion, and he also tempted Eve and through her, Adam, and many other people, all the sons and daughters of man, who had fallen into sin. But the Lord showed us all, that we must not let sin to have any more hold on us. Unfortunately, as long as we allow ourselves to be swayed by pride, by our desire and greed, by our attachments to the world, we will fall again and again into sin. And the Lord then showed us that we do not have to remain bound by those things, as He resisted and rejected Satan’s temptations one by one.

What is important, as the Lord had said and mentioned, is that we must put the Lord at the centre and as the clear focus of our lives. He must exist at the centre of our lives and be the reason and emphasis of our every actions, words and deeds. We have to put our trust in Him and strive to walk in the path that He has shown to us all. And in doing so, we have to be more humble, rejecting pride, and to temper our desires and ambitions, rejecting the temptations of greed and desires, and to train ourselves to resist those temptations, and this season of Lent, we are given the perfect opportunity to do so if we have not yet done that.

That is why, during this season of Lent, all of us are called to practice our Lenten observances and actions with great and genuine faith, with clear understanding of whatever it is that we are doing, so that in all the things we do, we will always do it for the sake of the Lord, and not for our own selfish ambitions, our pride, ego and desires. Through fasting and abstinence, done right and focused on the Lord, let us restrain our human and worldly desires, for glory, power, fame and other material wealth and goods, resisting the excesses of worldly attachments and pleasures, and instead, learn to grow more in our faith and trust, in our love for God.

Then, we are also called to be more generous in loving one another, as Lent is the time for us to show God’s love even more to others around us. We are encouraged to be more generous in almsgiving and in caring for the less fortunate, not necessarily just in material terms only, but also in caring for those who are unloved and uncared for, those who have been ostracised and rejected by others. Let us extend our caring hands and hearts to them, and let us show each other what God’s love for us truly means, through our own genuine Christian love.

Let us all make the best use of this time that we have been given in this season of Lent, so that each and every one of us can draw ever closer to the Lord, and that we may grow ever more in our faith and dedication to God. May He continue to watch over us and strengthen us all in faith, and may He empower each and every one of us so that we may remain ever more deeply attuned to Him, and be ever more courageous to say no to Satan and all of his temptations and all the falsehoods he presented to us. Let us help one another to walk ever more faithfully in God’s presence, now and always. Amen.

by

Sunday, 27 February 2022 : Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we gather together and listen to the words of the Lord in the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded how all of us have to be true to our faith in God, to be righteous and good in all things just as He has commanded and taught us to do in our lives. We have to be active in living our faith and not just paying lip service to the Lord only. We cannot be idle and ignorant of what the Lord had told us to do, through all the guidance He has shown us through His Church.

In our first reading today, we heard from the book of the prophet Sirach in which the Lord spoke to His people regarding how a person can be seen and witnessed from his or her actions and deeds, from their words and all their interactions, just as a tree’s qualities can be seen from its fruits among other examples. It was also mentioned how a potter usually tests his wares and products by testing them with fire, and all the hidden flaws will be revealed that way. Nothing can be hidden away and all can and may be revealed.

What does this mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? It means that we cannot fake our faith, or think that we can deceive others by our appearances if deep inside we do not truly have faith in the Lord. That was why, sadly, many people found it difficult to believe in God because many among us Christians do not even practice our faith and behave in the manner appropriate to our identity as those who believe in the Lord. That is exactly why many were scandalised by what they had seen in the attitudes of Christians, who behaved not according to what the Christian truth is all about.

This same sentiment is echoed by the Lord Himself as we heard it in our Gospel passage today, in which we heard the Lord speaking to His disciples regarding the matter how people should be truly faithful to God and be willing to reflect on their own attitudes first before they judge others or condemn others for being less faithful or worthy than they were, which was unfortunately a rather common situation among the people of Israel at the time, particularly among the members of the Pharisees and the elders and the chief priests.

They were the ones who always thought highly of themselves and conversely looked down on others, condemning others they deemed to be unworthy of God and His salvation like that of the tax collectors and prostitutes, or those who were possessed or were suffering from diseases and other afflictions. They thought of themselves as worthy and justified in their actions, in their exclusivity and refusal to engage in genuine dialogue with the Lord and His disciples, and instead preferring to hinder Him and putting obstacles in all the occasions and the places wherever He went to.

That was the example of what the Lord said as the blind leading the blind, and a man with a plank in his eye who chose to point out the speck in another’s eye, while ignoring the plank in his very own eye. Unfortunately, this was a common attitude not only just among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, but also among us Christians as well. Many of us often think of ourselves as being better than others and are easily prejudiced and biased against those whom we perceived to be less than worthy of the Lord and His saving grace as well as love.

That is exactly how we fell to this same trap of self-righteousness, selfishness, self-aggrandisement and other traps that have often trapped many of us since the beginning of time. Ever since man first fell into sin, we have always struggled against the allures of worldly desires, of personal desires for pleasure and satisfaction, for self-fulfilment and happiness, often even at the cost of others around us. That was how mankind often brought about suffering to others around them, all because they thought first and foremost of themselves first, ignoring others and their needs.

And as long as our internal predisposition and orientation are not set right as we should have, then we will likely fall again and again into this path of sin, wickedness and evil, this path of selfishness and jealousy, of self-preservation and the desire for personal glory, satisfaction and attainment. This is why today, on this Sunday all of us are reminded by the words of the Lord Himself, that we have to begin making the efforts to nurture within us all, a true heart, mind and soul that are all attuned towards the Lord, filled with genuine faith and love for Him.

In our second reading today, we heard St. Paul in his Epistle and letter to the Church and the faithful in the city of Corinth, speaking about the matter of sin and death. He spoke of how sin is the sting of death, for through sin brought about by their disobedience and by succumbing to their desires, man had brought upon themselves the suffering and punishment of death. Sin is the weeds that the devil has sowed in our hearts, as we heard in one of the parables of the Lord, when the enemy came to sow the seeds of weeds among the seeds of good wheat.

Then St. Paul also spoke of how the Lord has triumphed over sin and death, and through Him, He has shown us this path of victory against sin and evil, against death and all the tyranny and bondage that they had over us all these while. Yet, it is us mankind who have often fell back again and again into sin, because we do not have that strong and genuine faith in the Lord, and we still have too many and too strong attachments to sin, to the many temptations and desires found in this world, to all the things that often distracted us in our journey towards the Lord.

First of all, as mentioned earlier, it is important that as Christians we have to realise that we must always be vigilant against our ego and pride, our desires and all the temptations present all around us. We have to be humble and to rid of ourselves all the excesses of our pride and ego, which often were the sources of our downfall. If we allow those things to mislead us and distract us from the path of God, then very easily we will end up following the wrong path in life, and falling ever deeper into the traps of sin, and eventually to eternal death and suffering.

If we do not want this to happen, then first of all we have to reorientate our lives from one that is centred on ourselves, our ego and desires, into new lives that are centred on God, on His truth and love. This is what the Lord wants from us, and this is what this Sunday’s Scripture readings had been intended to, in order to wake us up from our slumber in this world, and so that we may stir and do our best to seek the Lord with a renewed conviction, zeal and passion in our respective lives.

We have to realise that we are weak and imperfect, and we often need help in our journey through life. We cannot just solely depend on ourselves and our power alone, but instead we have to cooperate and work with God, allowing Him to lead us down the right path. And in order to do that, often we have to be in touch with Him and ourselves, knowing how sinful and flawed we have been. Otherwise, if we allow pride and ego to fill our minds and hearts, then in our self-righteousness, we will end up shutting the Lord out, and consequently, we will only end up getting more and more distant from one another.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, instead of us comparing who amongst us are better, more worthy, more righteous, more pious or holy, let us all realise that we are all sinners in need of God’s healing and mercy. And the Lord is the only One Who can provide us our true happiness in life, and in Him we can put our full trust always. He has called us all to follow Him, and all that remains is for us to follow Him and trust Him wholeheartedly from now on. And as Christians, we should help and inspire one another in this journey of faith, supporting and strengthening one another instead of trying to outdo or compete with each other, nurturing in ourselves a heart filled with love for God and faith and trust in Him.

May the Lord, our most loving God, continue to bless us and guide us, and may He continue to watch over us, and help us to remain humble and committed to Him, that we may resist all the temptations of our ego and pride, our desires and the attachments we have to our worldly temptations and concerns. May God bless all of our good endeavours, works and efforts, in all things, now and always, forevermore. Amen.