Sunday Mass

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Sunday, 10 March 2019 : First Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we listened to the words of the Lord through the Scriptures reminding all of us of the need for us to prepare ourselves spiritually as we journey through this blessed season of Lent, a time of preparation and purification of ourselves, before we come to celebrate together the sacred mysteries of the Holy Week and the glorious joy of Easter. We are all reminded of all of the sins we have committed in life because of the temptations that Satan placed before us.

Today we listened to the temptation of the Lord Jesus by the devil in the desert, for forty days when He fasted from food and drink, right after He was baptised, to prepare Himself for His ministry in this world. The Lord met the devil who presented before Him three temptations by which the latter hoped to the good works of the Lord’s salvation to fail, by trying to tempt Him with the same temptations that we mankind often face in life.

While the first Adam, representing all of us mankind have fallen into sin, but Christ, Who became the new Adam, showed to us all that the sting of Satan, that is sin and death, no longer has power and dominion over us. The old Adam might have fallen and failed to remain faithful, but Christ showed us all mankind what it truly means to be faithful, and He defeated Satan in what can be seen as a rematch between Satan and mankind. The first man fell, but the New Man, Christ, overcome the three temptations by which Satan had tempted us throughout time, beginning from Adam and Eve.

The first temptation is the temptation of desire and selfishness, represented by the temptation when the Lord Jesus was told by the devil to turn the stones into bread when He felt hunger creeping up His flesh, just as Satan tempted Eve with the good looking fruit of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The devil was taunting the Lord, by saying that it is well within His power and authority to turn even rocks into bread, but that would be an abuse of His power to satisfy a selfish desire, the desire to satisfy the hunger of the flesh.

This is a warning for us all that gluttony and desire of our flesh can become our undoing, unless we make the conscious effort to resist those temptations. The desire to satisfy the needs of our body can easily end up becoming an obsession and a growing craving and desire for even more, as we are often prone to fall into the temptation of wanting more of whatever good things we have already had with us.

Many of us fall simply because we cannot resist the urge and the temptation of sexual pleasures and the temptations of our stomach, desiring good food and indulgences, and it is often that all these came from as simple as by looking at another person with desire, or at their possessions, and being jealous or being filled with desire to own what others have, to satisfy our own selfish desires.

To us, many of us will not easily find it enough just to have some good things we have gained in life. Soon enough, we would crave for even more, as the satisfaction that comes from fulfilling all these desires of ours are not long-lasting or permanent. Instead, we continue to find ways to gain more for ourselves and we become enslaved to the desires of our flesh, and disobey God and sin as a result.

The second temptation Christ faced was the temptation of glory, which imitated what Satan tempted man with, when he tempted them with the glory of the world, all of its knowledge and goodness, if they were to eat the fruits of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. Satan presented to the Lord Jesus the whole glory of the whole world, which he said that he would grant Him if only He were to worship him as God. Jesus quickly rebuked Satan and did not fall to the same temptation, humbling Himself before His Father, despite of His own Sonhood and Divinity.

We know just how He humbled Himself, that eventually, He even willingly emptied Himself of all glory and dignity, when He chose to take up the cross, bearing it upon His shoulders, taking up all the heavy burdens of our sins on Himself, and to suffer and die on the same cross, so that by His humble obedience, contrasted to the pride of man and the pride of Satan, in their respective pursuits for glory, all of us have been saved.

Then, in the last temptation that Christ faced from the devil, we heard how He was brought up to the parapet or the peak of the Temple of Jerusalem, with the devil asking Him to jump down from the top of the Temple with the intent to prove that God would intervene and save His Saviour from harm. The devil did this to make the Lord Jesus fall by means of ego and pride, by testing and doubting God at the sane time, just as he has tempted Adam and Eve, to be like God if they were to eat from the fruit of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge.

This is a very common temptation that we often encounter all around us, especially because pride is most often the most dangerous of all kinds of sins. It was exactly the sin of pride that caused Satan to fall from the grace of God because of his vanity of pride, thinking that his seeming perfection, beauty and glory, as the greatest and most brilliant among the Angels God had created, gave him the right to boast about his own might and desiring even to take over the place of God.

Therefore, this is a sin that the devil is certainly well-acquainted with, and by which he will relentlessly assault us, to make us to fall as well into the same path towards damnation and destruction. And we easily fall into pride, to succumb to our ego and the ambitions inside our hearts. When people praise us and say good things about us, it is easy to slid into our prideful mode, and grow more and more egoistic and ambitious, thinking that we are greater than who we actually are.

And in time, unless we resist this temptation, we will begin to resent others and seek only personal glory and power, greatness and good things for ourselves. We will not even hesitate to cause others to suffer just so that we can enjoy what we want to enjoy and gain what we desire for ourselves, be it prestige, wealth, standing and position in society, influence, fame, and even appearances, beauty and vanity, and many others.

Even by now, we should have seen how the devil has so many means by which he is capable of attacking us with, to tempt us and even to pressure us into disobedience against God. And last of all, he tempted the Lord as he has done with us, with the temptation of worldly glory, that is to gain for ourselves everything that is good in life, the glories and wonders of the world, all of its riches and pleasures, so long as we are willing to bow to Satan and worship him.

This is what happens when we are distracted and swayed by the many idols present in our lives. These idols now no longer refers to those idols of the pagan gods, made of clay or stone, wood or gold, but rather, those idols refer to the desires that we have for worldly glory, for material wealth and possessions, for luxury in many forms, for indulgences and practices that kept us distracted in life and preventing us from living our lives as true Christians.

We may say that we are Christians and we love God, and we may think that we worship Him and serve Him alone, but as long as our actions in life show that we prefer to follow the path of worldliness, the path of selfishness, entertaining our greed and desires, satisfying our ego and pride, all that Satan has tempted the Lord Jesus with, then we are not true disciples and servants of out God. Instead, as long as we persist in walking down this path, we are the followers of Satan.

How should we then carry out our lives from now on, brothers and sisters in Christ? As long as we allow ourselves to be swayed and to be tempted by the devil, we will not be able to proceed down the path towards the salvation in God. And the best way forward for us is to listen to the Lord and follow His example, in how He Himself has resisted the temptations of Satan, to the very end.

He withstood the assaults of Satan through love and obedience to His Father, reminding us that we need to listen to the word of God, and put our trust in the words of God, rather in the words of Satan, the deceiver and enemy. This is the key essence of what each and every one of us as Christians must do in order to break out of the traps which Satan had laid down before us, through his many temptations.

If we are able to put God back at the centre of our lives, then Satan will no longer have power over us, for God will become the source of our strength and He will be our foundation in life. And in order to do this, we need to have a profound change in attitude in our own lives, from one that is selfish, self-glorifying and self-indulging, into one that is selfless, filled with love and care for others, and self-mortification.

Remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, that our primary goal in life is truly to serve the Lord and to glorify His Name, by all of our actions and deeds in life instead of to glorify ourselves. If we live only to glorify ourselves and serve our own purposes, then we must remember that our earthly life is limited, and no matter how much power, glory, wealth and worldly bounties we enjoy now, or plan to enjoy, the moment our earthly lives come to an end, or when disasters strike and destroy our hard earned worldly things, which are impermanent and temporary, what else will we have?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to follow the examples of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the new Adam and model for us all mankind, and He is calling on us to take up our crosses in life, and follow Him. We have to commit ourselves to endure the same cross of suffering that He has borne for our sake. And if the devil has struck so hard against the Lord, again and again, by stirring up the Pharisees and others who opposed Him, many times, causing so much difficulties and problems, then we can expect to encounter the same opposition, challenges and hardships in life.

This is why in this season of Lent, we are called to renew our commitment to the Lord, to turn ourselves once again to God. There may have been many occasions when we have been tempted to turn away and to give up our faith, but we must persevere on, or otherwise, we will fall into damnation with the devil, and the way forward for us is only through the Lord. Let us all carry our cross in life with faith and conviction, knowing that in God alone we have hope and true assurance.

God will be with us, and He will guide us through this difficult journey. Let us all learn to rid ourselves off all the wicked things by which the devil has tempted us with, the allures of pleasures, especially that of the flesh, the temptation of greed, and the stubbornness of pride. Instead, let us put God at the centre of our lives once again, and fill our lives with obedience and love for Him. May the Lord continue to bless us and our works, and may He continue to watch over us. May all of us have a meaningful and fruitful season of Lent. Amen.

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Sunday, 10 March 2019 : First Sunday of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 4 : 1-13

At that time, Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit. As He returned from the Jordan, the Spirit led Him into the desert, where He was tempted by the devil for forty days. He did not eat anything during that time, and at the end He was hungry. The devil then said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to turn into bread.” But Jesus answered, “Scripture says : People cannot live on bread alone.”

Then the devil took Him up to a high place, and showed Him, in a flash, all the nations of the world. And he said to Jesus, “I can give You power over all the nations; and their wealth will be Yours; for power and wealth have been delivered to me; and I give them to whom I wish. All this will be Yours, provided You worship me.” But Jesus replied, “Scripture says : You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone.”

Then the devil took Him up to Jerusalem, and set Him on the highest wall of the Temple; and he said, “If You are God’s Son, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written : God will order His Angels to take care of you; and again : They will hold you in their hands, lest you hurt your foot on the stones.” But Jesus replied, “It is written : You shall not challenge the Lord your God.”

When the devil had exhausted every way of tempting Jesus, he left Him, to return another time.

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Sunday, 10 March 2019 : First Sunday of Lent (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Romans 10 : 8-13

You are saved, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and, in your heart, you believe that God raised Him from the dead. By believing from the heart, you obtain true righteousness; by confessing the faith with your lips, you are saved.

For Scripture says : No one who believes in Him will be ashamed. Here, there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; all have the same Lord, Who is very generous with whoever calls on Him. Truly, all who call upon the Name of the Lord will be saved.

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Sunday, 10 March 2019 : First Sunday of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 90 : 1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15

You, who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who rest in the shadow of the Almighty, say to YHVH, “My Stronghold, my Refuge, my God in Whom I trust!”

No harm will come upon you; no disaster will draw near your home. For He will command His Angels to guard you in all your ways.

They will lift you up with their hands, so that your foot will not hit a stone. You will tread on wildcats and snakes, and trample the lion and the dragon.

“Because they cling to Me, I will rescue them,” says YHVH. “I will protect those who know My Name. When they call to Me, I will answer; in time of trouble, I will be with them; I will deliver and honour them.”

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Sunday, 10 March 2019 : First Sunday of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Deuteronomy 26 : 4-10

Then the priest shall take the large basket from your hands and place it before the altar of YHVH, your God, and you shall say these words before YHVH, “My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt to find refuge there, while still few in number; but in that country, he became a great and powerful nation.”

“The Egyptians maltreated us, oppressed us and subjected us to harsh slavery. So we called to YHVH, the God of our ancestors, and YHVH listened to us. He saw our humiliation, our hard labour and the oppression to which we were subjected. He brought us out of Egypt with a firm hand, manifesting His power with signs and awesome wonders. And He brought us here to give us this land flowing with milk and honey.”

“So now I bring and offer the first fruits of the land which You, YHVH, have given me.”

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Sunday, 3 March 2019 : Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we listened to the words of the Lord speaking to us with regards to the matter of our expression of faith, and how our lives ought to be bearing good fruits, the good fruits of our faith in God. Throughout the readings from the Scriptures we have heard today, surely we can recognise the intention of the Lord when He spoke of how good fruits come from good trees, and conversely, bad fruits from bad trees.

First of all, we ought to examine what the Lord Jesus told the people about His parable highlighting the example of a person who wanted to remove the speck or splinter in another person’s eye, and yet, that person failed to realise that there was a log in his eye all along. This is likely mentioned as a rebuke to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were in attendance among the people listening to the teachings of Jesus.

That is because the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law often acted in ways where they were quick to judge on actions by others which they deemed to be not on par with the standard which they demanded, in the matters of observance of the laws of the people of Israel. But they themselves did not realise that their limited understanding and in fact, misunderstanding the true purpose and intention of the Law, was a great shortcoming and flaw in their way of life.

Yet, when the Lord pointed all these things before them, they were quick to go to the defensive mode, and resisted the Lord’s efforts to deliver the truth to them. And in fact, they became even more stubborn in refusing to listen to the Lord despite His repeated attempts to do so. That is because of the pride and ego in their hearts, as well as their many attachments to worldly desires, for affluence, for power, for glory and wealth.

That is exactly what we have just discussed earlier, how bad fruits come from bad trees just as good fruits come from good trees. What this means is that, as long as the heart and the mind, that is our internal selves are not in the right condition and status, and are not attuned to the will of God, then most likely our actions, and the words that come out from our mouth will not be in accordance with what we are expected to do as Christians, that is as God’s followers.

This is something that the farmers and most people of the time of Jesus would have understood, and that was why He used such a parable to deliver His idea to them. The farmers would have known that bad trees ultimately does not just come from nowhere. There can be many reasons why bad trees come about. It can be from the bad seeds, or more commonly, even if the seeds were good, but they were not grown with the right conditions, the good seeds would become bad trees too.

And inevitably, bad trees will produce bad quality fruits, and in the end, the whole existence of the tree becomes meaningless. In agricultural terms, trees that do not produce good fruits are good for nothing, and instead of taking up the precious nutrients, they are uprooted and destroyed, replaced with another tree that is healthier, better and produce good fruits. Thus, it will be the same with us, if the Lord comes and asks for reckoning of our lives.

What does this mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? It means that our lives are just like that of the trees mentioned, and our lives produce its ‘fruits’ that is our actions and our words, in how we deal with one another. And how we act depends on how we have been internally disposed and oriented in our spiritual and mental outlook. Thus, we will find that a person who is good and kind in heart is unlikely to do things that are wicked or evil, and vice versa.

How do we then produce good fruits in our lives? First then we must be properly aligned with the ways of the Lord, that we truly become like the good trees. But even good trees can turn bad when they are not properly maintained and managed, and that is what happens when we continue to expose ourselves to wicked practices and habits, which are like poisons that seeped into the plants that make even good trees into bad ones.

I am referring to every moments that we gossip negatively about others, every moments when we are jealous about each others’ achievements and possessions, every time we cause hurt when we say nasty things to each other, every moment we are overcome by our ego and pride, in not wanting to share our fortunes and blessings with those who are needy, poor and weak in our midst, every time we fail to stand up for the sake of the oppressed and the marginalised in our society.

As we are all frail human beings, prone to sin and easily tempted by these wicked things, it is inevitable that we will stumble at times, and do all those wicked manners mentioned. However, unless we make the conscious effort to resist those temptations and not to give in to the demands and pressures of our pride, ego, greed, ambition and desires, we will likely end up committing more and more of such sinfulness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all reminded that bad trees that produce bad fruits are meaningless and useless, and will be destroyed. And hence, the same will happen to us, if we continue to live our lives in sin, and that was what St. Paul wrote in the Epistle to the Church in Corinth, our second reading passage today, that the sting of sin is death. And this is eternal death, total and complete separation from God’s grace and love.

Yet, in the same passage, St. Paul wrote that sin and death no longer have any power or dominion over us, if we put our faith in Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. The Lord has triumphed over sin and death, and He gave us the assurance of eternal life and glory, if we have faith in His love and providence, and if we can put our trust in Him. He has shown us the way, how we can nurture our lives in a good way, and bearing good fruits of life.

To each and every one of us, God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit. And we are taught that there are fruits of the Holy Spirit that we can bear forth, if we make use of the gifts that God has given us, obeying His commandments and listening to His will. And each and every one of us must realise this calling that we have received, to be bearers of the good fruits of faith in our daily lives.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all from now on change our perspective and way of life, that if once we have not borne good fruits in our lives, and have borne wicked and evil fruits of sin by our actions, then from now on let us cease producing those wicked fruits and turn instead to produce good fruits by a profound change in our attitudes in life, from sin into faithfulness, from hatred and jealousy into love, from selfishness into selflessness.

Are we willing to make that profound change in life? It will not be easy for us to commit to the ways of the Lord, but with effort and commitment, with dedication and hard work, we will be able to overcome that stubborn attachment we have to sin, and enter into a new life filled with God’s grace and love. All that we need is the desire and the willingness to persevere through the challenges we may encounter if we keep our faith in God, and remain in God’s love always.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, just as it is not easy for a farmer to grow a tree and maintain it in good health, until it can produce its good fruits, it is therefore not easy for us as well to produce good fruits in life. We are called to persevere through the challenges and the sufferings we may have to encounter for God’s sake, as in the end, our rewards will be rich and wonderful, nothing less than an eternity of true joy and happiness with God.

May the Lord continue to guide us through our lives, that we may keep to our faith in Him, and remain devoted to Him at every single moments of our life. May the Lord be with us all, and may He bless all of our good works, that we may always bear good fruits, at each and every moments of our life. Amen.

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Sunday, 3 March 2019 : Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 6 : 39-45

At that time, Jesus offered this example, “Can a blind person lead another blind person? Surely both will fall into a ditch. A disciple is not above the master; but when fully trained, he will be like the master. So why do you pay attention to the speck in your brother’s eye, while you have a log in your eye, and are not conscious of it?”

“How can you say to your neighbour, ‘Friend, let me take this speck out of your eye,’ when you cannot remove the log in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the log from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your neighbour’s eye.”

“No healthy tree bears bad fruit, no poor tree bears good fruit. And each tree is known by the fruit it bears : you do not gather figs from thorns, or grapes from brambles. Similarly, the good person draws good things from the good stored in his heart, and an evil person draws evil things from the evil stored in his heart. For the mouth speaks from the fullness of the heart.”

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Sunday, 3 March 2019 : Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

1 Corinthians 15 : 54-58

When our perishable being puts on imperishable life, when our mortal being puts on immortality, the word of Scripture will be fulfilled : Death has been swallowed up by victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?

Sin is the sting of death, to kill, and the Law is what gives force to sin. But give thanks to God, Who gives us the victory, through Christ Jesus, our Lord. So then, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, and do not be moved. Improve constantly, in the work of the Lord, knowing that, with Him, your labour is not without fruit.

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Sunday, 3 March 2019 : Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 91 : 2-3, 13-14, 15-16

It is good to give thanks to YHVH, to sing praise to Your Name, o Most High, to proclaim Your grace in the morning, to declare Your faithfulness at night.

The virtuous will flourish, like palm trees, they will thrive, like the cedars of Lebanon. Planted in the house of YHVH, they will prosper, in the courts of our God.

In old age, they will still bear fruit; they will stay fresh and green, to proclaim that YHVH is upright, “He is my Rock,” they say, “He never fails.”

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Sunday, 3 March 2019 : Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Sirach 27 : 4-7

When a sieve is shaken the dirt falls through; so, too, the defects of a man are seen when he begins to speak. The kiln tests the potter’s handiwork; a man is tested by his conversation.

A well-tended tree is shown by its fruits, so a man’s feelings can be detected in what he says. Praise no one before he has spoken, since this is the acid test.