Tempus Quadragesimae

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Thursday, 26 March 2026 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures we are all reminded that each and every one of us as Christians, we are called to remember the Covenant which the Lord our God has established with our predecessors, such as what He has established with Abraham, our father in faith, whom He has called from the land of Ur to follow Him and to trust and have faith in whatever that He would be guiding him towards. Through the Covenant which He has established with Abraham, all of us have become partakers of this Covenant, that the Lord is our God and we are all His beloved people, all called to live in His grace and love.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Genesis, as mentioned we heard about the moment when God, having called Abram from the land of Ur towards the land of Canaan which He promised to him and his descendants, made a Covenant with him and those descendants, promising him that he would become the father of many nations, that he would be blessed beyond compare, and this is all the more amazing considering the fact that at that time, Abram was already rather advanced in age while not having any child of his own yet. Therefore, not having any child on his own and yet God promised him to be the father of many nations was a proof of just how strong the faith that Abram had in God.

And God knew what was in Abram’s heart, and what his faith and trust in Him was like. That was why He chose him among all the other people, making him to be the recipient of His promises, all the promises that He has provided and reassured him and in the future, his descendants, reminding them all of just how faithful and committed God had been to them all and it is also therefore a reminder to all of us that we are all also assured of whatever it is that He has promised to us, that we will never be alone amidst the challenges and trials in this world. God will always be by our side, blessing all those who have blessed us, and protecting and providing us in every steps and at every moments of our journey.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel passage according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist in which we heard of the confrontation and debate between the Lord and the Jewish people who opposed Him because they did not agree with what He has been doing and teaching. For the context, this reference to the Jewish people was likely not referring to the Jewish people as a whole, all those living in Judea and Galilee, but rather specifically referring to those who firmly followed the prescriptions of the Jewish Law and customs, essentially the Pharisees and their supporters. And as the Pharisees practiced a rather strict, rigid and incorrect version of the Law according to their own flawed understanding and appreciation of the Law, thus, this led to the disagreement between them and the Lord.

Then, in that occasion, the Jews were particularly unhappy that the Lord was referring to Abraham, the father of their nation, whom they greatly revered, and how He claimed that Abraham would have been glad to see and witness His coming, and would have welcomed Him as opposed to how those Jews refused to listen to Him and refusing to accept and embrace His teachings and truths. They were even more angered when they doubted Him further and accused Him of putting Himself of the same level of Abraham, their ancestor, and when He said that before Abraham was, He was already there. But the Lord was merely speaking the truth, revealing more about Himself as the One Whom God had sent into this world, God’s own Begotten Son, the Eternal Word of God incarnate in the flesh.

But despite all the signs, miracles and wonders that He had performed many times before their very own eyes, and despite the great Wisdom which He Himself has shown them through His teachings and words to them, those people still hardened their hearts and minds, refusing to trust in the Lord and preferring rather to remain in their prejudice, their sense of superiority, their pride and ego, maintaining that they could not have been wrong in their idea and way of living up to the Law of God, against this supposed upstart Who had come upon them with many signs and wonders. Their pride and ego therefore became their undoing, preventing them from truly seeing and believing, blinding them to the truth of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today therefore as we have heard from our Scripture passages earlier on, we are reminded that we should not harden our hearts, and we should instead be humble just as Abraham had been. We should not allow ourselves to be swayed by our pride, ego and ambitions, by our worldly desires which can lead us easily astray as how these had done the same to the Jewish people and their elders. This Lent, all of us are called to be more humble and to recognise our frailty, imperfections and sins more, realising that in God we can find true peace, reconciliation and mercy. And through our reconciliation with Him, we can finally experience the fullness of God’s grace and love in the Covenant He has established with us all.

May the Lord our God, our most loving, compassionate and patient Lord and Master continue to guide and strengthen us all in our respective journeys throughout this time and season of Lent, so that we may continue to follow Him wholeheartedly and be reminded of the Covenant which He has established, renewed and strengthened with us, and that God will always be by our side no matter what, helping and providing for us in whatever we need. Let us all continue to journey together through this time and season of Lent so that we may be good role models, inspirations and examples for others around us, journeying ever closer towards the Lord and His salvation, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 26 March 2026 : 5th Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 8 : 51-59

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

Then Jesus said, “If I were to praise Myself, it would count for nothing. But He Who gives glory to Me is the Father, the very One you claim as your God, although you do not know Him. I know Him, and if I were to say that I do not know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I know Him and I keep His word. As for Abraham, your ancestor, he looked forward to the day when I would come; and he rejoiced when he saw it.”

The Jews then said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old and You have seen Abraham?” And Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” They then picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and left the Temple.

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Thursday, 26 March 2026 : 5th Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

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

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

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

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

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Thursday, 26 March 2026 : 5th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Genesis 17 : 3-9

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

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

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

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Wednesday, 25 March 2026 : Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the whole Universal Church celebrates the occasion of the great Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, marking the moment when the Archangel Gabriel came to Nazareth, to the then periphery of the Jewish world and community, to a young woman named Mary, whom God had chosen to be the one to bear the Saviour of the whole world, His promised Messiah or Christ, the One Whom we would come to know as Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord, Saviour and Master. On this day of the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel came to Mary to proclaim the long-awaited Good News of salvation which the Lord had promised His people, all of us, from the very beginning of time. It was truly the end of the long wait for the coming of the fulfilment of God’s many wonderful promises and assurances that He has made through His many prophets and messengers.

This Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord must be understood as the moment when the Lord became Incarnate in this world, just as the Archangel Gabriel himself mentioned that the Lord would send the Holy Spirit to overshadow Mary, and through that, the Son of God would be conceived in her womb, taking up the nature, appearance and existence of our humanity, becoming the Son of Man, the Divine Word Incarnate. That is why this Solemnity of the Annunciation is celebrated this day, exactly nine months to the date of Christmas, signifying the nine months of the period of pregnancy that happened to Mary, as she bore the Son of God within her, as the bearer of the Messiah and the Mother of God. It is on this day that the hope and light of this world came into the world, Incarnate in the flesh, amidst still veiled within the holy womb of Mary, His mother.

It was also then Mary’s ‘yes’ to the Lord as she uttered it to the Archangel Gabriel that made it all possible and tangible, as God gave her the freedom to choose whether to obey His will and His calling or not. Mary, being full of grace and full of faith in the Lord, responded with great love, humility and grace, in accepting the very important role that she was to play in the history of the salvation of the whole world. As we heard from the exchanges between her and the Archangel, we can tell that Mary was indeed uncertain and unsure about the path that she was to embark on, but unlike those others who refused to obey the Lord or those who fled in fear away from Him and His calling, Mary chose to obey perfectly, and committed herself to the calling that she has been entrusted with, the calling to be the Mother of God’s own Son, with the simple and humble words, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me as you have said’.

Let us all contrast what Mary had said and how she responded to what we heard in our first reading today, in how King Ahaz of Judah responded to the prophet Isaiah who just like the Archangel Gabriel, came to him bearing the Good News of God. King Ahaz rejected the offer that the prophet Isaiah made to him, as the latter told him to ask of the Lord of a sign and favour, and the King of Judah told him that he would not put God to the test. Now, outwardly this might seem as if King Ahaz was being humble before God, but what he exhibited was actually false humility and more of lack of faith and hypocrisy if anything. Why is that so? That is because this King of Judah was just like many of his predecessors who had disobeyed the Lord and His Law and commandments. He was being insincere and rather hypocritical when he told Isaiah that he would not put God to the test.

That is because his actions, as well as his continued sinful acts and constant lack of faith in God, all of those had put God to the test many times, scandalised His Holy Name and spurned His kindness and love. Thus he was truly insincere and being a hypocrite when he told Isaiah that he would not put God to the test. His wickedness and lack of faith and trust in God had brought many of the people of God into sin, and he would not humble himself before God, unwilling to believe in the words of the Lord which had been delivered to him through Isaiah and God’s many other messengers. And that was King Ahaz’s sin and failure, which can be contrasted with the way that Mary, the Mother of Our Lord and Saviour, had responded to God full of faith and trust in Him. Mary entrusted herself in the Lord and committed herself to the calling which He has given to her, even when she was still unsure of what to make of the surprising news from the Archangel Gabriel.

This is what the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the second reading today also highlighted, that what the Lord truly wants from each one of us is obedience and faith, and not merely just outward expression of faith. He does not want merely just lip service and faith that is superficial, as He wants from us true obedience and commitment, faith and dedication, like just what Mary has shown us, and which the Lord Jesus Himself, in His perfect love and obedience to His Father’s will has shown us. God values our love and obedience much more than our sacrifices and offerings, just as it is possible for one to offer rich sacrifices and offerings to God and yet had little or no love for Him. In fact, that was what many of the people in the past had done, from the time of King Ahaz and before him, and up to the time of the Lord Jesus, with many among the people just doing what they thought were obeying the Law and commandments of God, and yet, without genuine faith in God or love for Him.

Instead, they loved themselves more than they loved the Lord or each other. They placed themselves more importantly than anything else, and allowed themselves to be swayed by the many temptations of worldly comfort, pleasures and ambitions, allowing their greed and desire to distract them from the path towards the Lord and righteousness. They let themselves to be swayed and misled by their own worldly ambitions and pride, and hence, faltered in their path and journey in life. The Lord has called on them to follow Him, and yet, they closed their hearts and minds from Him, and were too busy with their many pursuits and ambitions in life that they forgot about Him and His ways. That is also why at this juncture in the season of Lent, each and every one of us are reminded not to be like those people, but be inspired by the examples and the faith showed by especially our Mother Mary, the faithful one who had dedicated herself wholly to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, just as today we commemorate this Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, let us all remind ourselves of the love of God and His faithfulness, His commitment to the Covenant which He had made with us all. He has come down into this world, willingly becoming Incarnate in the flesh through His Son, Jesus Christ, so that by His coming into our midst, He may be present amongst us and touch us all, and reach out even to the least and the most wicked among us. Why He had done all these? That is because His love for us is truly very pure and great, and His desire to be reconciled with all of us, His beloved ones, is always great. He has no desire to see us destroyed and crushed by our sins, and He wants us to be freed from the bondage and domination by all those evils and sins we have committed. Hence, He gave us all the most perfect gift in His Son.

Today, let us all reflect carefully on our lives and ask ourselves whether we have listened to the Lord and His words, and whether we have paid attention to His truth and His ways. If we have been stubborn and difficult in constantly refusing to listen to Him and in being disobedient, as many of our predecessors had done, then it is perhaps time for us to reorientate our lives and see the examples that Mary has shown us, in surrendering herself completely to the Lord, entrusting her life and path to the Lord, Who has called her to follow Him and to do His will. Let us all be inspired to follow the Lord in the same way, committing ourselves, our time and effort to walk in His path. Let us all be the good role models and examples ourselves for our fellow brothers and sisters all around us. This is our calling as Christians, what we are expected and called to do.

May the Lord continue to guide and strengthen us in our faith and life, and may His blessed Mother Mary, our role model and our loving mother, continue to inspire us and intercede for us on our behalf, so that the Lord may be moved to help and guide us in our various challenges and the many trials that we may have to face and overcome amidst this journey of life we have in this world. May she continue to watch over us as she has always done, and help us to come ever closer to her Son. May God be with us always and may He bless our every efforts and good endeavours, for His greater glory. Amen.

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Wednesday, 25 March 2026 : Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 1 : 26-38

In the sixth month, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth. He was sent to a young virgin, who was betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the family of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

The Angel came to her and said, “Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” Mary was troubled at these words, wondering what this greeting could mean. But the Angel said, “Do not fear, Mary, for God has looked kindly on you. You shall conceive and bear a Son, and you shall call Him Jesus. He will be great, and shall rightly be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the kingdom of David, His ancestor; He will rule over the people of Jacob forever, and His reign shall have no end.”

Then Mary said to the Angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” And the Angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the Holy Child to be born of you shall be called Son of God. Even your relative Elizabeth is expecting a son in her old age, although she was unable to have a child; and she is now in her sixth month. With God nothing is impossible.”

Then Mary said, “I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me as you have said.” And the Angel left her.

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Wednesday, 25 March 2026 : Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Hebrews 10 : 4-10

And never will the blood of bulls and goats take away these sins. This is why on entering the world, Christ says : You did not desire sacrifice and offering; You were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin offerings. Then I said : “Here I am. It was written of Me in the scroll. I will do Your will, o God.”

First He says : “Sacrifice, offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire nor were You pleased with them – although they were required by the Law. Then He says : Here I am to do Your will. This is enough to nullify the first will and establish the new. Now, by this will of God, we are sanctified once and for all by the sacrifice of the Body of Christ Jesus.

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Wednesday, 25 March 2026 : Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 39 : 7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 11

Sacrifice and oblation You did not desire; this You had me understand. Burnt offering and sin offering You do not require. Then I said, “Here I come!”

“As the scroll says of me. To do Your will is my delight, o God, for Your law is within my heart.”

In the great assembly I have proclaimed Your saving help. My lips, o Lord, I did not seal – You know that very well.

I have not locked up in my heart Your saving help, but have spoken about it – Your deliverance and Your faithfulness; I have made no secret of Your truth and of Your kindness in the great assembly.

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Wednesday, 25 March 2026 : Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Isaiah 7 : 10-14 and Isaiah 8 : 10

Once again YHVH addressed Ahaz, “Ask for a sign from YHVH your God, let it come either from the deepest depths or from the heights of heaven.”

But Ahaz answered, “I will not ask, I will not put YHVH to the test.” Then Isaiah said, “Now listen, descendants of David. Have you not been satisfied trying the patience of people, that you also try the patience of my God? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign : The Virgin is with Child and bears a Son and calls His Name Immanuel.”

“Devise a plan and it will be thwarted, make a resolve and it will not stand, for God-is-with-us.”

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Tuesday, 24 March 2026 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the love that God has always patiently shown upon us that even though we have often sinned against Him, but that did not prevent Him from continuing to reach out towards us with love, as He continued to care for us and shower us with His kindness and love. He still looked upon us with forgiveness and the willingness to be reconciled with all of us. No one can be excluded from His love, and unless we ourselves have rejected God’s love and grace right to the very end, there is always a path for us towards redemption and reconciliation with Him. We shall gain justification and strength through Him, and will be forgiven our sins if only that we repent from them and sincerely desire to turn away from the wickedness of our  evils. But if we sin against God and continue to do so, we have to face the consequences for those sins, as the Scriptures had shown us today.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Numbers how the people of Israel, those whom God had rescued and led out from the land of their misery and enslavement by the Egyptians, rebelled against the Lord and complained against Him, despite having been shown such great care and love from God. They committed vile deeds and hardened their hearts against God, and thus they have sinned against God. Then, for their stubborn attitude and behaviour, the Lord sent fiery serpents to strike at those who have persistently disobeyed against Him and refused to listen to Him. This is representative of what sin entails, that is because sin leads to separation from God and hence death, since without God, we can have no life. Those who disobeyed God and sinned against Him essentially had to suffer the consequences of their own sins and wickedness.

But it did not mean that God despised His people, as in truth, God still loved His people very much, and still cared for them regardless. That was why He showed them His mercy and compassion as He gave them the path out of their predicament when they showed repentance and regret over their sins, as He told Moses to make a great bronze serpent standard, lifted up high on a pole before the people, so that all those who were bitten and then saw the bronze serpent would not perish but live. This was a prefigurement of what the Lord Himself would do through His own Son, Whom He would send into the world so that He might save us all, that by looking upon Him Who has been crucified for us, we may all find forgiveness and true reconciliation with God. Yes, what we have heard in our first reading today, is a prefigurement for our Lord’s Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross for the salvation of the whole world.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the words of the Lord Jesus as He spoke to the Jewish people who assembled and gathered in order to listen to Him. He told them all more of the truth about Himself, proclaiming about what He Himself would do for the salvation of all and the whole world. He told them all how He would have to suffer and be raised up for everyone to see, the Son of Man, raised up like the way the bronze serpent of Moses was lifted up for everyone to witness. Thus, again, what we have heard today from the Gospel is one important moment when the Lord revealed that He was about to suffer for everyone’s sake, to gather all of the Lord’s scatted people and all those who loved Him to Himself. He went through all the humiliation and sufferings so that all of us may have the assurance of new life and existence with Him.

He has revealed God’s love in the flesh, that everyone may see the Love of God personified and made clear in this world. The Lord has given us His own Son to us as the clear sign of His love, just as He has given the bronze serpent to Moses as the means for the Israelites to escape from their predicament of being bitten by those terrible serpents. The Lord gave His Son to us so that by Him bearing upon Himself all the sins and faults that we have made, which bore down heavily on His shoulders as He lifted up His Cross, we may all be redeemed and freed from the bondage to sin, to the tyranny of evil and death. This is what we are all reminded of today, as we listened to these Scripture passages. We are reminded both of the dangers and threats posed to us by our sins, and how God has most generously provided us with the means to get away from all those threats.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to come ever closer to the beginning of Holy Week, and we progress ever deeper into the mysteries of Lent and of God’s love for us, let us all therefore spend some time to reflect on our own lives and actions, particularly in everything that we have said and done in the past year. Have we been truly good and faithful disciples of the Lord in all those things, in being good and exemplary, faithful and inspirational in showing our faith through our way of life? Or have we instead lapsed and fallen away from the path of righteousness, as we allowed ourselves to be swayed and tempted by the many temptations and allures of worldly glory and pleasures around us? Have we been stubborn and obstinate just like the Israelites who frequently and repeatedly rejected God’s most generous love and compassionate mercy?

This season and time of Lent, let us all make good use of the opportunities and time provided to us so that we may remind ourselves of our calling as Christians, that is to be holy and worthy of God, and to distance ourselves from the wickedness of worldly attachments and sins. Let us all be good role models, examples and inspiration for one another in how we live our lives, in everything we say and do, even in the smallest and the seemingly least significant matters, so that all of us may be the true and faithful beacons of God’s light and love, and be the faithful witnesses of Our Lord’s truth in the midst of our respective communities in our today’s world. This Lent should be a time for us to reexamine our focus in life so that we may turn away from the wickedness of the world and from the falsehoods of the devil, and instead, embrace wholeheartedly the loving and righteous ways of the Lord, our God and Saviour. We are also reminded and called to love one another ever more generously and lovingly, especially those whom we love the most.

May the Lord therefore be with us always and may He empower each and every one of us with the strength and the courage to be able to stand up for our faith, and to do what is right and just according to what He has shown and taught us to do. May God bless us all in our every endeavours and good efforts, in everything we do for His greater glory. May God bless our Lenten journey and perseverance through life. Amen.