Third Week of Lent

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Tuesday, 21 March 2017 : 3rd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, all of us heard about the great mercy of God, which He had shown to all of us mankind throughout time, from time to time, again and again, even though we have constantly sinned against Him. Forgiveness is the theme of today’s readings, and it is just perfect given that now we are in the midst of the season of Lent, the season and time for repentance and seeking for forgiveness.

It is a time for us to turn away from our sins and from our wickedness, as Azariah in the first reading today, taken from the Book of Daniel had mentioned before God, that the people of Israel had sinned grievously before the Lord, having failed to fulfil and obey His commandments, becoming wayward and fell into the temptations of the world, resulting in their own destruction and banishment from the lands which God had given to them and their ancestors.

Azariah made his prayer along with his two compatriots during the time when the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar persecuted the faithful, especially the three of them, who were servants to the king, but refused the king’s commands to worship him and the golden statue of himself as their god. They were thrown into a huge fire chamber, expected to perish in the flames, alone in the foreign land, having no rights for themselves, for they have sinned against God and God supposedly had abandoned them.

But Azariah prayed for God to forgive them for their sins, and he prayed on behalf of the people of Israel, who sought to repent from their sinful ways and turn once more to the ways of the Lord. And God did listen to their prayers, for even though He was angry at the sins of the people of Israel and Judah, for all their wickedness and rebelliousness, He still loved all of them just as much as He has loved and were pleased with the faith of Abraham, their forefather.

And we see just the very real representation of that mercy which God extended to His people. Not only that He rescued Azariah and his two compatriots from danger, not allowing the flame to harm them, but He also extended His mercy to all of His people, bringing them back from their exile and returning them to their own lands under Cyrus the Persian Emperor, but eventually, He fulfilled the promise that He Himself had made to all mankind at the beginning of time.

Mankind had fallen into sin by disobedience, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and listened instead to the sweet lies of Satan. They should have deserved complete annihilation, but God gave them a second chance, a new lease of life. Even though they suffered in the world and death had reigned over them, but God promised them all a Saviour Who would deliver all of them from their sufferings and back into His grace.

Thus, Jesus came into the world in order to save it, as it was mentioned in the famous passage from the Gospel of St. John, that God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, into this world so that He may save it and all of us mankind, and redeem us from our sins, liberating us from death and annihilation, into the eternal glory and life He has prepared for all of us.

In the Gospel today, He told His disciples to forgive the sins and mistakes that others had made unto us, echoing what He Himself said in His prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, with the words, “Forgive us our sins just as we forgive those who have sinned against us.” This is a reminder for us that, as the parable Jesus told His disciples showed, that we have to forgive each other first, then God will forgive us our sins as well.

Why is this so? In the parable, we heard how the lord forgave the debts of the man who owed him a lot of money, but then that same man refused to forgive the debts of those who owed him money, which is a lot less than what he himself owed to his lord. First of all, what he had done is hypocritical, he did not do what his master had done. Then, he did not show appreciation of just how great is the grace which had been shown him, as the lord angrily pointed out to him.

How does this relate to us? Remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, whenever we are angry at our friends who have hurt us, we must remember that we ourselves in one way or another may have hurt others, be it the same person or different. If we cannot overcome this anger and choose to persecute or make others suffer because of our anger, then we have to remember that whatever sins we have, God is willing to forgive all of them, provided that we are willing to repent.

Our sins are so much greater than whatever wicked things we have done to each other. And yet, God is willing to forgive us when we desire to be forgiven. Shall we not do the same for our brethren who wants us to forgive them? And shall we also seek forgiveness for all the wrongs that we have done? Much sorrows and pain has been caused by the desire for people to revenge each other, and if we can only overcome our anger and desire for vengeance, then this world will indeed become so much better.

Let us all follow in the example of Azariah, who humbly sought for forgiveness from God. Let us all use this perfect opportunity during this season of Lent, first of all to repent from our sins and to change our ways, and also to forgive each other all that we have inflicted upon the other, be it pain, sorrow, anguish, and any forms of discomfort that we have either consciously or unconsciously caused to one another.

Let us grow stronger in our love both for one another and also for God, and let us be sincere in our desire and effort to be forgiven. Let us all sin no more, but from now on put our complete trust in God and in His merciful heart. He will forgive us all surely, and He will bless us and bring us to His eternal glory. May God be with us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 21 March 2017 : 3rd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Matthew 18 : 21-35

At that time, Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times must I forgive the offences of my brother or sister? Seven times?” Jesus answered, “No, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. This story throws light on the kingdom of Heaven : A king decided to settle the accounts of his servants.”

“Among the first was one who owed him ten thousand pieces of gold. As the man could not repay the debt, the king commanded that he be sold as a slave with his wife, his children and all his goods, as repayment. The servant threw himself at the feet of the king and said, ‘Give me time, and I will pay you back everything.'”

“The king took pity on him, and not only set him free, but even cancelled his debt. When the servant left the king’s presence, he met one of his companions, who owed him a hundred pieces of silver. He grabbed him by the neck and almost choked him, shouting, ‘Pay me what you owe!'”

“His companion threw himself at his feet and begged him, ‘Give me time, and I will pay everything.’ The other did not agree, but sent him to prison until he had paid all his debt. Now his fellow servants saw what had happened. They were extremely upset, and so they went and reported everything to their lord.”

“Then the lord summoned his servant and said, ‘Wicked servant, I forgave you all that you owed when you begged me to do so. Were you not bound to have pity on your companion, as I had pity on you?’ The lord was now angry, so he handed his servant over to be punished, until he had paid his whole debt.”

Jesus added, “So will My heavenly Father do with you, unless you sincerely forgive your brothers and sisters.”

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Tuesday, 21 March 2017 : 3rd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Psalm 24 : 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9

Teach me Your ways, o Lord; make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour.

Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.

Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.

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Tuesday, 21 March 2017 : 3rd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Daniel 3 : 25, 34-43

Azariah stood up in the midst of the fire and prayed aloud : Do not abandon us forever, do not reject Your covenant for Your Name’s sake. Do not withdraw Your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, Your friend, of Isaac, Your servant, of Israel, Your holy one, to whom You promised to multiply their race as the stars of heaven and the sand on the shore of the sea.

Lord, see, we have become the least among the nations in all the world, and we are humiliated because of our sins. At this time, we no longer have a king, or prophet, or leader. We cannot offer You holocausts, sacrifices, offerings, or incense. We have no place to present to You the first-fruits of our crops, and so obtain Your favour.

But at least when we present ourselves with a contrite soul and humbled spirit may we then be acceptable to You, more than by offerings of rams and calves as holocausts, and of thousands of fat lambs. May this sacrifice of ours today obtain for us Your favour for we know that those who trust in You shall never be disappointed.

And now, we serve You with our whole heart, we fear You and we seek Your face. Do not leave us in our humiliation, but treat us according to Your kindness and Your great mercy. Free us in keeping with Your wonders, and give us the glory of Your Name, Lord.

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Monday, 20 March 2017 : Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the great solemnity and feast of St. Joseph, the Foster-father of our Lord Jesus Christ by the virtue of his marriage to Mary, the mother of God. While it was through both Joseph and Mary that the Lord Jesus was born into the family of the descendants of Israel and Abraham, it was through St. Joseph that the Lord was the rightful heir of David, the great king of Israel.

In the genealogy of Jesus, it was mentioned His descent from Adam and Abraham, as well as the descent from David through the line of the kings of Israel and Judah, and down to the ancestors of our Lord to the time when the Lord deemed it right for His glorious Saviour Jesus to enter into the world, at the end of the genealogy mentioned, as the perfect fulfilment of God’s promise to all of His people throughout the ages. God is indeed forever faithful.

When mankind first fell into sin at the time of Adam and his wife, Eve, God promised to mankind that He will save them from the evils of Satan, the great enemy who had tempted and deceived our ancestors to sin against God. He promised a deliverance that was to come through the sons of man, through the Woman who would bear the salvation for the whole world. All these were fulfilled through Mary, who bore Jesus the Son of Man and Son of God, Saviour of all mankind.

But God did not stop there, and He renewed His promises made to our forefathers, beginning from Abraham, the father of many nations, with whom God first made a Covenant with His people. God promised Abraham and called him to follow Him, that He will bless him because of his great faith and obedience to His ways and His laws.

God kept His word and gave the son which He had promised Abraham, through whom He became the father of many nations and peoples, many tribes and groups, and eventually, the Lord also fulfilled His promise to Abraham, that the glory of his name will remain forever, for among his descendants, the Lord and Master of the Universe Himself is counted among them.

And to David, the descendant of Abraham and Israel, God had given the kingship over Israel as He had promised to him, because of his great faith and obedience to God, over that of Saul, who was the first king of Israel but who was disobedient and committed grave sins against God. God promised David that his descendants will remain on the throne of Israel forever, and his kingdom will be forever firm.

It might seem that God did not fulfil this promise when the kingdom of Israel was torn apart into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, and when the line of the kings ended in Judah as the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and ended the southern kingdom of Judah. However, in reality, God fulfilled the promise He had made yet again with the coming of Christ, Who is the Heir of David through St. Joseph, and He reestablished the kingdom which God had given to David, and this time, His kingdom will never end.

Through Jesus God had fulfilled the promises He had made to all mankind, in the past, present and in the future to come. Through St. Joseph, God had made Himself to be the Heir to all that God had promised to all of our forefathers, from the time of Adam, to Abraham, to David, and ultimately to all of us. God is always faithful, and He did not abandon us to our sins and to our destruction.

And St. Joseph as the foster-father of our Lord Jesus, besides giving Him the means to be the Heir of David and Abraham, he was also very crucial for our Lord especially in the early years of His life on earth. For it was St. Joseph, in the Gospels we read, who protected Him from all those who was looking for His death, from Herod the Great who wanted Jesus dead as He was a rival to his own kingship, and all other dangers and difficulties.

St. Joseph was a hardworking and patient man, a righteous and just person, who obeyed the Lord and His precepts, who was a role model and an exemplary father to Jesus our Lord, Who in His humanity was born a fragile baby in Bethlehem, Who needed to learn the tools and trade, the ways of this world. And St. Joseph, together with Mary, His mother certainly provided all that the young Jesus needed.

In the person of St. Joseph, we can see the qualities of the faithful people of God in the past, namely Abraham, whose faith in God was so great, that he placed his complete trust in Him. St. Joseph trusted in God in His plans, even though Mary, when she was still just betrothed to him, conceived a Child without any intercourse with him. But he placed his full trust in God, and carried out his obligations as a father just as much as if Jesus is his own biological son.

St. Joseph is the head of the Holy Family, of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. He did his duties as a loving and faithful father, filled with love, care and concern for Jesus and Mary, even though these two persona often surpassed him in renown and he was often eclipsed by their importance. He committed himself to the care of the young Jesus, equipping Him with what He needed in life, and thus He grew well and blessed by God, ready for His mission.

The commitment which St. Joseph gave to his mission made him a great model for all of us Christians throughout the world, and just as he watched closely over the young Jesus, he still indeed continues to watch over the whole Church that Jesus had established in this world, as the great patron saint and protector of the whole Universal Church, a title and role that the Church itself had officially recognised as belonging to the great patron saint, St. Joseph, whose feast and honour we remember today.

Let us all reflect on all the good deeds St. Joseph had done, and how the Lord has also loved us all and how He has been faithful to all of His promises throughout the ages, all being fulfilled through Christ His Messiah, through Whom all of us have received the promise of everlasting life by our faith in Him. In this time of preparation, during this season of Lent, let us redouble our efforts to live faithfully as St. Joseph had been faithful, be more charitable and loving to our brethren, particularly those who are in need.

Let us show love to our fellow brethren, and let us turn our backs to our sinful past, and instead embrace a new future blessed by God. Let us all also ask for the intercession of St. Joseph, that he will pray for our sake, for the Church that his foster Son Jesus had established in this world, that God will continue to protect it and bless all of its works. May God bless us all and His Church. Amen.

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Monday, 20 March 2017 : Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 1 : 16, 18-21, 24a

Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus Who is called the Christ – the Messiah.

This is how Jesus Christ was born : Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to discredit her.

While he was pondering over this, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ for He will save His people from their sins.”

When Joseph woke up, he did what the Angel of the Lord had told him to do.

Alternative reading
Luke 2 : 41-51a

Every year the parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, as was customary. And when Jesus was twelve years old, He went up with them, according to the custom of this feast. After the festival was over, they returned, but the Boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and His parents did not know it.

They thought He was in the company, and after walking the whole day they looked for Him among their relatives and friends. As they did not find Him, they went back to Jerusalem searching for Him, and on the third day they found Him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. And all the people were amazed at His understanding and His answers.

His parents were very surprised when they saw Him, and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Your father and I were very worried while searching for You.” Then He said to them, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” But they did not understand this answer.

Jesus went down with them, returning to Nazareth, and He continued to be subject to them.

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Monday, 20 March 2017 : Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Romans 4 : 13, 16-18, 22

If God promised Abraham, or rather his descendants, that the world would belong to him, this was not because of his obeying the Law, but because he was just and a friend of God through faith.

For that reason, faith is the way and all is given by grace; and the promises of Abraham are fulfilled for all his descendants, not only for his children according to the Law, but also for all the others who have believed.

Abraham is the father of all of us, as it is written : I will make you father of many nations. He is our father in the eyes of Him Who gives life to the dead, and calls into existence what does not yet exist, for this is the God in Whom he believed. Abraham believed and hoped against all expectation, thus becoming father of many nations, as he had been told : See how many will be your descendants.

This was taken into account for him to attain righteousness.

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Monday, 20 March 2017 : Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 88 : 2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29

I will sing forever, o Lord, of Your love and proclaim Your faithfulness from age to age. I will declare how steadfast is Your love, how firm Your faithfulness.

You said, “I have made a covenant with David, My chosen one; I have made a pledge to My servant. I establish his descendants forever; I build his throne for all generations.”

“He will call on Me, ‘You are my Father, my God, my Rock, my Saviour.’ I will keep My covenant firm forever, and My love for him will endure.

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Monday, 20 March 2017 : Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
2 Samuel 7 : 4-5a, 12-14a, 16

But that very night, YHVH’s word came to Nathan, “Go and tell My servant David, this is what YHVH says : When the time comes for you to rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your son after you, the one born of you and I will make his reign secure. He shall build a house for My Name and I will firmly establish his kingship forever. I will be a Father to him and he shall be My son.”

“Your house and your reign shall last forever before Me, and your throne shall be forever firm.”

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Sunday, 19 March 2017 : Third Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we progress through the third Sunday of this season of Lent, today we are reminded of God’s love and grace, which He had given us all so generously to all of us His people from time to time, and through which He had granted us the grace of salvation by sending none other than His own Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, into this world, so that all who believe in Him may be saved and have eternal life through Him.

In today’s first reading, we heard about the rebelliousness of the people of Israel who grumbled and complained against God and His servant, Moses, complaining that they would suffer to death from hunger and thirst in the desert. They were angry against Moses and God for having brought them out of the land of Egypt, where they had suffered for over four hundred and fifty years in slavery, but in that instance, many of them wondered that if they had stayed in the land of Egypt, then they would at least have food to eat and water to drink.

They doubted God’s love and providence, even after they had seen how God had liberated them with His mighty power, bringing down the proud Pharaoh and the Egyptians, humbling them with His ten plagues over Egypt, and even after He had opened the Red Sea before them, allowing them to walk barefoot through the seabed, and crushed their enemies before them by allowing the sea to go back to its place as the Egyptian chariots passed through.

They doubted His love even after He had taken care of them for very long during their journey through the desert, even after He had fed them daily with the sweet manna, bread from Heaven itself, and also gave them large birds and fowls every evening to eat. He also gave them water even from the rocks, the clearest and finest quality water to drink in the middle of the desert, where nothing should have existed, not even water and food.

But they were not thankful to God, and instead, they grumbled and complained, and even wanted to kill Moses. They also raised even a golden idol, precisely a golden calf to be god over them when they were impatient waiting for Moses who went up the mountain of God at Horeb for forty days and forty nights. These are just among the many things which showed the disobedience of Israel throughout their time in the desert.

They have placed the desires of their flesh ahead of their faith in God. They placed the demands of their stomachs and bodies beyond their obligation and responsibility to worship the Lord and remaining true to Him in all things. They abandoned God just because they were not able to restrain the demands of their flesh, the desire to eat and drink, and of all other worldly things, which had tempted them to sin.

In this time of Lent, all of us are called by God to reevaluate our lives, our priorities and all of our actions. Let us all ask ourselves, what is it that we are living for in this world? Many of us have spent many hours working and indeed, toiling hard worrying about how we are to eat and drink everyday, and what we are going to do with our lives, with our wealth and possessions, worrying about our hard-earned wealth and even desiring more of what we already had.

This is what many of us mankind often do, and we are so preoccupied with our daily living that we are unable to see that in all of our pursuits for these things, we have lost the focus of our lives, and we are looking for the wrong things in life. What do I mean with this, brothers and sisters in Christ? It means that while we seek to build for ourselves worldly treasures, we often forget that all the things we now possess will not last forever.

Whatever we have now, can be gone in just a flash of a moment. We are concerned with the demands of our flesh and our bodies, much as the Israelites had done in the past, but we forgot that while we worry about this and that, in reality, we do not really need all of these. Many of the things we now enjoy in this world are illusions and diversions that keep us away from finding the true joy that can be found in God alone.

That is because, even though we worry about many things in life, all that we need in life have been taken care of by none other than the Lord our God Himself. He has provided us all that we need, the life we have, which is a gift from Him, and also all the other times that He had blessed us with all the good things in life, but which we did not notice to be the grace given to us from God.

Like the people of Israel, who have been blessed bountifully by God, many of us often do not realise that God had done so much for us. We often take God, His love and grace for us for granted, and when we are in trouble, we often complained that God has not been there for us, which is exactly as what the Israelites had done, and like what we often do as well. How often is it that we feel angry at God for not giving us what we want?

This is where we must realise that what we want is often not God truly willed for us. We have always sought for things of this world, for food, for sustenance, for money, for pleasures of the flesh and the body, for sexual gratification, for recognition among the people, for fame and renown, and for all other things which we often crave and desire for, but which cannot satisfy us.

For we all should know that all of these worldly things bring no lasting satisfaction because when we have a taste of these things, we will desire and crave for even more. Such is the extent of our human greed and desire. And that is why in the Gospel today, when Jesus was speaking to the Samaritan woman, He pointed out that she had had five husbands, and the current one that she had was not even her husband!

When we mankind are unable to restrain ourselves, and place our trust in the things of this world, in our wealth, in our money, in our appearances and bodily pleasures, that is when we start to slide into the quicksand of sin which pulls us steadily deeper and deeper until we are unable to escape, unless we make the conscious effort to stand up and say no to sin and to our weaknesses.

Jesus said that those who believe in Him will be able to draw living water from Him, for He is the Living Water, the source of all life and satisfaction, which refers also to the time when Israel was in the desert and God gave them all that they need. If only that they placed their complete trust in God, instead of grumbling and complaining because they could not get what they wanted, they would have been perfectly happy living in the grace of God.

Now let us all ask ourselves, is God at the centre of our lives? Is He the reason why we continue to do our work and our action in this life, from day after day? If God is not at the centre of all the things we say and do, we will soon realise that whatever we are doing are meaningless and mundane, and that is when we begin to lose faith in God and in our life. Do we want to be like those who are never able to be satisfied, constantly seeking something better for themselves, or do we rather want to be with God, and enjoy His grace and love?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in this blessed time and season of Lent, all of us are called to repent from our sins and turn from our worldliness, from all the things that have kept us away from God and His love. We are called to let go of our human pride, from our desires, from our selfishness, all the things that have become serious obstacles on our path to God’s grace.

Let us reorientate our lives completely, so that Jesus our Lord is at the heart of our very being and existence. Through our penance and repentance, let us humbly seek forgiveness for all the times that we have been angry at Him, thinking that He had ignored us and our pleas. Let us all realise just how much He had loved us all, and through understanding of God’s love, let us show the same love to each other, through our almsgiving and kindness to those who are less fortunate than us.

Let us realise that because God lives in us, and because He is with us, we can do all things in He Who strengthens us, which is the words spoken by St. Paul in praise of God, the source of our life and our strength. May this time of Lent become the time for our redemption and for us to rejuvenate our faith in the Lord, that as we grow ever stronger in our faith, we may draw strength to persevere in this life and be ever righteous to the end. May God, the source of our life, the eternal Spring of Life, be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.