Thursday

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Thursday, 15 March 2018 : 4th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we witnessed through the Scripture passages, the righteous anger of God at the sins of His people Israel, as we heard in our first reading today from the Book of Exodus. The people of Israel had not obeyed the Lord and committed a grave sin when they betrayed God and built for themselves an idol made from gold, a golden calf, even as God gave them His laws and commandments through Moses.

In His anger, He wanted to destroy them all just as He had done before with the wicked and sinful sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, who sinned before God greatly, and the Great Flood came over them all, with only Noah and his descendants surviving the great catastrophe. But God had made a Covenant with Noah and his descendants, that He would no longer destroy man with a flood as He had done. And then, He made a renewed Covenant with Abraham and his descendants.

The Covenant God made with Abraham spoke of the blessings He would give to Abraham and his descendants. They would be innumerable and great beyond everything else. And in His anger at their sins, God wanted to destroy them as it was just for them, but God stayed His anger, because His servant Moses reminded Him and prevented Him from doing such a deed.

Ultimately, even though God was furious at the sins and wickedness of His people, but in truth, He loved each and every one of them, those of whom He had created out of love. God has no need for our love, as He Himself had been perfect in love, but He wanted to share that love, and that was why He created us all, to be the recipients of His wonderful love.

Yet, unfortunately, it was our stubbornness, our refusal to obey the Lord and our preference for our own sinful and mistaken ways that had led to the waywardness we have committed in life, just as the Israelites had done in their own, from the establishment of the golden calf, to their many other disobediences and refusal to follow the commands of the Lord through Moses and the other servants of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord has given us so many good things, numerous blessings and love, as He had shown us through many generations, and through many opportunities He had granted us. However, it is we mankind who often refused His offer of love and mercy. We stubbornly clung to our ways of sin and our attachment to worldly matters and goods, which prevented us from truly being able to obey Him.

That is why Jesus Our Lord was also furious and angry at the indignation shown by many of His people, when He came into this world, shown by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, those who stubbornly rejected His truth just because of their arrogance, ego and all the things that were afraid to lose out to Jesus, Whom they saw as a rival to their power and authority.

Let us all not walk in their path, but instead, chart a new path in our life, if we have fallen into sin and disobedience as our predecessors had done. Let us look upon the examples of our holy saints and martyrs, those who dared and were courageous to change their way of life, changing their sinful past into a renewed life filled with faith in God. Many of them endured sufferings and difficulties for those, but they gained a greater reward in God.

May all of us be reunited and reconciled with God, as we draw ever closer to Him. May all of us seek to be righteous and faithful in all things. May all of us be blessed and may we draw closer to Him, day after day, all the days of our life. May God be with us all, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 15 March 2018 : 4th Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 5 : 31-47

At that time, Jesus said to the Jews, “If I bore witness to Myself, My testimony would be worthless. But Another One is bearing witness to Me, and I know that His testimony is true when He bears witness to Me. John also bore witness to the truth when you sent messengers to him, but I do not seek such human testimony; I recall this for you, so that you may be saved.”

“John was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were willing to enjoy his light. But I have greater evidence than that of John – the works which the Father entrusted to Me to carry out. The very works I do bear witness : The Father has sent Me. Thus He Who bears witness to Me is the Father Who sent Me. You have never heard His voice and have never seen His likeness; therefore, as long as you do not believe His messenger, His word is not in you.”

“You search in the Scriptures, thinking that in them you will find life; yet Scripture bears witness to Me. But you refuse to come to Me, that you may live. I am not seeking human praise; but I have known that love of God is not within you, for I have come in My Father’s Name and you do not accept Me. If another comes in his own name, you will accept him. As long as you seek praise from one another, instead of seeking the glory which comes from the only God, how can you believe?”

“Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. Moses himself, in whom you placed your hope, accuses you. If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”

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Thursday, 15 March 2018 : 4th Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 105 : 19-20, 21-22, 23

They made a calf at Horeb and worshipped the molten image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of a bull that eats grass.

They forgot their Saviour God, Who had done great things in Egypt, wonderful works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Sea of Reeds.

So He spoke of destroying them, but Moses, His chosen one, stood in the breach before Him to shield them from destruction.

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Thursday, 15 March 2018 : 4th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Exodus 32 : 7-14

Then YHVH said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a molten calf; they have bowed down before it and sacrificed to it and said : ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.'”

And YHVH said to Moses, “I see that these people are a stiff-necked people. Now just leave Me that My anger may blaze against them. I will destroy them, but of you I will make a great nation.” But Moses calmed the anger of YHVH, his God, and said, “Why, o YHVH, should Your anger burst against Your people whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with a mighty hand?”

“Let not the Egyptians say : ‘YHVH brought them out with evil intent, for He wanted to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth.’ Turn away from the heat of Your anger and do not bring disaster on Your people. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the promise You Yourself swore : I will multiply Your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land I spoke about I will give to them as an everlasting inheritance.”

YHVH then changed His mind and would not yet harm His people.

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Thursday, 8 March 2018 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the clear frustrations of the Lord in two cases. The first one, from the Old Testament was the Lord voicing out His displeasure of His people through His prophet Jeremiah, about their constant disobedience and refusal to listen to His reminders and teachings as He made it clear to them through His prophets.

They continued to sin and disobey the Lord, and they did not follow the examples of their ancestors who obeyed the Law meticulously and genuinely. They persecuted the prophets and messengers sent to them to remind them and to call them to repentance. Instead of turning towards the Lord, they hardened their hearts and sinned further before the Lord.

In the Gospel today, we heard yet another example of this stubbornness, as the Lord Jesus met lots of resistance from the Pharisees who accused Him wrongly and maliciously of using the power of the devil in order to perform all of His miraculous deeds, healings and wonders. They were the ones who were highly educated and were knowledgeable about the Scriptures, and yet they failed to recognise God and His works when He came to their midst.

Why is that so? That is because of their stubbornness and refusal to believe in the Lord’s words as they were so set in their ways and thoughts that they refused to listen to an alternative opinion, even if their thoughts and ways were wrong. They stubbornly clung on to their false beliefs because of their pride and arrogance. They even went to the extent of doubting God’s presence and works in their midst in doing so.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are called to reflect on these Scripture passages, looking at all the sinful ways and actions we have done in the past, and which we may still be doing at the moment. Have these prevented us from seeking God’s grace and forgiveness, because of our pride and our stubbornness, thinking that everything is fine and good for us? Have we allowed ourselves to be swayed by our desires and ambitions that we forget that we are sinners in need of God’s forgiveness?

In this time of Lent, we are called to reexamine our lives and our actions, and see what we can do in order to bring ourselves closer to God. God has called us to be His disciples, and to follow Him in the path that He will show us, but we must have the commitment to follow in His footsteps, and to walk in His path, which will not be easy and will be full of challenges and difficulties.

We will be tempted in various ways to leave the way of the Lord, and we will be tempted to return once again to our old, sinful way of life. That was why the Israelites fell again and again into sin, because they did not remain true to their faith in God and make little effort to resist the temptation of the devil. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law similarly allowed the devil to enter their hearts and sway them with hubris and arrogance, that closed their hearts and minds from understanding God’s words and truth as revealed by Our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what we must not do with our lives. On the contrary, we must open our hearts and minds, allowing the Lord to enter and transform us completely, from beings filled with darkness and sin, into beings filled with light and grace of God. Let us heed the example set by our holy predecessor, St. John of God, in his dedication and commitment to live his life filled with faith and devotion to God, through his actions and deeds.

St. John of God was orphaned in his young age, and later became a soldier in his early adulthood, and because of injustice and false accusation, he was wrongly blamed for a crime that he did not commit. Turning away from all worldly ways and concerns because of these turn of events, he began to turn towards God and trying to seek Him in his life, as he felt a strong spiritual longing due to the emptiness he felt in his soul.

He saw a vision of the Infant Jesus, Who bestowed on him the name, John of God, the name he was to be known by henceforth. When listening to a sermon of St. John of Avila, another great saint of the Church, St. John of God felt the calling to serve the Lord with more commitment. He began to work among the poor and the needy, caring for them and providing for their material and spiritual needs.

Later on in his life, he established a religious congregation gathering all like minded people and devoted servants of God, dedicated to the care of the sick and the poor. These dedications to the weakest and the least among God’s people should be inspiration for all of us, in how we should carry on our lives from now on, in how we ought to devote ourselves to God in a better way.

May the Lord help us through our faith journey in this season of Lent, that we may grow ever closer to the Lord, devoting ourselves, our time, effort and attention to care for the needy around us, to be humble in all that we do, and remember that we must not be proud or arrogant in mind. We must not follow in the footsteps of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in their stubbornness and refusal to believe in God.

Let us instead imitate the humility of Our Lord Himself, Who came into this world as a servant for all, loving and caring to all those who have been entrusted to Him. Let us all make our Lenten observation more meaningful and fruitful, by doing acts of charity and grace to others around us, doing our very best to help those who are in need, that through us, God may perform more of His wonderful works among us. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 8 March 2018 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 11 : 14-23

At that time, one day Jesus was driving out a demon, which was mute. When the demon had been driven out, the mute person could speak, and the people were amazed. Yet some of them said, “He drives out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the chief of the demons.” Others wanted to put Him to the test, by asking Him for a heavenly sign.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them, “Every nation divided by civil war is on the road to ruin, and will fall. If Satan also is divided, his empire is coming to an end. How can you say that I drive out demons by calling upon Beelzebul? If I drive them out by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive out demons? They will be your judges, then.”

“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God; would not this mean that the kingdom of God, has come upon you? As long as a man, strong and well armed, guards his house, his goods are safe. But when a stronger man attacks and overcomes him, the challenger takes away all the weapons he relied on, and disposes of his spoils.”

“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me, scatters.”

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Thursday, 8 March 2018 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 94 : 1-2, 6-7, 8-9

Come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful sound to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him giving thanks, with music and songs of praise.

Come and worship; let us bow down, kneel before the Lord, our Maker. He is our God, and we His people; the flock He leads and pastures. Would that today you heard His voice!

Do not be stubborn, as at Meribah, in the desert, on that day at Massah, when your ancestors challenged Me, and they put Me to the test.

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Thursday, 8 March 2018 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 7 : 23-28

YHVH says, “One thing I did command them : Listen to My voice and I will be your God and you will be My people. Walk in the way I command you and all will be well with you. But they did not listen and paid no attention; they followed the bad habits of their stubborn heart and turned away from Me.”

“From the time I brought their forebearers out of Egypt until this day I have continually sent them My servants, the prophets, but this stiff-necked people did not listen. They paid no attention and were worse than their forebearers. You may say all these things to them but they will not listen; you will call them but they will not answer.”

“This is a nation that did not obey YHVH and refused to be disciplined; truth has perished and is no longer heard from their lips.”

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Thursday, 1 March 2018 : 2nd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the stories and reminders from the Scriptures, which is an apt reminder to each and every one of us to be careful and indeed be mindful on how we ought to live our lives and on what we depend on in our respective lives. Let us begin first by looking into what we have heard from our Gospel passage today, the story of Lazarus and the rich man.

In that story, we saw the contrast between Lazarus, a poor man who often sat just outside the large mansion belonging to a rich man, hoping that he could eat from whatever scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. It was likely that Lazarus was so poor that he could not even afford anything to eat and satisfy his daily needs, to the point that he had to beg for the food.

Meanwhile, the rich man had everything that he needed, from food, drinks, friends, company of loved ones, possessions, shelter over his head and all other forms of earthly needs. He was good in everything save for the fact that he was unable to see the plight of the poor man who was sitting just outside of his residence. He had everything that he needed, but he kept them all to himself and did not lift a finger to help Lazarus, who was in great need.

In the end, we heard how both eventually met the end of their earthly lives and existence. We all know that everyone will meet and experience death at the end of their lives, and thus the same thing happened to both Lazarus and the rich man. Yet, the fates awaiting the two of them each could not be much more different, one from the other one.

Lazarus went up to heaven and sit beside Abraham, the ancestor of the people of Israel and many other nations, a righteous servant of God, deemed worthy of the glory of heaven promised to those who have been just and faithful to God. Meanwhile the rich man fell into damnation and the sufferings in hell, which is reserved for Satan and all those who have disobeyed God, and had willingly refused to follow the Lord.

In the first reading today, taken from the book of the prophet Jeremiah, we gained some deeper insight of what had happened to the two of them. It is about how and what we put our trust in, be it in God or be it human beings and worldly matters. The prophet Jeremiah made it very clear that if we trust in worldly things and in our own strength, we will likely end up drawn away from God, and fall into the temptations to sin.

But if we put our trust in God, we will grow ever more in faith, and we will draw closer to Him. It may be a life filled with challenges and difficulties, but we can be sure that God is always on our side. While the wealth and all the goods we have in this world may bring us happiness to a certain extent, but they will not last forever, and eventually they may perish and be destroyed.

Similarly, regardless of all the bountiful riches and goods that the rich man possessed, none of those came to his rescue or were available to him when he fell into the eternal suffering in hell. He was suffering all by himself, and without any hope of rescue and salvation, as he has lost all the opportunities given to him by God, to touch the lives of others, especially the poor Lazarus sitting by his doorstep.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what we need to know is that we sin by both doing what is wicked and sinful in the eyes of God, but also by not doing what we can do in order to truly be followers of the Lord. God was not against the rich and those who have more possessions and wealth, as some would try to argue it that way. Instead, God wants us to make good use of what He has blessed us with.

To those of us who have been more blessed than others, we should learn to share our joy and blessings, especially to those among us who have little or none to be joyful. This is why in this season of Lent, we are called to be more generous in giving, be more charitable in our love towards our brothers and sisters. Let us make good use of our time during this Lent to be ever more devoted and committed Christians, loving our fellow brethren more.

Let us not abandon or ignore all the ‘Lazaruses’ we see around us. Let us show mercy, love and compassion to these brethren, who may need our care, attention and other forms of help. May the Lord move our hearts to be ever more loving and dedicated in all the things we do, for the good of our brethren. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 1 March 2018 : 2nd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 16 : 19-31

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Once there was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and feasted every day. At his gate lay Lazarus, a poor man covered with sores, who longed to eat just the scraps falling from the rich man’s table. Even dogs used to come and lick his sores.”

“It happened that the poor man died, and Angels carried him to take his place with Abraham. The rich man also died, and was buried. From hell where he was in torment, the rich man looked up and saw Abraham afar off, and with him Lazarus at rest. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me, and send Lazarus, with the tip of his finger dipped in water, to cool my tongue, for I suffer so much in this fire.'”

“Abraham replied, ‘My son, remember that in your lifetime you were well-off, while the lot of Lazarus was misfortune. Now he is in comfort, and you are in agony. But that is not all. Between your place and ours a great chasm has been fixed, so that no one can cross over from here to you, or from your side to us.'”

“The rich man implored once more, ‘Then I beg you, Father Abraham, to send Lazarus to my father’s house, where my five brothers live, let him warn them, so that they may not end up in this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.'”

“But the rich man said, ‘No, Father Abraham; but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced, even if someone rises from the dead.'”