Thursday

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Thursday, 7 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of how God has made a Covenant with Abraham, our father in faith, and how the same Covenant has been renewed and established anew again and again, until the time when Christ, Our Lord and Saviour came into this world and accomplished the works that His heavenly Father has entrusted to Him. He has come into our midst and established with us a new, everlasting and eternal Covenant that He sealed with the offering and outpouring of His own Most Precious Blood and the shedding of His Most Precious Body on the Altar of the Cross. We are called to reflect on this as we draw ever closer to the beginning of Holy Week, the time when we are going to commemorate the events surrounding Our Lord’s Passion, His suffering, death and resurrection.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Genesis, we heard of the Lord making the Covenant with Abraham, who was then still known as Abram, a man who came from the far-off region of Mesopotamia, following the commands and call of God into the land of Canaan, the land which God then promised to him and his descendants to be their own land. Abram then did not yet have a son that will carry on his name and legacy, but God promised him that he would be the father of many nations, through his son Isaac, the one that God would give to him in due time, but which then was yet unknown to Abram. Abram trusted in the Lord and although technically he and his wife, both of whom had been advanced in age, could no longer bear a child anymore, but he trusted in the Lord and believed in His words and promises.

That is why God chose to made a Covenant between Himself and Abram, choosing him and set him apart from any other men and women who were his contemporaries at that time. God chose Abram because He knew everything in his heart and mind, and how Abram truly had faith in Him and trusted in Him wholeheartedly. God sees what is in man’s heart, even to the deepest of their hearts and beings. In Abram, God found a truly righteous man worthy of becoming the one with whom He made a Covenant with. Through Abraham, the salvation of all of His beloved people would come, as it has been planned all along from the very beginning.

Thus, Abram made a Covenant with God and he devoted himself to God, with a new life blessed by God, as Abraham the righteous and just, the beloved and chosen one of God, whose descendants were numerous and many, and all of us who call the Lord as our Master, we also call Abraham as our father in faith. All of us share with him this faith which he had first shown all those years ago, dedicating himself to the Lord and followed Him wherever He called him to follow and walk to. All of us are therefore also expected to follow the Lord wholeheartedly in the same manner, giving our time, effort and attention to be ever faithful as disciples and followers of His.

However, as we heard from our Gospel passage today, it is often that many of us have failed to do this as shown by the attitude of the Jewish people in Judea and Jerusalem, especially among their leaders and elders, the chief priests and the Pharisees, who adamantly refused to listen to the Lord or believed in Him despite all the things that they had heard, seen and witnessed themselves through the Lord’s many miracles and works among the people. The Lord has come amongst His people to reveal His truth among them, and to call them to return to Him, and yet, because they were truly stubborn, they refused to believe in Him and hardened their hearts and minds.

They were all too caught up by their pride and ego, that they failed to realise the extent of their infidelity and stubbornness. They preferred to remain in their rebellious state as they thought that they could not have been wrong or mistaken, and they did not like it when others came to them revealing of how vulnerable and misguided they had been. Thus, unlike what had happened in Abraham’s case, his descendants ironically and unfortunately refused to trust in the Lord and His love and truth. While Abraham devoted himself to the Lord and followed Him with all of his heart, the same could not be said of his descendants, and thus, the Lord rightly rebuked them for that.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to these words from the Scriptures, we are all reminded that we are to follow the Lord and be committed to Him, to the Covenant that He has established with each and every one of us. The Lord has called us to follow Him, and how are we going to respond to Him? Are we going to continue to live in the path of sin and evil, or are we committed to a change in our way of life, and are we willing to walk with God from now on, in obeying Him and dedicating ourselves to His truth? Are we going to be good role models who can show others how we can be good Christians, as good disciples and children of God?

Today we celebrate the feast of St. John Baptist de la Salle, the renowned founder of the Brothers of Christian School, a religious order and fraternity of men committed to the advancement of Christian education all throughout the world. St. John Baptist de la Salle was a priest and canon of the Cathedral of Reims who was called to minister to the needs of the needy, and seeing the terrible state of education of especially young Christians all around him, he decided to embark on a new ministry, in dedicating himself to the needs of those who are last, lost and least, especially those who are struggling in their youth and education.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, just as St. John Baptist de la Salle dedicated himself and his whole life for the benefit of many others who are in need of help, all of us should do whatever we can to contribute to others all around us as well. The Lord has called us all to follow Him and we should respond to Him in the same way that St. John Baptist de la Salle and many other of our holy predecessors had done. Are we willing and able to commit our lives in the same way too? The choice is really ours if we want to follow Him and to spend our time and effort in walking down His path.

Let us all therefore remind ourselves of the great faith that Abraham, our father in faith, St. John the Baptist de la Salle, our holy predecessor and many other holy men and women who have inspired us all. May all of us be like them as well in faith, and grow ever stronger in our commitment and dedication to live our lives in accordance with God’s will, now and always, evermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 7 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle, Priest (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, 7 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle, Priest (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, 7 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle, Priest (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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Thursday, 31 March 2022 : 4th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are all called to listen to the Lord and to follow Him, cease our rebellion and disobedience against Him. He has given us many opportunities to return to Him and to be reconciled to Him, but it is our stubborn attitude and persistence in our way of sin which often led us back to the path towards downfall and destruction. We have not heeded the Lord’s call and desire to be reunited with us, as we allow sin to rule over us and to keep us separated from Him.

In our first reading today, we heard the Lord speaking to Moses in the Book of Exodus, at the time after He has revealed His Law and the Ten Commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai. At that time, Moses spent forty days with the Lord atop the mountain, listening to Him and receiving from Him the extensive set of laws and guidance meant to be passed to the people of Israel, as a guide and help for all of them to remain true to the path of righteousness. But the people thinking that Moses had perished on the mountain quickly lost their trust and faith in the Lord, and forced Aaron to craft for them a great golden calf idol to worship as god over them.

This happened even though the Israelites had witnessed themselves the great wonders and power of God in freeing them from the hands of the Egyptians and their Pharaoh, as God sent the Ten Great Plagues to crush the Egyptians and force them to let the Israelites go free. And all these happened despite the people of God having themselves witnessed how God opened the Red Sea before them, allowing them to cross free and safely through the seabed, and then destroying the chariots and armies of the Pharaoh of Egypt that were chasing after them.

The people of God still disobeyed Him and refused to have faith in Him even though they had seen all the wonders and good things that God had done for their sake, all of which showed and proved to them how beloved and dear they were to God. Yet, they established a golden calf idol over them, offered it sacrifices and committed other grievous sins against the Lord, when God had been so patient in loving them and caring for them. But Moses stepped in and pleaded with the Lord when He wanted to destroy all the people save for Moses as was just and right for Him to do, and Moses asked the Lord to withhold His anger and judgment, reasoning with Him and reminding Him of the constant love that He has shown to the people.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the same attitude being shown by the people of the time of the Lord Jesus, as they showed lack of faith, refusing to believe in the Lord and even in the messenger and herald that He had sent before Him, namely that of St. John the Baptist. St. John the Baptist had called the people of God to repent from their sins and to return to the Lord with faith, and baptised many people who had come to him seeking to walk the path of conversion and redemption, opening their hearts to the Lord and His truth and love.

Yet, the Pharisees and the chief priests in particular were skeptical of St. John the Baptist, doubted his authenticity and authority, and even openly questioned him on the legality and validity of his actions, doubting that he was sent by the Lord, an action which led to St. John the Baptist to rebuke those self-serving and self-righteous leaders as brood of vipers, those who sought their own glory and personal benefits over others’ sufferings and for their efforts that went against God’s good works. The same thing happened to the Lord Himself as well, and this was what the Lord referred to as He spoke to the people in our passage today.

The Lord rebuked the people for their continued lack of faith and trust in Him, despite everything that He had done and shown to them, despite all the miracles and signs that He had made before all of them. They still would not believe and even demanded for more signs and wonders. Their hearts and minds were closed against God in their pride, in thinking that they knew the Law and commandments of God better than any others, and that was why, no matter how much wonders and miracles they had witnessed, they failed to believe much as their ancestors had betrayed and abandoned the Lord, their Saviour and Liberator, for a golden calf idol made by human hands.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we reflect on these passages from the Scriptures, let us all look back in our lives and remind ourselves whether we have been faithful to the Lord wholeheartedly as we should have, or whether we have behaved much like the people of Israel in the past, in their lack of faith and trust in the Lord, preferring to trust in idols and other worldly means, in their own strength and power rather than to trust in the Lord and journey together with Him. We are called to reflect if our way of life have been in accordance to the path that God has shown us, or whether we have walked down the wrong path all these while.

Sin is very dangerous and we should not take it lightly, for the temptations to sin and the allures of worldly desires can tempt even the most resistant to falter and fall away from God and His way. We must not let our weakness and vulnerabilities to sin to affect us, and we have to do our best to resist those temptations, or else we may end up like the Israelites, who succumbed to their fears and to their desires for worldly pleasures, and like the Pharisees and the chief priests, who fell into sin because of the temptations of worldly power and glory, and pride and ego.

Let us all make good use of the remaining time of Lent to prepare ourselves, not just physically but also spiritually and mentally, so that we may be more attuned to the Lord, be more ready and prepared to live in accordance with God’s path. Let us seek the Lord with ever greater faith and commitment, and let us do our very best to glorify Him by our lives and actions, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 31 March 2022 : 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, 31 March 2022 : 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, 31 March 2022 : 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, 24 March 2022 : 3rd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the love of God and all that He had done for the sake of His beloved people, for all of us whom the Lord has always cared for since the beginning of time. The Lord will not abandon us His people, although we have often disappointed and angered Him with our various disobedience and lack of trust and faith in Him. We have often preferred to follow the false idols and guides in life, instead of entrusting ourselves wholeheartedly in God.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah in which the Lord spoke to His people through Jeremiah, telling His prophet to remind and even rebuke the people for their disobedience and lack of faith. He reminded them all through Jeremiah how He had shown them the path to His righteousness and justice, and how He has presented them with His Law and commandments, all that He had done to guide them and help them find their way to Him, and yet, they still stubbornly refused to follow and disobeyed Him.

And not only that, but they have also persecuted the Lord’s prophets and messengers, refusing to listen to them and making their lives and works very difficult, much as what Jeremiah himself would also endure during his time working and ministering to the people of God in Judah. They would accuse Jeremiah of wrongdoing and even treason, for speaking the truth and the words of God, when the people preferred to listen instead to the false prophets who brought forth their false words and lies to tempt and misguide the people of God into the path of sin.

That was exactly what the Lord experienced as we heard in our Gospel passage today. In that occasion, we heard how the Lord Jesus was criticised and even wrongly accused of colluding and working with the prince of demons, Beelzebul, by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who opposed and had done a lot in resisting the Lord and His works among the people of God. Not only that they made it difficult for Him to perform His works, but they even made such false accusations and slander to discredit Him in the eyes of the people and to prevent Him from doing the good works of God.

That was where the Lord immediately rebuked those faithless and unreasonable people who had often pestered and made His works difficult, by pointing out how unreasonable and foolish their false accusations had been, by arguing that the Lord had colluded with the prince of demons in order to drive out evil spirits. He pointed out how the devil and all of his allies, namely all the evil spirits, demons and all the forces of evil and wickedness are all ought not to be divided against each other, or they would have destroyed each other and would not have been able to harm us.

Instead, on the contrary, the Lord wanted to point out that the devil and his allies were in fact strongly united in their common desire to see about our downfall and annihilation. They would do all they could and unite their efforts to bring us down and to drag us into the path of condemnation and destruction. It was in fact we mankind who are divided among ourselves by our allowance and complicity in allowing these wicked spirits and forces from dividing us and misleading us through their lies and efforts, much as what the people had done to the prophets and Jeremiah, and what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done to the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, during this season of Lent, all of us are called through these readings of the Sacred Scriptures we have heard today to discern carefully our path in life and ask ourselves well, if we have done the same as those who had little faith in the Lord. Have we treated the Lord and His servants, all those whom He had called and chosen to be the ones to lay the path of righteousness before us, with contempt and opposition, or have we instead humbly and willingly listened to them speaking the words of truth in our hearts and minds?

Let us all consider our path carefully in this life going forward, brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us all not allow the devil and all of his forces of evil and wickedness from misleading us and tempting us away from God and His righteousness, from His salvation and grace. Let us all make the conscious effort to resist all of their lies and evil, and strive to do our best in following God and in living our lives to the best of our abilities in doing His will and obeying His Law and commandments, and being exemplary in all things we say and do in life. May God be with us all always and may He bless our works and efforts, that we may inspire many others to do the same as well. Amen.

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Thursday, 24 March 2022 : 3rd Week of Lent (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.”