understanding the faith

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Wednesday, 5 April 2023 : Wednesday of Holy Week (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we come ever closer to the beginning of the Easter Triduum and commemorating the most important events in the whole entire liturgical year, all of us are reminded yet again of everything that the Lord had done for each and every one of us, in all the things He had endured for our sake, the sufferings, trials and hardships that He had to face, all so that we can be saved and liberated from the tyranny and dominion of sin. He has reached out to us and touched us, offering His most generous love and mercy so that by His compassion, all of us may find the sure path and the guarantee of eternal glory with Him. God loves each one of us and He does not want to be lost from Him. This is why we commemorate this most holy and blessed of all weeks, remembering what God had done for us out of His enduring and most supreme love.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard the continuation of the discourse on the suffering of the Holy Servant of God Whom He had sent into our midst, to bear the brunt of the punishments and the rejection that this One would have to face as He carried out dutifully in obedience to the will of His Heavenly Father. God has sent unto us His Son, incarnate in the flesh and born as the Son of Man, so that by His sufferings, His pains and hardships, and by the wounds and hurts, all of us have received healing and forgiveness, mercy and reconciliation with God, our loving Father and Creator. He has willingly done this because He truly loves each one of us so greatly, as our loving Shepherd, reaching out to us, His lost sheep, so that by laying down His life for us, He may raise us up to eternal life.

Then in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, which had been building up as we heard the past two days of Gospel passages from Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday. That is why this day is also known as Spy Wednesday, denoting and remembering the moment when Judas Iscariot, the traitor, went behind the back of the Lord and His disciples, to betray Him to the hands of the chief priests and all the other enemies of the Lord. He sold his own Lord and Master for a mere sum of thirty pieces of silver, which symbolically was also back then the typical price of a slave in the market. Blinded by his own greed and human desires and arrogance, Judas allowed Satan to enter into our hearts and to do what was truly abhorrent, betraying the very One Who has called Him to be His disciple and abandoning Him for the pursuit of worldly glory and temptations.

If we remember the background and the story of Judas Iscariot, such an action was truly not entirely unexpected at all, since we all have heard that Judas Iscariot had often been dishonest and whose way of thinking and beliefs were often at odds with the Lord. According to the Apostolic traditions and history, Judas Iscariot had often stolen and appropriated the common funds the Lord’s group for his own selfish use, enriching himself with the money and things that were not his own. He must indeed have been a smart and intelligent man, for having been entrusted with the group’s finances. Unfortunately, he allowed his desires for power, glory, material wealth and more to cloud his judgment and to tempt him, leading to him being misguided by Satan into committing a most great and heinous act of rebellion and sin against God, in abandoning and betraying Him for monetary gains.

Yet, as I have mentioned yesterday earlier on, it may indeed be very easy for us to point fingers at Judas Iscariot and heap all the blame and condemnation on him, for his heinous and wicked actions especially in betraying the Lord. However, the actions of Judas Iscariot should in fact be a reminder for us of our own lack of faith, vulnerabilities to sin, inability to resist the many temptations of the world, the challenges and hardships we often face in encountering various forms of temptations and persuasions, coercions and pressures from many quarters, trying to lead us down the path of disobedience and rebellion against the Lord, much as Judas Iscariot himself had done. Before we conveniently just blame Judas Iscariot for everything that happened back then, we have to realise that in our own daily living, we have often also done what Judas himself had done.

Every time we commit sins against the Lord, be it small or significant, trivial or substantial, we have in fact betrayed the Lord and abandoned Him for the sins and whatever it is that we prioritised instead of fully obeying God’s Law and commandments. That is why, the example of Judas Iscariot and everything that he had committed should be something for us to carefully reflect on as we live our lives in this world, so that we do not end up falling into the same temptations that had brought him down, and led him to commit such a terrible act. Not only that, but as we all know how Judas Iscariot then responded to his action, by killing himself in regret, instead of entrusting himself to God’s forgiveness and mercy, all of us are called to remember that each and every one of us have the capacity for repentance and reconciliation with God just as much as we have the capacity to sin against God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we are about to enter very soon into the time of Easter Triduum, beginning tomorrow on Holy Thursday, let us all do whatever we can to reflect upon the things that the Lord has done to us, all the love, mercy and compassion that He has shown to all of us, so that although we are all sinners, wicked and evil in our words, actions and deeds, but through what He Himself had done for our sake, God had given us a certain path towards reconciliation with Him. That is why we should reflect on our often sinful and rebellious way of life so that we do not end up losing our way and committing the same things that Judas Iscariot had done. We are all called and reminded to focus our attention once again to the Lord, and remember everything that He had gone through for us, in His most loving embrace, and in reaching out to us through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour.

As we enter into the Easter or Paschal Triduum, let us all do whatever we can to centre our lives and focus our attention on the Lord, and grow ever stronger in our connection with Him. Let our every actions and observance of the many wondrous things happening during this Easter Triduum help us to grow ever closer to the Lord. May God bless us all and may He empower us to remain firmly ever more faithful to Him. May He help us to be ever more committed and courageous in all things, in being good role models and examples, as inspiration for each other in faith. May God bless our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 4 April 2023 : Tuesday of Holy Week (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures and as we continue to progress through this blessed time of the Holy Week, all of us are reminded to continue to focus our attention on the Lord and appreciate everything that He had done for us, in how He has reached out to us with His love, patiently caring for each and every one of us, leading us to Himself and showing us His kindness and compassionate mercy in each and every moments. The Lord has done all these for us, for our salvation. If not for everything that He had done, we would have perished and been condemned to eternal damnation and destruction, but thanks to His generous intervention and love, God has rescued us and provided us with the assurance of new and everlasting life, a blessed existence with Him in His Holy Presence.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, the continuation of the discourse in the past few days regarding the coming of the Saviour or Messiah of God. The Lord promised His people through His prophets and messengers, particularly through the prophet Isaiah, of the coming of His deliverance and salvation to all of His people. The Lord has not forgotten those whom He cared about, and would send to them His help through His Messiah, Who is in fact His own beloved Son, Incarnate in the flesh, Our Lord Jesus Christ. This same Messiah or Saviour would endure the worst beatings and sufferings on our behalf, the worst hardships and trials, all to give us the sure path to eternal life and liberation from our sins. Through His Son, the Lord led us to a new path by which He would bring us back to Him, guiding us as a most loving Shepherd.

He came to us, calling on us, His lost sheep, to follow Him and to embrace the fullness of His love, reminding us not to harden our hearts and minds any longer, and be willing to embrace Him wholeheartedly, His loving kindness and generous mercy. Then, He did all these by exposing Himself to all the wickedness of the world and all the trials that He had to bear as part of His journey. In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the account of the conversion between the Lord and His disciples during the time of the Last Supper, at which time He revealed what would happen to Him, how He would be betrayed by one of those who were closest to Him, and how He would also be abandoned and left behind by His other disciples and followers. It was there that the Lord highlighted to all those who were listening to Him, what He would have to go through in order to fulfil the will of His heavenly Father perfectly and completely.

Judas Iscariot had already plotted against the Lord, his own Master, by allowing the temptations of the devil to sway and mislead him down the path of wickedness, as he gave in to the temptations of his greed and attachments of worldly desires. He has often embezzled much funds from the common funds of the Lord and the disciples, taking advantage of his responsibility as the treasurer of the group. Judas Iscariot allowed himself to be swayed by the temptations of those money and worldly attachments, and thus, led him to walk the path that Satan had guided him, to approach the chief priests and to plot with them in betraying his own master, for a sum of thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave. He betrayed and abandoned the Lord for greed and desire of worldly glory, wealth and possessions, trading the assurance of eternal life and true joy for the temporary joy of the world.

It is easy then indeed for all of us to put all the blame on Judas Iscariot. It is convenient for us to point fingers at him and his wicked attitudes and deeds, but lest we forget, that everything which Judas Iscariot had done, are what we mankind had done again and again, throughout time and ages past. If we are to accuse Judas for his betrayal and wickedness, then we ought first look upon our own weaknesses and vulnerabilities to sin. If Judas Iscariot had betrayed and abandoned the Lord for money, material goods and other worldly things, is that not what we have often done ourselves, from time to time? How many of us have spent a lot of time, effort and attention on worldly pursuits, ambitions and all sorts of things that we desire in this world, ignoring and forgetting about the Lord, and doing all sorts of wicked and evil things, in our mad pursuit for those worldly matters?

That is why, instead of pointing fingers at Judas Iscariot and dumping all the blame on him, let us all make good use of what we have heard today from our Scripture passages to reflect on our own lives and on how we ourselves have often failed the Lord and betrayed Him for the many attractions and persuasions of this world. And as we enter more deeply into the mystery and immersing ourselves into our Lord’s Passion, His suffering, death and resurrection during this Holy Week, let us all therefore remember first of all God’s love for us made manifest to us in the person of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Who has shown us the genuine face of God’s Love, made tangible and real for us. Let us reflect on our fallen state and failures, our faults and wickedness which have prevented us from coming towards the Lord and attain full reconciliation with Him.

Let us all therefore take heed from the downfall of Judas Iscariot as a reminder for each and every one of us so that we may turn away from the path of worldliness and desire, unhealthy attachments and ambitions, which had led so many of our predecessors to their downfall. Instead, we should deepen our humility and learn to resist the temptations of pride, ego and desire, and guard ourselves well, lest the devil may strike at us and make us to be enslaved by sin. This Holy Week we are all reminded that God has done so much for us, to call us out from the darkness, and to bring us to the path of His love, truth and righteousness. But, what have we done to embrace God and His love? Have we spent the time and the opportunities given to us so that we may make good use of them in developing an ever better and stronger relationship with God?

May the Lord continue to guide us all and may He encourage us to live ever more worthily in His Presence. May He continue to show us the path forward, filled with His love and grace, and may He help us to persevere amidst this world full of darkness and many temptations and pressures all around us, that we may always be strong and courageous to resist those temptations and pressures, striving to lead a life truly holy and worthy of the Lord. May God bless us all in our every good works and efforts, and may He bless us especially during this upcoming Easter Triduum, that in whatever we do to immerse ourselves in all the celebrations and commemorations, we may continue to glorify Him by our every actions, words and deeds. Amen.

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Monday, 3 April 2023 : Monday of Holy Week (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, each and every one of us are brought ever deeper into the mysteries and the details of Our Lord’s Passion, His suffering and trials, leading up to His death on the Cross which we are going to commemorate soon on Good Friday during the Easter Triduum. Hence, on this day, all of us are reminded yet again of everything that God had done for our sake, all the love that He has shown us through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, in showing His kindness and love so wonderfully to us sinners who are in need of His help and healing. We are reminded that God loves each and every one of us, even no matter how great our sins have been. As long as we come to Him with contrite hearts and endeavour to turn away from our sinful path and way of life, there is a way for us to be reconciled with Him.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which we listened to the proclamation about a certain Chosen One Whom God had appointed to be the One to bear His salvation and deliverance to the nations. We have heard how the Lord revealed His truth to the nations, of His love and compassion towards them, that He has sent into our midst His Servant, the One Who would be crushed and persecuted for us, to suffer and even die for our sake. This is the same Messiah that the prophets and messengers of the Lord have been prophesying about and which they had promised and proclaimed for many ages. The Lord has willingly sent His salvation into our midst, in the form of His own Beloved Son, born into this world and taking up our own human existence such that by His coming into this world, He may reunite us with God, our loving Father and Creator.

That is what the Lord has done, by reaching out to us, coming down to dwell among us, so that all of us sinners may find our consolation and help through Him, as we are reminded yet again of His love and faithfulness to the Covenant that He has made and renewed again and again with us. God has never forgotten about His people and He has reached out to them, every time they had faltered and fallen into sin. He reminded them of His ever patient and most generous love, and called on them to reject the path of sin and disobedience. Through His Son, God made us all partakers of a New and Eternal Covenant sealed by the breaking of His own Most Precious Body and by the shedding and outpouring of His own Most Precious Blood, broken and poured out for us and our salvation, as the most worthy offering made on the Altar of the Cross, at Calvary.

In our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel of St. John, we heard of the curious moment when Mary, the sister of Lazarus, came to the Lord at a dinner, and anointed His feet with an expensive perfume made from pure spikenard, which cost quite a fortune back then. She poured the perfume on the Lord’s feet and with tears and her hair, she wiped the Lord’s feet with them. This was then criticised immediately by Judas Iscariot, the traitor among the Lord’s disciples. The writer of the Gospel, St. John the Apostle gave the explanation and the context that Judas Iscariot, being the one entrusted as the treasurer of the Lord’s group, had not been honest and upright in his actions, as he often stole from the common fund that had been assembled by the disciples, which should have been used to support their work and ministry. Judas Iscariot evidently loved money and continued to be dishonest in his actions.

When he criticised Mary, saying that the perfume should not have been wasted in such a manner and could have been sold for the proceeds to be given to the poor, as we heard, it was showing us the extent of how humanity has both the capacity to disobey and sin against God, as well as the capacity for repentance and forgiveness. In Judas Iscariot, we saw how man may easily succumb to the temptations of worldly desires and attachments, to wealth, glory, fame, human praise, pleasures of all sorts and many other things that often kept us away from the Lord and His grace. Judas Iscariot allowed his love and desire for money to delude him and to allow him to be tempted by the devil, allowing Satan to enter into his heart and persuade him to not only say such vile words against Mary, but also later on to betray the Lord for a sum of thirty pieces of silver, to the chief priests and the other enemies of the Lord.

On the contrary, we saw Mary’s humility and sincerity in loving the Lord, and in humbling herself such that she gave her best to glorify Him, by using her own hair, the crown of her beauty and worldly glory, to wipe His feet, the feet being usually associated as the dirtiest and most unfavourable part of the human body. Yet, Mary had no qualm at all of doing such an action before everyone assembled, shedding herself of all honour and glory in doing so, and using her best perfume in giving glory to God. As the Lord Himself mentioned, this was a prefigurement of His Passion, His suffering and death, and how she was anointing Him and preparing His Body for burial. But Mary also prefigured the Lord in a more subtle way, as her actions showed what the Lord Himself would do, first at the Last Supper, in humbling Himself to wash the feet of His disciples, and then later on, to humble Himself and empty Himself of all honour and glory, to suffer and die for us on the Cross, for our salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in our Scripture readings today, all of us are reminded first of all, of God’s ever enduring and patient love for us, which we should always keep in mind throughout this most solemn week commemorating our Lord’s Passion, His suffering and death. It was for our sake that He has willingly suffered all of that, so that by everything that He had to go through, He might deliver us from our fate of destruction and death, and offer us the sure path to eternal life through Him. Then, we are also reminded of the need for us to listen to the Lord and His patient calling for us to embrace His love and mercy, as we are all called to be humble like Mary, the sister of Lazarus, in realising our sinfulness and unworthiness before God, and in obeying the will of God like the Lord Jesus Himself, Who obeyed the Father’s will so perfectly, for our salvation. Let us also distance ourselves from the dangers of pride and worldly temptations, that we do not fall into the same trap as Judas Iscariot had experienced.

May the Lord continue to help us in our journey of faith and life, especially throughout this season of Lent and this most solemn time of the Holy Week. May He continue to strengthen each and every one of us and help us to persevere through the many hardships, trials and challenges that we may have to face daily in life. May God bless each and every one of us and help us all to be ever more faithful and committed in our lives, in following Him at all times. Amen.

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Sunday, 2 April 2023 : Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday, also known as Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord marks the beginning of the Holy Week and the entry into this most solemn and important period of time when we commemorate the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the whole world, the moment when He suffered for us all, bearing all the burdens of our sins and mistakes, our faults and iniquities, all the wickedness and evils we have committed, so that by His most generous and selfless love, shown to us in His loving sacrifice on the Cross, all of us may be saved and be brought into the assurance of eternal life and glory with Him. The Lord has willingly done all of these, in obedience to the will of His heavenly Father so that by His sacrifice offered most worthily on our behalf, each and every one of us may find the path to eternal life by the full reconciliation and the New and Eternal Covenant that He made, as our Eternal High Priest, all of which we commemorate during this most Holy Week.

In our Gospel reading today, which was read at the beginning of the Holy Mass, we heard the passage from the Gospel of St. Matthew detailing the time when the Lord was about to enter into the city of Jerusalem for His upcoming Passion as we all certainly well know of, that moment when the Lord rode on a donkey and welcomed into the city of Jerusalem with the people waving palm branches and putting their clothes for Him to pass through, as if He is the King that came in glory to enter into His City. This is why we call this Sunday’s celebration as Palm Sunday in the first place. It marks first of all the commemoration of the glorious entry of the King of Kings and the rightful King of Israel, the Son and Heir of David, entering into the City of His glorious inheritance and dominion, as the Lord has revealed in advance through His prophets and messengers, like that of the prophet Zechariah, who prophesied that the King and Messiah would come to His City riding on a humble donkey.

All of that had been fulfilled in the actions of the Lord Jesus that day, Who chose a donkey with its colt, or its young one, which had not borne any burden before. The donkey that had been tied on the pole itself is rich in symbolism, as it represents the first-called among God’s people, the Israelites, that had been burdened by many of the sins of their ancestors and by their enslavement in the hands of many rulers and oppressors, and the Lord freeing the donkey from its bondage has the symbolic meaning of His coming that is meant to bring true freedom to the people of God, beginning with the descendants of Israel, and then the colt, which represents the Gentiles, or the non-Jewish people, who followed along as the Lord rode on the donkey, representing His dominion and rule over not only the Jewish people, the descendants of the Israelites, but also over the Gentiles and hence over the whole world. His Kingship is Universal and inclusive, and all encompassing instead of just ruling over the Jewish people only.

Then, there is the symbolism of the donkey itself, as a humble beast of burden typically used as the means to carry the weight of cargo and objects that were not usually meant for carrying a human being, less so for One Who is a King, and less still supposedly for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the King of all the whole Universe, coming upon His City and people. Yet, the fact that the Lord rode into Jerusalem on a humble donkey and not on a mighty warhorse or other extravagant rides that other worldly rulers often rode on, highlighted the true nature of His Kingship and His mission in this world. He did not come to this world to conquer and to destroy, unlike what earthly and worldly kings usually do, and He did not come to lead His people in a war of liberation and resistance against the Romans or any others, unlike what many of the Jewish people in the past often mistakenly believed.

Instead, He came into this world and into our midst to bring His Peace upon us, to show us the love that He has always had for us from the very beginning, real and tangible in the flesh. He came into this world to serve and not to be served, to reach out to the least amongst us, and to every single one of us without exception. He does not discriminate against us, and He wants each and every one of us to be reconciled with Him, and that is why He came into our midst, to dwell and walk amongst us, and to show us His most generous love, so much so that He was willing to pay the ultimate price in order to do so. And that leads us to the second part of our celebration today, that as we proceed triumphantly with Christ to the Altar, entering with Him to the Holy City of Jerusalem, we then enter into a new phase of this Sunday’s events, as we remember what would take place within merely days after that glorious event.

That is when we remember how it was likely that many of the same people who have cried out with great joy and enthusiasm, ‘Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord’, were the same ones who later on cried out on Good Friday, ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ and ‘We have no King but Caesar!’. Through that we can see just how the mood and the attitude of the people so quickly changed within just a matter of a few days, from one of jubilation and adoration to one of disgust and rejection. No doubt that there must have been some coercion, persuasion and jockeying going around back then, as the members of the Jewish High Council or the Sanhedrin, which were mostly against the Lord and some were even openly hostile, must have encouraged, coerced and persuaded many of the people that the Lord Jesus was the False Messiah and a traitor to the Jewish nation and people, for His supposedly blasphemous teaching and actions against God.

All of these had been predicted beforehand by God Himself as He revealed it through His prophets, in what we heard from our first reading today, as we progress from the glorious procession of palms into Jerusalem towards the true nature of our Lord’s ministry and what He would do for each and every one of us. The prophet Isaiah spoke curiously on the Suffering Servant, the One Whom God would send to be with His people, and how this Servant of God would suffer and endure grievous beating and hardships, torture and trials, as He obeyed perfectly the will of the One Who had sent Him to us. He would be humiliated and made to suffer for the sins of the people of God, a reading that we shall further explore on Good Friday, in which that passage refer to the same Servant, Who would be lifted up high and exalted, that by His wounds and stripes, all of us would be healed, a clear reference to what the Lord Jesus Himself would do for our sake.

We heard how the Lord humbled Himself and emptied Himself of all glory, as we heard from our second reading passage from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Philippi. The Apostle St. Paul spoke of how the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, obeyed His Father’s will so perfectly, and humbled Himself such that He was willing to endure a most humiliating and painful death on the Cross, so that by His most selfless offering of Himself, and by His obedience, He became the Source of Hope and Salvation for all of us mankind, for the whole entire world. Through Christ, all of us have become sharers and partakers in the New and Eternal Covenant that He has established with all of us, as He is the Mediator of this Covenant, through which He has brought us into full reconciliation between us and the Lord God, our loving Father and Creator.

This is what we have essentially heard through the long Passion narrative this Sunday, reminding us all of everything that Our Lord had done for our sake, in Him enduring the worst of punishments for us. He has not ignored or abandoned our plight and suffering, and by His ever enduring love and compassion towards us, He willingly took upon His shoulders and embraced us fully, and in His sharing of our human nature and existence, He took it upon Himself to offer on our behalf a most worthy offering, the offering of His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, as the Paschal Lamb of God, crushed and sacrificed for us, that He offered Himself on the Altar of His Cross at Calvary, He brought upon us the certainty of salvation and eternal life. All of us who believe in Him and in the truth that He has revealed to us, will receive from Him the gift of everlasting grace and life.

Thus, this Sunday as we mark the beginning of this most Holy Week, the Week celebrating and commemorating the most important events in the history of our salvation, let us all therefore immerse ourselves more deeply into the Lord’s Passion and all that He had done for us, as we remember how He began the final week of His most important mission, that is to offer and sacrifice Himself for our sake. Let us all remember the actions of our great and most loving King, Who has come into our midst to be with us, and to redeem all of us. Let us remember how He came humbly riding on a donkey into Jerusalem, hailed and adored by the people only to be cast out and rejected just barely a few days later, betrayed by His own disciple and condemned to death for sins and faults that He Himself did not commit. Yet, He had borne all of that upon Himself because He loves each and every one of us, and He wanted that by His selfless offering and sacrifice, and by His suffering and death, all of us may be saved, and has sure path to eternal life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore as we enter into this most solemn and important week, the holiest of all the weeks of the whole entire year, let us all spend some time to reflect on our Lenten journey thus far and how we have lived our lives in this world. Lent is a time for us to rediscover our true path in life towards God and to recalibrate and reconnect ourselves with God and His path especially if we have erred and wandered down the wrong path. And as we enter into this Holy Week of Our Lord’s Passion, each one of us are called to remind ourselves why our Lord has done all these for us, and that again, first of all, is because of His love for us. We have sinned against the Lord, and we should have deserved damnation and destruction for our faults and sins, and yet, God willingly came to us, and through His Passion, He showed us the path to a new life with Him, and by His sufferings, He shouldered the punishments of our own sins meant for us.

Let us all remember how God has been so patient with us and how much He has loved us, that He came into our midst to live amongst us and to suffer with us and for us. Let us all no longer harden our hearts and minds, and be no longer stubborn as many of our predecessors who have frequently and constantly rejected the Lord and His generous offer of love and mercy. Let us all look upon the Crucified Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, and see His loving gaze, ever always directed at us, so that we may indeed be ashamed by our many sins and wrongdoings, all of which had inflicted the many injuries and wounds that He had to painfully bear for our sake, and yet which He bore willingly and lovingly nonetheless because He truly and really loves us very much. Therefore, let us all deepen our appreciation of everything that Our Lord and Saviour had done for us, and deepen our relationship with Him.

May the Lord, our King and Saviour, our High Priest and our Paschal Lamb, He Who has done so much for us for our salvation, continue to be with us and guide us patiently as He has always done, so that we may grow ever more in faith in Him, and learn to love Him more and more, especially as we enter into this time of most solemn commemoration of His Passion, His suffering and death during this Holy Week and the upcoming Easter Triduum. Today, let us not just acclaim Him with our words and mouth only, but let us all acclaim Him from deep within our hearts. May He help us all to remain focused on Him and may He empower each every one of us so that we may persevere ever more against the many challenges, trials and temptations in life. May God bless us all in our every good works, efforts and endeavours, so that in everything we do, we may truly be ever more faithful to Him and be exemplary role models and good examples for others to follow, that through us and our actions, many more may come to believe in God and be saved. Wishing all of us a most blessed, holy and fruitful Holy Week. Amen.

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Saturday, 1 April 2023 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Scriptures, preparing us and reminding us of what we are about to celebrate in the upcoming Holy Week and Easter Triduum starting tomorrow on Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord. We are about to enter into the most solemn and important moments in the story of the salvation of the whole world and all of mankind. Therefore, that is why we are reminded again and again these days of what we are about to commemorate and celebrate, in this holiest and most important moments of our whole liturgical year, and we should understand it all that we may truly benefit from the celebration and commemoration of Our Lord’s Passion, His suffering, death and resurrection. We should prepare ourselves well, physically, mentally and spiritually for these that we may grow deeper in faith and appreciation of our Christian faith.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, we heard the reassuring words that the Lord has spoken to His people through Ezekiel, that He would give them the fullness of His grace and blessings once again. He would gather them back from their scattered places among the nations and restore them once again to glory and joy, as how it was during the days of King David and King Solomon. The Lord has promised His people Israel that He will always be faithful to them and to the Covenant that He has made with them and their ancestors, and He will never break the promises He had made even when the people had frequently disobeyed Him and disregarded the many reminders that He has given them through His messengers and prophets. God still cared for all of them and loved all of them nonetheless, and sent Ezekiel to them for the purpose of reminding them of this love.

Ezekiel was sent to the people of Israel in exile in the distant lands of Babylon, where many of them had been exiled after the destruction of their homeland in Israel, in the northern kingdom of Israel and in the southern kingdom of Judah alike. They had been bereft of their homeland, their identity and their honour, cast our from their ancestral lands and cities, forced to wander off in distant places, humiliated and crushed, all because of their sins and disobedience against God. They had abandoned and rejected Him for pagan idols and false gods, and scandalised themselves and their faith by following the ways of their neighbours instead of remaining faithful to the path that the Lord has taught and shown them, persecuting His prophets and messengers, all the servants of God that had been sent to them to remind them of their calling as God’s people.

Ezekiel reminded them of the Lord’s promise that He will establish the rule of the House of David forever, and this rejuvenates the hope in the hearts of the people who were downtrodden and in despair, because God reminded His beloved ones that His salvation will come, and everything will be good again. All of these would indeed come true in Christ, the Lord Jesus and His coming into this world. For He was born as the Son and Heir of David, becoming the great King to sit on the Throne that has remained empty for many centuries since the destruction of the kingdom of the people of God, restoring the union that God has with His people, acting as the Mediator between us and God, our Heavenly Father, the One through Whom God would renew His Covenant, into a new and everlasting Covenant, through which He shall gather all of His faithful ones to be His flock and His one people once again.

In our Gospel passage today, we are reminded then of how the Lord would do all of these which He had planned from the very beginning, as we heard how the Jewish authorities, the Jewish High Council or the Sanhedrin, headed by the chief priests led by Caiaphas, the High Priest then, plotted against the Lord Jesus. They wanted to arrest Him and accuse Him falsely of faults and crimes that would make Him a scapegoat for the Jewish people, with the excuse that what the Lord had done would eventually lead to the Romans ending whatever privileges and autonomy that they had granted the Jews back then. As we can see here, those people were mainly concerned about protecting their own privileges and status, their special grants and property, among other things, rather than to listen to reason and to the truth that God Himself had brought before their very own eyes.

As He Himself said and predicted, the Lord had to suffer grievously at the hands of His enemies and those who opposed Him, much as how His own prophets and messengers had been treated previously. He would be rejected and condemned to death, and yet, He would then become the great Cornerstone, the One through Whom the salvation of the world would come through. He would become the Source of the world’s Hope, the Light of the world and the Saviour of all. By His wounds and by His suffering, we are to be healed and strengthened and made whole once again. Through Christ’s Passion and death, by His willing and most selfless embracing of each and every one of us, all of us have received the assurance of eternal life and true joy and hope, by the most generous show of love that God Himself has made evident and tangible through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour.

That is what we are going to commemorate in this upcoming Holy Week and through the Easter Triduum, as we enter into this most solemn and holy occasion. Are we all ready to enter into this celebration and commemoration of the Lord’s Passion, His suffering and death, remembering everything that He had done for each and every one of us? Have we made good use of the time and the preparation that we have been expected to do during this season of Lent, so that we may draw closer to the Lord and come to better realisation of what God had done for each and every one of us? Have we done what we can so that we may help one another in our journey of faith and to help inspire each other to persevere against the challenges and trials that we have to face as faithful and devout servants and followers of God? As the Lord Jesus had said, that if we are to be His true disciples and followers, we have to pick up our crosses and follow Him. Can we do that, brothers and sisters in Christ?

Let us all therefore commit ourselves anew to the Lord and let us all do our best to walk faithfully in God’s Presence, dedicating more of our time and attention, our efforts and commitments to do the will of God and to glorify Him by our lives and actions in our respective communities. Let us all be great beacons of faith and God’s Light amidst the darkness of this world, and inspire more and more people to break free from the chains of sin. May the Lord continue to bless us all and guide us in our journey through life, that we may ever be strong and courageous to resist the temptations to sin and disobey Him, that we may not falter like how the people of God had done in the past. May God be with us always and may He empower us all in each and every moments, and may all of us have a great and blessed Holy Week ahead. Amen.

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Friday, 31 March 2023 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we come ever closer to the end of the season of Lent and the coming of Holy Week, through the Scripture readings we have received, all of us are reminded ever more each day of the need for all of us to turn towards the Lord and place our trust in Him, so that we return to Him and being faithful once again, resisting the temptations of worldly desires and attachments, and embracing wholeheartedly the Lord Who has always provided us with whatever we need and with all the protection and guidance along our path and journey. Each and every one of us are reminded of the hope we have in God that will be our path towards salvation, amidst a world filled with darkness and evil, trials and challenges, hardships and difficulties. As long as we keep our focus in the Lord and trust in Him, our path forward is clear.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah in which the persecutions and hardships that the prophet Jeremiah faced were highlighted and detailed to us. Jeremiah was sent to the people of the southern kingdom of Judah, to minister to them and to pass to the people the words of the Lord during the last years of that kingdom’s existence. He had to bear the hard work of telling those rebellious and hard-hearted people to repent from their sins and to warn them of the impending disasters and sufferings that they would have to endure because of their continued sins and wickedness. Jeremiah often spoke of the upcoming destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, and hence was often ostracised, hated and persecuted although he was really telling the truth. There were many false prophets and false guides who tried to spread their falsehoods and steer the people to their own agenda, who were also likely the same ones that plotted against Jeremiah.

They made the people to resent Jeremiah for his usual tirades and speeches, which kept on calling out the people for their sins and wickedness, while those same false prophets used sweet words and lies to mollify and persuade the people of God to continue in their sinful way of life. They sought worldly glory and satisfaction, and chose to mislead the people for their own advantages and benefits. Those who were faithful like Jeremiah were persecuted and oppressed instead, but God never forgot about all those who faithfully believed in Him and trusted in Him. He cared for all of them and provided for them, guided and strengthened them with His Spirit and strength. Although they had to suffer for being God’s true disciples and followers, but He kept reassuring them of His ever present love and grace, and that He was with them through all those difficult moments and times.

That was what the Lord Himself has experienced as we heard ourselves in our Gospel passage today, detailing the moment when the Lord Jesus was confronted with resistance and opposition from many of the Jewish people living in Jerusalem. Back then, those Jewish people were those who followed the precepts and laws of the Lord as passed down to them from Moses and their ancestors most rigorously and devotedly, particularly the Jewish elites of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, the chief priests and the scribes. Many among those people often criticised and opposed the Lord and His works as they saw what He taught and did as in opposition to their own interpretation and understanding of the Law and the ways of observing the commandments of God. They hardened their hearts and minds against Him such that although the Lord had taught and revealed the truth with such clarity and Wisdom, they still refused to believe.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s reflection, many of the Jews still could accept the fact that this upstart, the Son of a mere carpenter originating from the remote village of Nazareth in Galilee, which itself was at the periphery of the Jewish world then, could be the Holy One, the Messiah and Saviour that God had promised them, despite all the signs and wonders they themselves had witnessed pointing towards such a conclusion. That was why they rejected the Lord and persecuted Him, made His life, work and ministry to be very difficult, and the Lord had to hide Himself from their anger, as not a few amongst those people wanted Him dead and destroyed. Then, we heard how the Lord retreated to the wilderness, and it was there that many of those who were more open-minded and willing to listen to God’s truth and words, came to the Lord in droves.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have heard it earlier on, we can see how persecution, hardships and challenges are often part and parcel of our lives and ministry as Christians, in whichever manner and area that we are moving in, and in whichever era and time, just as our many holy predecessors and ancestors can easily testify, by their own lives and also sufferings. Not few suffered grievously for their faith, and many even suffered martyrdom, most painful death and trials in their journey of faith. Yet, many if not most of them endured all of those sufferings with faith and trust in the Lord, committing themselves ever more to the Lord, and persevering with patience and grace, following the examples of their own predecessors, and not least, the Lord Jesus Himself, Who has also been cast out, rejected and persecuted, and condemned to die a most humiliating and painful death on the Cross.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we draw ever closer to the Holy Week and the momentous events of Easter Triduum, let us all deepen our understanding of all those events and everything that the Lord Himself had done for us and on our behalf. Let us all remind ourselves of the great and ever enduring love that God has shown each and every one of us, that He gave us His own beloved Son, the Divine Word and Son of God Incarnate, that we may see and reach out to His love, made tangible by the Incarnation of Christ in the flesh, and that by uniting His humanity to our own humanity, He might deliver us all from the certainty of damnation and destruction due to our many sins and wickedness, by showing us the example of perfect obedience and faith, and by bearing upon His own shoulders, all the burdens and punishments that should have been ours. He chose to be punished Himself, that through Him we may gain forgiveness and grace, and find the path to eternal life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore reflect carefully on our way of life and actions, especially as we continue to progress through this Lenten season and as we are about to begin Holy Week this Sunday. Let us all spend some time with the Lord, to reconnect ourselves to Him and grow ever more in love with Him. Let us all dedicate ourselves to the Lord with renewed zeal and love for Him, and let us all draw ever closer to Him, with each and every moments we have. May the Lord continue to bless and guide us in our journey of faith and life, and help us to lead a life that is truly holy, exemplary and worthy of Him. May all of us have a blessed upcoming Holy Week and Easter Triduum, and be ever prepared to welcome the Lord into our hearts. Amen.

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Thursday, 30 March 2023 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we heard the words of the Lord contained in the Scriptures, all of us are reminded of the Covenant that God has established with each and every one of us, the Covenant that He has always kept and renewed with all of our predecessors and ancestors. God never broke His promises and Covenants, and He has always ever been faithful to whatever He has told and revealed to us. It was always us mankind who have disobeyed Him, betrayed and abandoned Him for many worldly temptations and attachments, all sorts of things that kept us away from truly being united with Him. God loves us all nonetheless and He has ever always patiently reached out to us, calling on us to repent from our sinful ways and to return to Him once again with sincere love and devotion.

In our first reading today, all of us heard from the Book of Genesis of the story of the moment when God made His Covenant with Abram, His servant, whom He had called from the land of his forefathers. Abram obeyed God and followed Him to wherever He had led him to, leaving those comforts he knew and went to a future that was unknown to him. Yet, he trusted the Lord wholeheartedly and let Him to guide him in all things, and hence, God, Who knows everyone’s hearts and knew of Abraham’s great and enduring faith in Him, chose him to be the one with whom He would make His Covenant with. Through Abram, whom God named Abraham as a mark of the Covenant that they had made between them, God made a great people that He had chosen to be His first called people, the Israelites. There were also many other nations that sprang forth from among the descendants of Abraham, and hence, he was known as the ‘father of nations’.

All of those things were in fact proof that God was indeed truthful to His Covenant, and had kept His words and promises. The Lord has promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, so many people that they will number more than the grains of sand in the shores and more than the stars in the universe. That was made at the time when Abraham was still yet childless and his wife Sarah was barren, and after many years, there had not been any child born from them yet. God would fulfil the promises He made, as Abraham had the promised child and son, and from his bloodline, came forth many people of many nations. Not only that but He still cared and kept His Covenant with all of those descendants, to the people whom He had called and chosen to be His own. He still cared for them and loved them even after they had frequently rebelled against Him and disobeyed Him.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the continuation of the confrontation between the Lord Jesus and the Jewish people in Jerusalem. The Jewish people assembled were angry against the Lord because of what He had done and taught, and revealed before them, especially as He referred to God as His own heavenly Father, which was indeed the truth. They refused to accept the fact that this Man before them, the Son of a mere carpenter from the backwater village of Nazareth, in Galilee at the periphery of the Jewish world could be anyone special, less a Prophet, and even less so as the Son of God, the Messiah and Saviour of the whole world. They took offence at the Lord when He said that He had known Abraham and existed before Abraham ever was. That was the truth, and the Lord has patiently revealed and explained it all to them, but in their pride and arrogance, those people closed their hearts and minds to Him.

Back then, those Jewish people were those who were especially particular about the Law of God and His commandments, as those who kept strictly the various rules, precepts, rites and various customs of their ancestors. They took great pride in their inheritance and the efforts they placed in their piety and observance of the Law of God. That was why they were unhappy and angered by the Lord Jesus and His teachings, His revelation and words which challenged their traditional understanding of the world and way of life, and threatened the influence that the elites among them, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law held. That was why they hardened their hearts and minds, refusing to listen to the truth and wisdom that God had revealed to all of them through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we are reminded today of all these things by the Lord, we are all called to remind ourselves of the Covenant that He has made and renewed with us, and which He had renewed for once and for all, for eternity through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour by His Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross. It was by His selfless and willing sacrifice on our behalf, in caring for us and loving us that God has extended His ever generous love and grace towards us, in embracing us like a most loving and caring Father. He is always faithful to His Covenant and He remembers all the promises that He had made with us, and wants only our well-being and reconciliation with Him. For without God and separated from Him, there can be no life and true joy within us. We shall have no hope at all without the Lord by our side.

That is why, as we are soon about to enter into the most solemn and important moments of our whole entire liturgical year, the upcoming Holy Week and Easter Triduum, all of us should spend the time well to reflect on our way of life and our actions. We should think of whether our lives and actions have been reflecting well on our Christian faith and identity, and whether we have listened to the Lord and Him calling upon us all to follow Him. Have we placed the Lord as the centre and focus of our lives and existence? If our answer is no then the question is, ‘Why have we not done so yet?’ And if we allow ourselves to be swayed by the temptations of worldly glory, fame, attachment to worldly pleasures and desires like how those Jewish people at the time of the Lord’s ministry and what their leaders had done, then I am afraid that we may find it difficult to be truly faithful to God.

Let us all therefore embark on a journey of rediscovering our faith in God and our love for Him, filling our hearts and minds with God’s ever wonderful presence and grace. Let us all be like our father in faith, Abraham, the most faithful servant of God, in how he devoted his life to the Lord and followed Him with great trust in everything that He has promised him. May the Lord continue to bless us in our every efforts and journey, and guide us that we may be strengthened and encouraged amidst the many trials and challenges that we may have to face in our path forward as Christians. May God be with us always and be our Hope, Strength and Inspiration as we continue to follow Him in our lives, walking in the footsteps of Abraham, our father in faith, and our many other holy predecessors. Let us all prepare ourselves well especially for the upcoming Holy Week and Easter Triduum, and strive to be ever closer to the Lord, our most loving God and Father. Amen.

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Wednesday, 29 March 2023 : 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, we are called to remember our calling as Christians to be truly faithful to God and not to be only superficially faithful to Him. This means that in our way of life and dedication to Him, in our every actions and deeds, we have to be truly committed and be truly full of faith in all things, and not doing things merely to fulfil our obligations and faith to the Lord without true and genuine love for Him, and without true desire to seek Him and serve Him. If we do not truly love God then we are no better than hypocrites and all those who have no place in God’s grace and salvation, which He offers freely to those who have true and genuine faith in Him. Our Scripture passages today remind us that being faithful to the Lord entails more than just having a superficial faith.

In fact, just as we heard from our first reading today, taken from the Book of Daniel, we are brought right into the great challenges and trials that our predecessors had faced in the past just for being faithful to God and for standing up for their faith. We heard the confrontation between the three friends of Daniel and the great King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. As we all may be familiar with, back then, the people of God, the descendants of the Israelites had been scattered and cast out from their homeland by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, who crushed the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah respectively, carrying many of the people into exile in faraway lands. That was how Daniel and his friends, Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah ended up in the land of Babylon. They were bereft of homeland, honour and any semblance of worldly anchor, being homeless and without bearing in that ever changing world they lived in.

Then, in that particular occasion, as they were assembled by the King of Babylon, who had just built a great golden statue in his own image, they faced the great quandary and trial of having to obey the king’s order to everyone, for them to worship that golden statue, in the likeness of the king, who was known for his great megalomania and prideful personality, likening himself to a divinity, making himself essentially like a god. All of the people save for the three friends of Daniel bent their knees and bowed down, worshipping the golden statue under the pain of certain suffering and death if they did not obey the orders of the king. But those friends of Daniel refused to obey the king’s order and remained standing, refusing to betray the Lord their God and worship that false golden idol even if that meant endangering their own lives. They did not want to save their lives by turning their backs on the Lord.

They could have chosen to worship superficially and pretended to obey the king’s order, but in doing so, even if they did not intend to worship the idol, but their action could bring scandal to the Lord and to their faith in Him. Others who saw their actions would then see the fickle nature of their faith to God, and how easy it was for them to give up their faith in Him, at least from what was discernible through their actions. That is why, all of us should note how Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah all chose to suffer and die rather than betraying the Lord through their actions, and they chose to remain truly faithful and not just being superficial in their faith and way of life. This is why they remained unshaken in their commitment to God and did not obey the king’s commands, even under the pain of certain suffering and death. The king was angered even more by their answer to his question and demand on them to obey his will, as he threw them into the great furnace made even hotter than before.

Yet God did not abandon them, and kept them from harm, as He sent His Angel to guard them and to protect them from the flames. Thus, the friends of Daniel were spared from the dangers of death and suffering, and that so amazed the proud and haughty King of Babylon, that he tore down the great golden statue that he himself had built. The Lord showed His love for His faithful ones, and protected them, and showed that He is truly the One and only True God worthy of worship. And the faith and commitment which the friends of Daniel, Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah should be sources of inspiration and strength for each one of us to follow, so that we may also walk in the path that they had trodden, and that we may also have the courage that they had, in remaining truly faithful to God and in being truthful in how they lived their lives, in obedience to God, in all things.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord being confronted by the Jewish people, many of them adhering to the ways of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who spent a lot of time and effort enforcing a particularly strict version of the Law of God, and yet, in their excessive pursuit of religious purity and in being extra rigid in their way of observing the Law, they ended up forgetting most of the time why they practiced their faith in the manner that they had lived them. They became proud and haughty like that of the King of Babylon, and took great pride in their way of observing the Law, and condemning all those who disagreed with them, or those who did not practice the Law in the way that they had done it. This was them building up their own ‘idols’ in their hearts and lives, namely the ‘idol of pride’, the ‘idol of fame and worldly glory’, among the other ‘idols’ that they had made.

Essentially, their faith had become mostly superficial in nature, and there was barely any space or focus on the Lord in their hearts and minds. They were all too busy with observing the multitudes of precepts and details of the Law, the many fine details and rites, that they forgot about loving God and putting Him as the focus of their lives in the first place. They became proud and arrogant, and self-righteous in nature, condemning instead of helping all those whom God had actually entrusted to them as leaders and guides. They kept these away from the Lord’s grace and love, and from His salvation, instead of bringing them closer to the Lord as God Himself has intended. That was why the Lord chided and rebuked them for their lack of true and genuine faith in God, and He told them that their way of living their faith was truly wrong.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore reflect on our way of life and ask ourselves if we have been faithful to the Lord as we should have. Let us all discern carefully our path forward in life, making good use of the opportunities and the time provided for us in this season of Lent, that we may lead a life that is more attuned to the Lord, and be ever closer to Him, in each and every moments of our lives. May God continue to guide us and inspire us all to live ever more worthily of Him, by doing whatever we can to glorify Him by our lives and actions. May God bless our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 28 March 2023 : 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? Can we spend more time to focus our attention on and turn towards the Lord, Our Hope and salvation?

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.

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.

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Monday, 27 March 2023 : 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 first of all to be mindful of the dangerous temptations of sin and evil all around us, the allures of worldly desires and the lust for the pleasures of the flesh among other things. Then we are also reminded that each one of us are all sinners and we should not think that any one of us are better than the others and we should not take pride or be haughty because we think that we are somehow superior due to our actions and piety in life. Instead, each one of us as members of God’s Church, all of us are called to be charitable and to be caring for one another, showing genuine love for our fellow brothers and sisters and reaching out to those who have been lost from the Lord, taking part in the Church’s outreach and mission in proclaiming God’s Good News and salvation to those who seek the forgiveness and grace of God.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Daniel, of the story of Susanna, a faithful Jewish woman living in the land of exile in Babylon, like that of Daniel and many other descendants of the Israelites. At that time, the community of the Israelite exiles were likely centred on communities they established in those foreign lands, with elders to lead and guide the community of the faithful people of God. Thus, it was then that Susanna, who was married to a Jewish man, both of whom were God-fearing and faithful, was accused falsely by two of the community elders who lusted of her and desired to commit sin with her. As we heard in that long story from the first reading, Susanna refused the advances of the two elders, and when the two elders attempted to silence her to hide their own sins by accusing her of adultery and sin, God sent His intervention and help through Daniel, whom He inspired and guided to rescue the faithful Susanna from threat of certain death.

Those two elders were entrusted with the guidance and leadership over the people of God, and were highly respected for their position and leadership. Yet, they chose to allow themselves to be swayed by the wicked temptations of the world, the temptation of the flesh, the desire for the beautiful Susanna to cloud their judgment and sound mind, that they ended up falling into those temptations and the traps of sin, committing grievous sins against God. Not only that they attempted to violate the honour and purity of Susanna, a faithful servant and fellow child of God, but they then committed even more sins in trying to hide their sins and faults. That is why we should not even let sin to tempt us in the first place, as unless we are vigilant and careful, we can be easily dragged further and deeper into the trap of sin, and end up committing more and more vile things against God and against our fellow brethren.

Those two elders lied and heaped false accusations upon Susanna in order to keep themselves safe and abused their own position and power to gain things for their own benefit. But God would not allow them to have their way, and through Daniel, He broke apart their falsehoods and lies, and by His Wisdom, He saved Susanna from certain death, and justice was imparted well that day. Those who are righteous shall be saved and protected by God, while those who are wicked and evil, unless they repent from their sins and wickedness, they will have to face the consequences and the punishments for those sins that they have committed. That was exactly what happened to them, as they were unrepentant, and continued to commit sin and even endangering the life of another person in their attempt to mask their own faults.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the well-known story of the Lord Jesus and a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. The Lord Jesus was tested by a group of Pharisees and teachers of the Law who gathered a crowd with a woman who was caught in the midst of her sinful action, and through that, those people wanted to gauge His reaction and response to the woman, as the Lord had often reached out to those whom these people deemed as sinful and unworthy of God, like the tax collectors and the prostitutes, those who were suffering from various diseases and illnesses, and also those possessed by demons and evil spirits. They wanted to find the opportunity of accusing the Lord of tolerating sins and not following the precepts of the Law of God as revealed through Moses, so that they could persecute Him.

That was why, the Lord was in fact caught in a difficult situation there and then, as if He were to respond that the woman ought to be stoned to death according to the strict interpretation of the Law of Moses, then those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law could then claim that He was following what they themselves had taught, and perhaps discredit Him in some way or form, and if the Lord said that the woman should not be stoned and freed, then they could accuse Him of breaking the Law and disobeying the Lord’s commandments, both of which placed the Lord in a disadvantageous position, as if He had chosen either choices, those would have provided His opponents with ways to strike at Him at the first possible opportunity. But the Lord thoroughly outmanoeuvred them as He told them that those who had no sin ought to be the first to pick up the stone and throw it at the woman.

This answer stunned everyone, as no one could claim that they have never sinned before, and thus, we heard how everyone, beginning from the oldest, who have lived the longest and hence had committed the most sins, to those who were youngest among them, until no one else was left. And this is where it is notable that the Lord Himself was in fact the only ‘Sinless One’ present, untainted by sin in whatever form, and yet, as He Himself said to the woman, ‘Neither do I condemn you’, and telling her to sin no more, change her ways and turn once again towards the Lord. The Lord has not condemned her because He could see the good that was still present within her and the capacity that she had towards reconciliation with Him, and the opportunities that she still had in finding her way back towards God’s most loving and compassionate embrace.

It is therefore an important reminder to all of us that, after hearing everything from our Scripture passages today, that we should always be mindful of the dangers and the allures that sin may have on us, and how we should resist the temptations of those sins so that we will not end up falling into the path towards damnation. That is why we are reminded today to resist the temptations to sin, to control our desires and the many other emotions we have that we do not end up like the two elders, and remind ourselves that we should first and foremost keep our focus on the Lord, His way and His truth, and keep ourselves away from selfish desires and pursuits, be it for worldly pleasures, or for glory and fame, or for material wealth and goods among other things. We should not allow ourselves to be swayed and tempted by all these, and instead, as the Lord had told the woman, we should distance ourselves from sin and do our best to be faithful to God in all things.

Let us all also not be judgmental on others, or think that we are better and superior in any way to others around us. After all, each one of us are all sinners and we are all equally in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness. Instead of looking down on others and condemning them, let us all be kind to one another and help instead of being condemning and harsh on others. Let us all help each other to persevere through the difficulties we may face in life and the challenges and trials that we may have to face as Christians, in each and every moments. May the Lord be with us all and may He empower us all to be always strong and committed in our lives, in everything that we say and do, for His greater glory. May God bless us in our every good efforts and endeavours. Amen.