understanding the faith

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Thursday, 18 March 2021 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are called to remember just how fortunate we are that God has been so loving, compassionate, caring and merciful towards us. If not for the mercy that He has shown us, and for the love that He still has for each and every one of us, enduring even the worst struggles of our sins and disobedience, we ought to have been annihilated.

In our first reading today from the Book of Exodus we heard of the well-known case when the people of Israel disobeyed the Lord and rebelled against Him at Mount Sinai, not long right after He had rescued them and brought them out of the land of Egypt, destroying the armies of the Pharaoh sent against them and freeing them from the hands and tyranny of the Egyptians.

How did Israel disobeyed and rebelled against the Lord? When Moses went up to Mount Sinai to get the Law of the Lord and the Covenant, and was up there for forty days long, the people grew impatient and lost faith in both God and Moses, and some dissidents in the community seized the chance to try and seduce the people to turn to the pagan idols, shaped like a golden calf in the manner of the Egyptian gods.

This showed that the people, especially some among them did not yet have faith in God, or even refused to have faith in Him, just as shown in how many constantly grumbled and complained that they had so much better lives in Egypt even when they were enslaved, and that they had better food and drink, all these when the Lord constantly supplied the whole people daily with the bread of heaven, manna, flock of birds to give them meat to eat, and water throughout their journey in the desert.

When Moses interceded on behalf of the people, he was trying to appease the Lord’s anger over those who had disobeyed and betrayed Him, even as He had just given to them His laws and renewed His Covenant with them. The Lord could have just annihilated the whole nation and left Moses alone as the only survivor as He said, but He withhold His anger and forgave the people because of Moses and what he pleaded with Him.

This is therefore related to what we have heard in our Gospel passage today when we heard the Lord speaking to the people chastising many of them for their stubbornness and refusal to believe in Him, which was likely and especially pointed on many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who claimed to represent the authentic teachings and the laws of Moses, and yet, they had misinterpreted and misrepresented those laws.

They had forgotten the true intent and meaning of the Law of God, meant to show the way for the people to know God and to love Him. Instead, they used those laws to glorify themselves and for their own benefit, imposing on the people harsh conditions and rules that made it difficult for them to follow the Lord, while closing the door of salvation to those who needed them the most, by rejecting and ostracising those tax collectors, prostitutes and others.

That was why the Lord criticised them directly, and spoke clearly that it was Moses himself who would accuse them all before the Lord, as it was Moses who received the true Law and understood its meaning, which had been warped and changed so much by that time. And the Lord said that unless they changed their ways and turned to the true path, then they were heading to destruction.

And when the people, all mankind had sinned against the Lord, here it was the Lord Jesus Himself, Who like Moses in the past, interceded on behalf of the people. The Lord Jesus, Our Saviour is the High Priest of all of us, representing us, as He offered Himself as the perfect and worthy loving sacrifice on the Altar of the Cross. Through His Passion, suffering and death, He has shed His most Precious Blood and offered on our behalf, the worthy sacrifice to atone for our sins.

Then, through His Resurrection, the Lord called on us all to follow Him to share in the new life that He has offered us through that Resurrection. Just as we have shared in His death, we too have a share in His resurrection, that through Baptism, all of us have been brought into the new life, and a new existence, blessed and filled with the grace of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in our Scripture passages today, all of us are reminded first of all of our sinfulness, all those things that we had done in violation of God’s laws and against His will. Those sins will weigh down on us, and whatever we have in our burden of sin, we shall be judged against by, and unless we atone for them and be forgiven, then we may face the certainty of eternal destruction and death.

But God is ever loving and ever merciful, and He has given us the ultimate gift in Christ, His beloved and only begotten Son, Whom He had sent into this world to be our Saviour. To all of us who believe in Him, He has promised the assurance of eternal life, and if we accept the forgiveness of God and repent sincerely from our sinful ways, then surely we will be reconciled fully and completely with God.

Now, how are we going to proceed forward in life then? Perhaps we should be inspired by the good examples set by one of our holy predecessors, namely that of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, one of the great and influential early Church fathers and a great and dedicated bishop of the Church. He was the Bishop of Jerusalem during a time of great strife for the faithful in the See of Jerusalem, with divisions and disagreements that took place between the rival factions.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem had to face against the opposition from both religious and secular figures, powerful individuals and nobles, and even opposition from the Imperial family and the bureaucracy itself, which was at that time influenced heavily by the Arian heresy as well as other heresies and divisions rampant at that time. But this did not stop St. Cyril from committing himself to the efforts to reconcile those different factions with each other.

Through his efforts, St. Cyril brought many people back to the faith, and despite him having to endure several exiles and much difficulty, but through his works, the Church was able to overcome its darkest years and reaffirming its foundation in the true faith as passed down from the Lord through His Apostles. His courage and determination, his faith and love for God should be inspiration to each and every one of us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all seek the Lord therefore with renewed faith and zeal, with new love and devotion to Him, as we continue to journey through this season of Lent. Let us all seek His mercy and seek His forgiveness for our many sins, that we may be forgiven from them and find consolation and true joy in Him and through Him, and gain the true inheritance of heavenly glory. May God be with us all and bless us all in our good endeavours, efforts and faith. Amen.

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Wednesday, 17 March 2021 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are reminded that the Lord’s salvation has come into our midst in the person of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, the Divine Word Incarnate and born through His mother Mary to be the Saviour of the whole world. We are reminded today of the salvation that Christ has brought us through His suffering, His Passion, death and Resurrection.

In our first reading, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard of the Lord speaking to His people of the coming of the time and day of salvation, the moment when the Lord would bring all of them to freedom and happiness, and deliver them from their sufferings and troubles. At that time, the people of God had suffered from repeated invasions and also humiliations from their neighbours, and they were nowhere as great as they were as it was during the time of king David and king Solomon.

And just as the northern kingdom of Israel had been destroyed by the Assyrians recently by the time of the prophet Isaiah, exiling its people to the far-off lands of Assyria and beyond, and the same Assyrians had also been coming up to the southern kingdom of Judah and besieging even Jerusalem itself. The people of Judah and their king Hezekiah were only saved because the Lord intervened on their behalf sent His Angel to destroy the whole Assyrian army.

Through Isaiah therefore, the Lord wanted to remind His people that He has not forgotten or forsaken them, and on the contrary, He remembered them well, and wanted them to be saved. But everything happens in God’s time and according to His will. This means that if the people think that the Lord had not been with them, then they were not patient enough and mistook the Lord as One Whom they could control and have at the back of their whims and desires.

The Lord sent His Saviour into this world through Christ, His own beloved and only begotten Son, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His mother, that He may gather all of us into the embrace of the Lord, His heavenly Father, and by His sacrifice on the Cross, the Passion, suffering, death and the glorious Resurrection that we shall celebrate very soon during the Holy Week and Easter, He has saved us from the certainty of eternal destruction and death.

Yet, as we heard in our Gospel and as occurred throughout the Gospels, the people to whom the Lord had sent His Son refused to believe in Him and in His words, doubted and rejected Him even when they had seen all the wonders and miraculous deeds He had done, and even after hearing all the great and unsurpassed wisdom with which He had been teaching and preaching to them.

Thus, in our Gospel today, the Lord again reiterated that He, as the Son of God, is indeed the One sent by the Father to be the Saviour of all. And just as the prophet Isaiah spoke of the coming of the Lord’s salvation and wonders, the Lord Jesus spoke of the same, and in fact, spoke everything all as how it has been accomplished in Him and through Him, for He is indeed the fulfilment of what the Lord had been promising us mankind through the prophets.

We are hence reminded once again that our salvation has come to us through Christ, and through His most loving sacrifice on the Cross, by which He has redeemed us from our sins, He has offered us freely the forgiveness of God for our many sins. Yet, it is we ourselves who have been so stubborn and hardened our hearts against Him, refusing to embrace His forgiveness and accept His mercy and compassion.

That is why, we are all called to seek the Lord and to open our hearts and minds to welcome Him into our hearts this Lent. During this time and season of Lent, we are constantly being reminded that we are in need of help from God, to trust in Him and to put our faith and commitment to Him. And today, we happen to be celebrating the feast day of a great saint who can be our role model and inspiration as well.

St. Patrick, the renowned saint of Ireland, the one who evangelised the people of Ireland over a thousand years ago, was remembered for his missionary zeal, faith in the Lord, and especially his dedication to those who had been entrusted to him, those people to whom he had been sent to as a missionary. St. Patrick was captured at an early age by Irish pirates and was taken as a slave, until he managed to escape and return to his family. But this not stop him or discourage him when sent as a missionary and priest later in his life, to the very place where he endured slavery.

On the contrary, St. Patrick dedicated his efforts and his whole life to teach the people in Ireland about Christ, the Lord and Saviour, when most of the people there had not yet known about Him, and were still pagans believing in the pagan gods and idols. St. Patrick patiently explained to them about the nature of God, the Holy Trinity and the main aspects of the Christian faith, and was also involved in the many interactions between the rulers and petty kings in Ireland at the time.

Through his tireless efforts, St. Patrick helped to build the foundation of the Church and the Christian faith in Ireland, and many became converts to the faith and were touched by the courage and commitment, the love that St. Patrick had for the Lord and for his fellow men, for the people of Ireland in particular, who were like the lost sheep gathered by the shepherd, who was St. Patrick himself.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all called to follow in the footsteps of St. Patrick, and be inspired by his faith and dedication to the Lord, his exemplary Christian faith and actions in life, his sincerity in reaching out to others and to his fellow men. This Lent, we are all called to purify our faith and to redirect our attention and focus back towards the Lord, so that we may remember that our lives are centred on Him and not on other worldly matters and desires.

Let us all turn towards the Lord, our most loving God and Father. Let us all seek Him with renewed love and dedication, opening our hearts and minds to welcome Him into our beings, allowing Him to transform us into the children of Light, the Light of Christ, the Light of our salvation. May God bless us all and strengthen us, and may He empower us all to live ever more faithfully in His presence. Amen.

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Tuesday, 16 March 2021 : 4th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in our Scripture readings today we heard the interesting parallel between what we heard in our first reading today on the vision of Ezekiel, the prophet of God as he saw the vision of the heavenly Temple and Sanctuary, and the water that flows out of that Temple which purifies and sanctifies, and gives life, with the account of the miraculous healing of a man at the Pool of Bethzatha by the Lord, healing that man from his sickness and made him able to walk again.

In our first reading today, we heard the vision of the heavenly Temple, the dwelling of God Most High by Ezekiel. In that vision, particularly in what we are covering today, the life-giving water that comes forth from the Temple is representative of the life that comes forth from the Lord Himself, Who is the source of all life, and from Whom healing shall come for all those who have been sickened and troubled, just as He healed those with physical complaints and sicknesses. And in the same way therefore, He has also healed us from our sins.

Through what we have been hearing, the Lord has the authority and power to heal us not just from our physical infirmities and troubles, but even more importantly from our sins. In fact, the Lord alone is capable of forgiving us from our sins, and reconciling us to Himself, which He has done therefore through His own Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, Saviour of the whole world and all mankind. This healing happened on the Sabbath, on the sacred day in the tradition of the people of Israel and their descendants.

On the Sabbath, the Lord has decreed that the people should honour that day and refrain from doing work, with the intention of allowing the people to have the time to spend with God and to worship Him, rather than being occupied with their worldly matters and work for all of their time, or in pursuit of other matter and forgetting and leaving God out of their lives. Yet, this was never meant to prevent the people from doing good deeds and to do what the Lord has commanded them to do.

The Lord wanted all of His people to know Him and to be righteous in their ways, and He wants them to live their lives with Him as the focus and centre. Yet, they had forgotten this, and at the time of the Lord Jesus and His ministry, those who were charged with the preservation and care of the Law, they had erred and focused too much on the methods and the rigours of the rules and regulations of the Law, forgetting why the Law, especially that of the Sabbath was given by God to us in the first place.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us today are called to turn towards the Lord with ever stronger zeal and devotion. We are all called to renew our faith in Him and to believe that He is the One Who can heal us from all of our predicaments. Just as He has healed the sick man at the Pool of Bethzatha and made him to be able to walk again, thus we too can be healed from our infirmities. If we are perfectly healthy in the body, then are we in need of healing? The answer is yes! That is because of our sins, sins that corrupt us and make us unworthy before God, a disease that is eating up into our whole being, that God alone can heal.

And the Lord did all this through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ no less, by the ultimate and most loving sacrifice that He made on the Cross. He bared everything and emptied Himself, taking up upon Himself all of our sins and iniquities, and suffering greatly for all of them, for our sake, He has brought us the promised redemption and healing. Now, what are we going to do, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we going to embrace the Lord and His love, just as we have seen how much He had dedicated Himself to us? Are we grateful for everything that He had done to us?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, each and every one of us are called in this season of Lent to rediscover our faith and love for God. Are we willing to seek the Lord for healing and ask Him for the grace to be forgiven and reconciled with Him just like the sick man having strong faith and believing that the Lord could heal him? Let us all reflect and ponder on all these, and make the best use of the time and opportunities that have been given to us so that we may grow ever more in our faith and dedication to the Lord, through this time of reflection and reconciliation.

May the Lord guide our path and may He strengthen us all in our journey towards Him that we may find our path and may be ever closer to the Lord and persevere in our struggle in faith through life. May God bless us all and our good endeavours, all for the greater glory of His Name. Amen.

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Monday, 15 March 2021 : 4th 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 Scripture we are presented with the hope that the Lord had brought into this world with Him, the hope of eternal life and the resurrection into life. Through what we have heard in our Scripture readings today, we are reminded that if we are faithful to the Lord, we shall never be disappointed, and we shall receive the assurance of eternal life and grace from the Lord Himself.

In our first reading today we heard from the prophet Isaiah the words of the Lord speaking of the coming of a new world that will be free from all sorrow and suffering, where tears will be no more and where all will be joyful and glad again, in the presence of the Lord as contrasted with the sufferings and difficulties found in this world which have made our lives and existence to suffer. Through Isaiah the Lord wants to remind us that in Him there is hope and light beyond all those sufferings and pains.

It is that same hope and light which is reiterated once again through what we heard in our Gospel passage today. We heard the Lord healing and miraculously make whole the son of an official. In that occasion, as we heard, that the people of Nazareth and Jesus’ own hometown had just rejected Him and refused to believe in Him, but the people of Galilee welcomed Him, many of whom were pagans and those who were on the fringe of the Jewish community at the time. The Lord performed many of His miracles there in Galilee, but there were still those who refused to believe in Him, including those from His own hometown.

Then we heard of the official who came to the Lord begging Him to heal his very sick son on the verge of death. He wanted to have his son healed by the Lord having heard of His miracles and reputation. And what was remarkable is that, in this case, without the Lord Himself going and entering into the house of the man, and by simply saying the words, ‘Your son is healed’, the official’s son was healed completely the very moment that word was spoken. Yet, as he was away from his house back then, he could not have witnessed this directly.

Nonetheless, the official had faith in the Lord and believed in Him, and as he went home he heard that his son has completely recovered the moment the Lord told him that the son would be well, and he became a good believer from then on. This is a reminder for each and every one of us to have faith in God and to hold firmly in our trust and belief in Him. We must not lose faith or not believing in God just because we do not see or feel His works and wonders happening around us.

Like those people who refused to listen to and believe in the Lord, those who doubted Him and made it difficult to perform His ministry, all those people had shallow and superficial faith. And even when they had witnessed the Lord’s miracles, His works and wonders, heard His great and unsurpassed wisdom and the authority and authenticity in what He spoke and preached, their minds and hearts were still closed to God.

That is why no matter how many miracles they witnessed, how many wonders and wisdom they received, they could not come to believe the Lord and His truth. Their pride and arrogance, their stubbornness became great stumbling blocks preventing them from truly being able to attain true grace in God. As long as they did not have true and genuine faith and love for God in their hearts, this cannot happen.

This is therefore a reminder for all of us that we must trust in the Lord and put ourselves in His protection and care, and believe that He can do everything that is needed for us. Just like the official, we must learn to trust the Lord and believe in Him even if we cannot tangibly feel, see or perceive His presence and help, and even if we do not witness directly the impacts and effects of His works.

Are we willing and able to commit ourselves to the Lord and allow Him to lead the way for us forward through life? Are we capable of making this commitment, to walk with God and to journey with Him through life together despite the challenges and trials that we may face? Let us all not harden our hearts anymore and let us all open the doors of our hearts to welcome the Lord and to make Him truly the King of our hearts, allowing Him to lead us in the way and path to salvation.

May the Lord help us and be our guide through this journey, and during the remaining time of this season of Lent, let us all turn towards Him with greater love, devotion and faith in Him, and let us purge from ourselves the corruption of pride and greed, the taints of sin in our hearts and minds. Let us all seek the Lord with ever greater humility and commit ourselves to the Lord with renewed zeal and vigour. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 14 March 2021 : Fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Rose or Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday marks the Fourth Sunday in the season of Lent, which means that we are already more than halfway through this blessed time of preparation for the coming of the most important celebrations of our faith during the Holy Week and the season of Easter. And this Sunday particularly, as we may have seen from the distinctive rose vestments, used only twice in the entire liturgical year, we mark the occasion of Laetare Sunday.

Together with Gaudete Sunday in the Advent season, Laetare Sunday and the rose vestments used today mark the more joyful focus of our Lenten commemoration, a slight departure from the usually more sombre and penitential nature of the rest of the Lenten season. Just as Gaudete Sunday marks the joyful aspect of our Advent preparation for the coming of our joy in Christmas, in the coming of the Lord and Saviour of the world, thus this Laetare Sunday marks the joyful aspect of our preparation for the true joy of Easter.

This word Laetare comes from the Introit of today’s celebration of the Holy Mass, ‘Laetare Jerusalem, et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam, gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis’ which means ‘Rejoice, o Jerusalem, and gather round all you who love her, rejoice in gladness after having been in sorrow’. Therefore today’s celebration, together with the readings from the Scripture that we have heard just earlier on, we are reminded that while during this season of Lent we lament, regret and are sorrowful over our sins, and desiring to repent from those sins, we also have the joyful hope of the Lord’s salvation and assurance of His love, for through His mercy and compassion, He has willingly forgiven us all.

In our first reading today, we heard of the account from the Second Book of Chronicles, detailing what had happened at the end of the southern kingdom of Judah, the last remnant of the old kingdom of Israel, of David and Solomon. That kingdom was destroyed by the Babylonians who came and overpowered the people of Judah, whose sins and disobedience against God made them to suffer and endure humiliation, as they witnessed the destruction of their city, of Jerusalem and its Temple, the House of God and the loss of the Ark of the Covenant and not only that, but also their exile to Babylon.

They had been cast out from their own homeland and forced to wander as exiles in foreign lands, forced to endure shame and humiliation as those who had ignored the Lord’s constant reminders and love, and ended up being humbled and torn apart from their own lands and livelihood. They had to endure the exile and shame for many decades under the reign of the Babylonians, and some like Daniel and his friends had to contend with those who did not worship God and they had to worship in secret, but all was not lost for them, as God, Who had called and chosen them to be His first chosen ones, still loved them and wanted to be reconciled with them.

Thus, we heard in the same reading of the return of the exiles of Israel to their homeland under the emancipation of king Cyrus of Persia, the great king who was often hailed as liberator and God’s servant in allowing the people of Israel to return to their homeland and to worship the Lord as they had once previously done. Eventually the city of Jerusalem and the Temple itself would be rebuilt by the guidance of the prophet Ezra and Nehemiah, God’s servants who renewed His Covenant with the people of Israel and their descendants.

Truly, this is a most joyful event, and we can just imagine the joy of those people who came to see their homeland again after many decades in exile, and those who saw the Temple of Jerusalem being rebuilt once again after it had been left as piles of rubble for quite some time. God has reached out to His people and showed them His love and compassionate mercy, and as long as they were willing to turn away from their sinful ways and repent, He would bless them and gather them in once again, to enjoy the blessed fruits of His grace.

But God did not just stop there, for He has also promised all of us, the sons and daughters of mankind, the salvation and liberation from all of our sins, from the tyranny of death and evil. He has promised us all from the beginning that He shall not abandon us and will always be with us to the end. And in our Gospel passage today we heard the Lord, Our Saviour Himself proclaiming this truth and the fulfilment of God’s promises through Him. When the Lord Jesus spoke of the coming of the Saviour of the world, the Son of God sent into this world for ‘God so loved the world’ He was referring to Himself.

Let us recall what has happened, brothers and sisters in Christ, that just how the people of Israel had disobeyed and refused to listen to the words of the Lord and those of His prophets and messengers, thus we have also been disobedient and defiant, refusing to follow the way of the Lord ever since sin entered into our hearts and minds, into our midst by the disobedience of Adam and Eve, our ancestors. And thus, just like the Babylonians conquering the kingdom and the people of Judah, sending the survivors into exile, thus sin has conquered us, and the devil and all of his agents had gained dominion over us.

That was why we have been struck out and cast out of Eden, where we ought to have dwelled and where we should have enjoyed the most wonderful fruits of God’s grace. Yet, we fell and were cast out of Eden to wander this world in exile, to suffer the consequences of our sins, just as the people of Judah and the rest of Israel having to endure shame, humiliation and persecution from others. By our sins we have been made outcasts and derided by those who see us.

Yet, God did not give up on us. He could have crushed, annihilated and destroyed us from the very beginning if He had wanted it to be that way. He could have just erased us all from existence, as we are after all unworthy, having been corrupted and defiled by the taints of our sins. God’s love for us however is greater even than all these, and He Who created us all out of love as the pinnacle of His creation certainly does not want to see us destroyed.

To that extent, He listened to our cries for mercy and desire to seek forgiveness, just as once Moses and the people pleaded before Him to spare them the destruction. At that time, during the Exodus, the Israelites disobeyed the Lord and sinned against Him, which resulted in fiery serpents sent into their midst, and killed many among them. The people begged Moses to intercede for them before the Lord, and thus, they sought forgiveness for their sins.

God told Moses to craft a great standard of a bronze serpent on a pole, and to put it in a prominent place for everyone to see it. All those who were bitten by the serpents and then saw the bronze serpent of Moses would not perish and die, but live. Through this comparison, the Lord told Nicodemus the Pharisee in our Gospel passage today, highlighting how He Himself would show all the people, all of mankind, the same salvation in God, by being lifted up Himself on the Cross for all to see.

Those fiery serpents and their deadly stings represent the sting of sin which is death, and a reminder that the consequence of our disobedience against God is nothing less than death, and because of sin, we have consciously rejected God’s love and favour, and therefore should have deserved eternal damnation and suffering. Yet, the Lord Who loved us His people wanted to show us the way out, and to save us just as He has saved the Israelites in the past.

That is why, out of His great and enduring love for each and every one of us, God sent us all His ultimate gift and the perfect manifestation and proof of His love, by giving us all His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord, to be our Lord and Saviour. He came into this world to heal us and to save us from the tyranny of sin, and He did so by taking upon Himself all the burdens of our sins, all the multitudes of those sins, and bore them on His own shoulders. He did not want death to reign over us, and He wants us to live with Him, to be reconciled to God.

And it is for this reason that while we prepare ourselves in this season of Lent, repentant and sorrowful over our sins, we are also joyful because thanks to the Lord, we now have hope once again, the hope of the everlasting life and eternal joy that He has promised us through His Cross, His suffering and death, and finally through His Resurrection. We rejoice because we have seen the light of God’s salvation and are happy because of the love that He has for us.

Through Christ, all of us have been guaranteed a freedom from the tyranny of sin and death. But, what we need to realise is that, unless we commit ourselves to the Lord and follow Him, we cannot fully embrace all of these. We have to put our faith in the Lord and believe that it is through Him that we can be freed from the bondage of sin, and seek Him for forgiveness, to ask for forgiveness from our many sins, which He shall gladly grant to us, if we are willing to repent and turn away from those sinful ways.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are about to enter into the most holy and wonderful mysteries of the Holy Week and Our Lord’s Passion very soon. Are we able and willing to make good use of the remaining time in Lent to prepare ourselves well so that we can remind ourselves of the need for us to be faithful to God and to remain focused on Him? We are called to turn away from our rebelliousness and our wayward path, to be genuine and faithful Christians once again, as God’s worthy children and as His beloved people.

Let us make good use of this time and opportunity given to us by the Lord so that we may come to realise the folly of our ways and our stubbornness, and be humble and willing to seek God’s ever loving presence, asking to be forgiven from our many sins, and that we may sin no more and turn away from all the corruptions of those sins. May all of us be courageous in resisting the allures and the temptations of sin, and help one another in our daily struggles, by being good role models in our Christian faith and living.

Therefore, let this joy we celebrate today in this Laetare Sunday be the prelude to the true joy that we are to have in the Lord, through the full and genuine reconciliation between us and Him, as we commit ourselves wholeheartedly to Him, to be freed from the tyranny of sin and death, be freed from evil and wicked deeds and thoughts, and be ever more faithful as Christians in our daily lives. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Saturday, 13 March 2021 : 3rd Week of Lent, Eighth Anniversary of the Election of Pope Francis, Vicar of Christ and Bishop of Rome (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the need for us to be humble before God and seek His mercy and forgiveness, as we show genuine and utter regret for all of our sins and past wickedness. The Lord wants to forgive us our sins because of the great love that He has for each and every one of us. However, if we want to be forgiven then we have to truly repent from our sins and turn away from all the evils we have committed, and believing fully in the Lord once again.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Hosea, we heard of the Lord speaking to His people through Hosea calling on them all to embrace His mercy and forgiveness. The Lord called on all of them, who had strayed away from His path and who had not obeyed His words and commandments to turn towards Him, that He might forgive them and bring them back into His graceful embrace and love.

At that time, the Israelites had erred and wandered off away from the Lord’s path and Law. They had been scattered all over the nations, and by the time of the ministry of the prophet Hosea, almost nothing left was of the northern kingdom of Israel, beaten, crushed and destroyed by the Assyrians. Many of the people of the northern kingdom of Israel were taken away to exile in far-off lands, and they suffered great humiliation for this.

And this is exactly where the Lord reminded His people that they should put their trust in Him and believe in His path. The Lord wants all of His people, us all included, to see that we have this assurance of forgiveness and mercy, and thus hope and strength through Him. We just need to recognise our own sins and shortcomings, and admit before the Lord that we had been wrong and mistaken in our past way of life.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord speaking to His disciples through a parable, depicting a tax collector and a Pharisee praying in the Temple of Jerusalem, in God’s Holy Presence. And the Lord reminded the people using the contrast between the attitudes of the Pharisee and the tax collector in their prayers before the Lord. We heard of how the Pharisee boasted about his faith, piety and achievements, while even looking down on the tax collector.

We heard how the tax collector was very regretful and repentant over his sins and actions. And regarding whether it was him or the Pharisee who had greater fault or sin, it did not matter, as God forgives those who seek Him with humility and the desire to be forgiven, no matter how great their sins might have been. By using the example of the Pharisee and the tax collector in His parable however, the Lord was pointing out the stark contrast between the two group of people mentioned, which was at that time filled with lots of prejudices and biases.

First of all, the Pharisees were always seen as being righteous and pious in their actions and behaviour, and the people always highly respected and regarded them in the community. On the other hand, the tax collectors were often hated and reviled as traitors and as those whose lives were corrupt and even evil. They were treated as such because they collected the much hated and despised taxes on behalf of the king and the Roman overlords, and some did get rich while doing that.

Showing this prejudice inside His parable, the Lord wanted to show all of us that the Lord calls on everyone to seek His forgiveness and mercy, and first of all we need to be humble and to realise the depth of our own sin, so that we may be forgiven from our sins. The tax collector was forgiven his sins precisely because he humbled himself before God and wanting to be forgiven for his sins, while the tax collector in his pride did not even show regret for his sins and sinned even more by slandering his own fellow man, when as the guide of the people, he should have extended the tax collector a helping hand rather than condemning him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, hence we are all reminded this Lent that we should turn away from our sinful ways, embrace the Lord’s forgiveness and love, and be more charitable and generous in loving one another, in showing care and concern for each other rather than comparing ourselves and trying to find out who is better than the other in faith and in life. Let us not allow pride, ego, ambition and vanity from distracting and preventing us from reaching out to the Lord and His salvation.

May the Lord awaken in us the spirit of humility and the spirit of repentance and genuine regret for our many sins. May He strengthen us all and give us the courage to move forward in life with a new commitment and a new dedication to live a more Christian living that we do not sin any more, and strive instead to follow the path that the Lord has set before us. May God bless us all and our good endeavours, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 12 March 2021 : 3rd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the Lord, we are all reminded that the Lord loved us all very dearly and similarly He also wants us to love Him in the same way and to show the same love to our fellow brothers and sisters, our neighbours and fellow men whom we encounter in this life. This is our calling as Christians, to be those who are beloved by God, and who also show the same love of God to one another.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Hosea, detailing about God and the love that He had for all of His people, at the time when the northern kingdom of Israel where Hosea was ministering in was in its final days. At that time, the people of Israel had long been wayward and disobedient, refusing to obey the Lord and His ways, rejecting the many messengers and prophets that had been sent to them in order to remind them to follow the Lord.

As such, they suffered the consequences of their waywardness, their rebellion and refusal to listen to God. They were crushed and humbled, and as the prophet Hosea was famous for, their doom was pronounced. This would come true with the final defeat of the northern kingdom by the forces of the Assyrians who destroyed Samaria, its capital and occupied the whole land, depopulating the region and replacing the whole people to the far-off Assyria.

But with the message of doom also came the message of hope, as the Lord reaffirmed through Hosea, His love and commitment for His people. He called on all of them to repent from their sinful ways and to reject their past wickedness. If only that they would abandon those sins, He would gladly forgive them and embrace them once again when they came to Him with contrite heart. The Lord still loved His people even though they had betrayed Him, abandoned Him and refused to listen to Him, and that is just how much God’s love for us is.

In our Gospel passage today, then we heard the Lord conversing with one of the teachers of the Law regarding the most important commandment in the Law. This conversation came about partly because of the great number and variety present in the Law, the many rules and regulations that govern the Jewish society at the time. The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees were those who often zealously guarded the strict observance and following of the laws of Moses, and as such, when the question was asked, that teacher of the Law might have the intention of testing the Lord to find out what His opinion was regarding the Law.

However, based on the answer given by the teacher of the Law, it might seem that he was just curious of what the Lord thought about the Law. And the Lord indeed summarised the whole Law very well and revealing to all that the Law is indeed all about showing the love of God to man, and how mankind can love God better in their actions and life, and then show the same love to their fellow brothers and sisters.

We cannot be true disciples and followers of the Lord unless we truly believe in this and fully immerse ourselves in God’s love. That is why, during this season of Lent, first of all, we are all called to repent from our sins and to seek the Lord’s forgiveness and mercy, which He has shown us and reminded us through His prophet Hosea, in calling us all to turn back to Him and to be fully reconciled in Him once again.

And in order to do this, we need to do what the Lord has commanded us to do, through His Law and commandments. All these while, we have erred and fallen into sin, like those Israelites of the past and so many others who have rejected God and His generous offer of mercy and compassion, all because of our ego and pride, and these things became great obstacles in our path towards God.

That is why during this season and time of Lent, we need to become smaller in ourselves, in our ego and pride, in our selfish desires and in the desire to be greater and in our wishes to achieve our own personal needs, and instead, we seek to put God above all else, and make Him the centre and the reason for our very existence. And in doing that, we shall also love our fellow brothers and sisters, our fellow mankind.

May the Lord help us in our journey to rediscover ourselves and to realign ourselves to Him. Let us all make the conscious effort to turn wholeheartedly towards God, from now on, and may God bless us all in our every good efforts and endeavours, and may we never again lose sight on our focus and hope in God. Amen.

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Thursday, 11 March 2021 : 3rd 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 Scripture we are called to turn back to God and to abandon our sinful ways, that we do not continue in our stubborn disregard of His laws and commandments and that we should not fall further and further into the temptations of our desires, on those wicked thoughts and the allures of worldly possessions.

In our first reading today we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, of the Lord reminding His people through Jeremiah, speaking to them regarding the need for repentance and to change their ways, highlighting how they had disobeyed Him and rejected His prophets and messengers for so many times. They had wandered off away from the path that God had set before them, preferring to follow the pagan idols and beliefs rather than to listen to the Lord.

In our Gospel passage then we heard of the Lord Jesus speaking to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law regarding the matter of how Jesus healed the man who had been beset by evil spirits. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law accused the Lord of having colluded with the demon lord Beelzebub, which was truly a serious accusation. The Lord then rebuked those who accused Him by pointing out the folly of their accusation and argument.

If the devil and his fellow evil spirits and demons were divided among themselves, among each other, then that would have led to civil war and destruction. If one thing was certain, it is that the devil and his fellow rebel spirits, the evil forces were all united in their desire to destroy us and to bring about our downfall. Instead of the false accusation the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law brought against Him, and the unfounded accusation that He had been colluding with Beelzebub, the Lord revealed that it was by the power of God that He had done everything He did.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law refused to see reason and many of them continued to resist Him and tried their best to make His ministry and work difficult, questioning and doubting Him throughout the way, all were because of their own worldly desires and ambitions. They saw the Lord and His teachings as threat to their own influence, prestige and power within the community. That is why they did not want Him to be successful and tried all they could to undermine Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called not to be swayed by worldly temptations, by our desires or by any other things that can become great obstacles in the way of us reaching the Lord. We are reminded by what we have heard in today’s readings that we must stay united with God, open our hearts and minds to listen to Him and His truth. Let us not be blinded by our desires and pride like what happened to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law at that time.

As the Lord mentioned, those who were not with Him, were against Him, and if we allow this division to exist among us Christians, then we will cause ruin to happen to us and the Church. We must stand united together against the assaults of the devil and all those who sought our downfall and destruction. As I mentioned earlier, completely contrary to what the Pharisees said, and according to what the Lord said, the devil and all the demon lords and princes are no less united in their efforts to crush us, and to snatch us away from God and His salvation.

That is why during this season of Lent all of us are called to reject all sorts of wickedness and evils, and embrace once again God’s ways and obey His laws and love Him with a renewed spirit and joy. Are we willing and able to commit to this path shown to us by the Lord, brothers and sisters in Christ? Let us all turn towards the Lord and dedicate ourselves to Him, obeying Him and His laws from now on. Let us all sin no more and be exemplary in our way of life so that we can be inspiration for one another in how we ought to live up to our faith.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen each and every one of us so that we may remain firm in our conviction to serve Him and follow Him despite all the trials and challenges, all the temptations and obstacles we may encounter in our path. May God bless us all and our every good endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 10 March 2021 : 3rd 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 Scripture, we are reminded through them yet again to be faithful to the Law and the commandments that God has revealed to us and passed down to us through our faithful predecessors, through the Lord Himself and the teachings of the Church that He has established in this world.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, we heard the words of Moses to the people of Israel during the time of their Exodus from Egypt and journey towards the Promised Land that they all ought to be obedient to the Law and keep the precepts of the Law through the generations, not forgetting them and abandoning them, but teaching them to their own descendants and that the Law of God be preserved always, at all times.

For Moses said that those who kept the Lord’s commandments and Law would be blessed and honoured, and they would be glorified by God, as God’s own chosen nation and people. The Lord has set His Law before them to govern and guide and to help the people to keep their faith amidst the many challenges found in the world. However, over time, as the meaning and purpose, the intention and the truth about the Law became forgotten, the people began to wander off further from the Law.

That is why the Lord when He came into this world as highlighted in our Gospel passage today spoke firmly that He did not come into this world to erase or cancel out the old Law of Moses, but rather to fulfil and make that Law more perfect, by revealing the fullness of its truth, purpose and intention. The Lord revealed to all of His people how they ought to come to Him through the Law, and by their better understanding and appreciation of the Law, they can be better disciples of His.

The Lord spoke of this in the face of the opposition that He encountered from the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, many of whom opposed Him because He did not endorse or support their way of interpreting the Law. They also saw the Lord’s teachings and His ways as being threats to their own influence and power, their prestige and status within the community of the Israelites. As a result, they tried to oppose the Lord at every possible opportunities and questioned Him whenever they had the chance to do so.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law favoured the very strict and ritualistic understanding and interpretation of the Law, focusing a lot on the minute details of the Law and the customs and traditions of the Jewish people. They were deeply engrossed in enforcing the strict and detailed observance of the Jewish traditions to a fault, even to the point of condemning all those who did not observe the Law in the way they did.

As a result, they lost their path and their way, and as the guides and the shepherds of the faithful, they ended up misleading the faithful people of God to the wrong path while closing the path to redemption and liberation to many people who could have been touched by God through their condemnation and their opposition against those whom they deemed as unredeemable sinners like the tax collectors and prostitutes among others.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all seek the Lord with a renewed faith and remind ourselves not to fall into temptations of our pride, ego and desire like those that caused the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and many of our predecessors to fall into sinful and wayward ways. This is why we are all reminded that we should seek to appreciate what the Law of God truly is for us, understanding its meaning and significance, by deepening our faith and relationship with God in our daily living.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we willing to commit to the Lord anew with faith and dedication, with true and sincere love for Him? Let us all appreciate everything that He has done for our sake, in giving us His Law and commandments to guide us and help us on the way, that we may find salvation in Him and through Him alone. Let us all seek the Lord with repentant hearts, turning our whole being back towards God, and endeavour to do whatever we can to be good Christians from now on. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 9 March 2021 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard of the mercy, love and benevolence of God Who has heard the prayers and pleading of His people, beginning with the prayer of Azariah, and the other friends of Daniel, who have been put into a most difficult situation, and they prayed before the Lord asking for His mercy and love, and then in our Gospel passage today we heard the Lord speaking about the parable of the ungrateful servant which is related to this matter as well.

In our first reading today, as mentioned we heard of the moment when king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon sentenced the three friends of Daniel to be burnt in a great fiery cauldron that was made even hotter because they adamantly refused to worship a great golden idol that the king had built in his own image. The king demanded all of his subjects to worship the golden idol or be punished to death. Everyone obeyed the king’s commands except for the three friends of Daniel.

The king was enraged when the three of them not only refused to obey the king’s commands but reiterated and reaffirmed their faith in the Lord publicly before the king and all those who were gathered. Thus, they were condemned to death and they should have perished in the great furnace that was prepared for them and others who dared to disobey the king. But Azariah, one of the three, together with the other two friends of Daniel prayed to the Lord, showing their commitment and faith, while also showing the repentance of the people of Israel.

Through this, they represented the people of God who at that time was in exile, having lost their homeland and their Temple, their kingdom and honour. They expressed their regrets and sincere mournfulness over all of their sins. They also expressed their dedication and love for the Lord, and that they hoped their example and courage in standing up for their faith would finally move the Lord to show His mercy and forgiveness to His people.

The Lord sent His Angel to safeguard the three men, and they all miraculously survived the flame unharmed, and all those who witnessed this miracle, including that of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, were astonished at what they had seen. Not only that the three men were unharmed, but they were released without injury and the king himself tore down the golden statue that he had built.

In the Gospel reading today, we heard of the parable of the ungrateful servant in which the Lord told His disciples about a servant who owed an immense amount of ten thousand pieces of gold to his master, who should have suffered the terrible consequence of his debt, having to lose his property and even loved ones. But the master took pity on the servant when the latter begged for mercy, and he was forgiven all of his debt, therefore becoming a person free from bondage and obligation of his debt.

Yet, as we heard, the servant was not grateful for what he had received, and instead he persecuted his own fellow servant who owed him a much smaller amount of merely a hundred pieces of silver. Not only that the amount owed to him was a mere hundredth of what he used to owe the master, but as it was of silver rather than gold, this served to highlight just how much smaller that debt was in comparison to what the master had earlier on forgiven him.

That ungrateful servant was then on punished by the master for his lack of gratitude and for not forgiving his fellow servants when he himself had already been forgiven so much, and this parable together with our first reading today served to remind us all Christians that all of us are called to forgive much and to get rid of vengeance and all related things from our hearts and minds, just as we ourselves have been forgiven so much more by God.

We cannot be angry and be nasty to our fellow brothers and sisters, and we should not hold grudges and any sorts of negative feelings against our neighbours, just as the Lord Himself had willingly forgiven us from our sins when we come to Him seeking for forgiveness and mercy. This Lent, we are all challenged to be more forgiving and to be more filled with mercy and compassion in all of our actions and deeds, in everything that we say and do.

Today we can also be inspired by the examples shown by St. Frances of Rome, a mother of a family and a venerable woman who was remembered for her kindness, charity and compassion for others, especially for the poor and the less privileged. She also founded a community of Benedictine oblates who were committed to a holy life in the Lord but without professing solemn religious orders and vows. She was remembered for her care for the poor, and was generous in giving when there were others in need.

It was told that on one occasion, St. Frances’ giving so annoyed her father-in-law that he locked the supply room to prevent her from giving any more to the poor and the suffering. Yet, the same father-in-law returned the key to her when miraculously the supplies in the boxes were refilled just as St. Frances finished her prayers. And although she did encounter much difficulties during her own life, having to endure exile and devastations due to wars and plagues, St. Frances remained firm in her faith and in her charitable efforts, no matter what happened.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore follow the good examples set by St. Frances, and dedicate ourselves anew as Christians to be loving and more forgiving, to be more compassionate and committed in our faith and service to God, as well as to our fellow brothers and sisters. Let us all turn towards the Lord with a new conviction and desire to love Him, and do our very best to glorify Him by our actions and deeds in life. May God bless us all and may He be our guide, now and always. Amen.