way of the Lord

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Sunday, 13 March 2016 : Fifth Sunday of Lent, Third Anniversary of the Election of Pope Francis, Supreme Pontiff and Vicar of Christ (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Isaiah 43 : 16-21

Thus says YHVH, Who opened a way through the sea and a path in the mighty waters, Who brought down chariots and horses, a whole army of them, and there they lay, never to rise again, snuffed out like a wick. But do not dwell on the past, or remember the things of old.

Look, I am doing a new thing : now it springs forth. Do you not see? I am opening up a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beasts of the land will honour Me, jackals and ostriches, because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert that My chosen people may drink. I have formed this people for Myself; they will proclaim My praise.

Alternative reading (Readings from Year A)

Ezekiel 37 : 12-14

So prophesy! Say to them : This is what YHVH says : I am going to open your tombs, I shall bring you out of your tombs, My people, and lead you back to the land of Israel. You will know that I am YHVH, o My people! when I open your graves and bring you out of your graves, when I put My Spirit in you and you live.

I shall settle you in your land and you will know that I, YHVH, have done what I said I would do.

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Saturday, 12 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we heard today the opposition which the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the elders of the people presented against Jesus, as they tried to convince everyone that Jesus was not the Messiah, that He was a fraud and a heretic, and that He had blasphemed against God by His many teachings that seemingly ran contrary to what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had uphold.

Of course it did not mean that all the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were wicked and without good. It did not mean that all the Pharisees were adamantly against Jesus, as the Gospel passage itself reminded us that Nicodemus was one of the Pharisees who believed in Jesus and accepted His teachings. And Joseph of Arimathea was another one of these Pharisees who also believed in Him.

But this opposition against Jesus came about not so much because of what Jesus had taught, as compared to what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law perceived about Him. They saw Him as a rival and a threat to their influence, because what He taught the people seemed to be different from what they were teaching the people, and He rebuked them in various occasions for their supposed lack of true faith.

The Pharisees, the elders and the teachers of the Law were at the pinnacle of the hierarchy of the society of the people of God at the time, they were the ones who interpreted the Law for the people, and they determined how the people would come and worship, and managed the rites and the celebrations at the Temple, regulating all forms of rules in the society.

In such a privileged position and in such a position of honour, it can be easily seen how they were gathering together heaps upon heaps of praises and honour, and therefore, as what is in our human nature, we tend to gloat in such pleasures, being pleased and satisfied by those adulation, and therefore, we grew in our ego and pride, and the same thing happened to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.

And thus, they were not willing to let go of all the honour, the fame, the position of honour they have achieved in the world, to listen to the truth of Jesus speaking to them and all the people. They shut the doors of their heart tight and they refused to listen to the Lord speaking to them. To them, the Lord Jesus was someone Who came to destroy all that they have gained in the world.

And this was why the Lord was so critical on His criticism at them. These people have misused and abused their authority, and they have even misled the people of God into the wrong path. And instead of guiding the people of God to come closer to Him through a greater understanding of God’s laws and commandments, and through a greater desire to love the Lord, they have oppressed the people with numerous obligations that were really unnecessary.

It is a lesson for all of us then, as we progress through this season of Lent, for us to reexamine ourselves and our actions. Have we been truly faithful in God, and have we been walking in His path all along? This is the time for us to realise how that there is still so many things we can do to prove our faith to the Lord. We should not follow the path of the Pharisees who placed themselves first before God, and who sought to satisfy their own needs first before obeying God.

Let us all learn through fasting and abstinence, the habit to resist our own selfishness, our pride, our hubris, our greed and all the things that are pulling at us and tempting us to abandon our path towards the Lord. Let us all put the effort to become ever closer to the Lord and to be more faithful to Him. Let us follow Him with all of our heart and find our way to His grace, the life everlasting. Amen.

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Saturday, 12 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 11 : 18-20

YHVH made it known to me and so I know! And You let me see their scheming : “Take care, even your kinsfolk and your own family are false with you and behind your back they freely criticise you. Do not trust them when they approach you in a friendly way.”

“But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me that they were plotting, “Let us feed him with trials and remove him from the land of the living and let his name never be mentioned again.”

“YHVH, God of hosts, You Who judge with justice and know everyone’s heart and intentions, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You I have entrusted my cause.”

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Friday, 11 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the plotting of the wicked against the Righteous One, as predicted in the Book of Wisdom written before the time of Jesus, and how all of that which had been written came true in Jesus, when He came into this world bearing His truth upon the world. Jesus came revealing the truth to all mankind, and He came to save us from our own downfall in sin.

And yet, from what we have seen in the Scriptures, mankind, we ourselves are resistant to God’s attempts to rescue us, and instead of wanting to embrace God and to be forgiven from our sins, we tend to persist instead in our wicked and mistaken behaviours, disobeying God in all things, and we continued in our ways and paths of sin and darkness.

This is because we have this natural tendency to love sin and wickedness, simply because these things make use of our desires and our hearts’ corruption by our greed and by our human tendencies to sin. We like to do things that bring us pleasure, happiness and joy, even if these joy and happiness come about at the expense of others. And this is why mankind can at times be very cruel to one another. And this is sin.

And worst of all is our pride, the pride in each one of us, the ego that engulfs us and swallows us whole. It is pride that had brought Satan down from his position once as the greatest and mightiest Angel in heaven, and it is the same pride that will also destroy us and bring us to our downfall. It is the pride of the wicked that we saw in the Book of Wisdom that brought them to plot against the Righteous One.

And thus, just as it had been prophesied, the wicked represented the Pharisees, the elders and the teachers of the Law who throughout the Gospels showed great resistance against the teachings and works of Jesus in this world, plotting at every possible opportunities to thwart His work, to disturb the works of mercy and salvation, and to mock and ridicule all that He had brought into this world, His truth.

They did so because for long they had enjoyed a position of great privilege, and unable to take on the criticism and the rebuke which the Lord had blatantly showed them as He came through Jesus, they continued deeper in their disobedience, and rather than repenting and seeing the truth in Jesus and His words, they found Him as a threat to their own worldly influence and legitimacy, and thus tried hard to destroy Him.

And when they have failed to thwart Him even by condemning Him to death, as He rose into glory and ascended into the glorious Heaven, they tried to persecute His Church and made life difficult for His followers and disciples. All these were caused by their jealousy, their pride and their inability to tear themselves away from all the negativities, from all the desires, and all the corruptions of sin that had eaten away at their hearts.

Today, brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard of all these, all of us should reflect on our own lives. How many times have we disobeyed the Lord as we listen more closely to our own hearts’ desires and to our pride? How many times have we betrayed the Lord, and betrayed our own fellow men just to serve and to satisfy our own selfish needs?

Let us all use this opportunity given to us by God to reflect on our own actions, and see what we can do in order to gain salvation through God. Let us all change our ways and repent for all of our sins, that by turning over a new leaf, we may find ourselves in a new life blessed by God. May the Lord keep us and bless us, and may He bring us all into everlasting life. Amen.

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Friday, 11 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 7 : 1-2, 10, 25-30

After this Jesus went around Galilee; He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews wanted to kill Him. Now the Jewish feast of the Tents was at hand. But after His brothers had gone to the festival, He also went up, not publicly but in secret.

Some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Is this not the Man they want to kill? And here He is speaking freely, and they do not say a word to Him? Can it be that the rulers know that this is really the Christ? Yet we know where this Man comes from; but when the Christ appears, no one will know where He comes from.”

So Jesus announced in a loud voice in the Temple court where He was teaching, “You say that you know Me and know where I come from! I have not come of Myself; I was sent by the One Who is true, and you do not know Him. I know Him for I come from Him and He sent Me.”

They would have arrested Him, but no one laid hands on Him because His time had not yet come.

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Thursday, 10 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about God Who was angry at His people when they betrayed Him and went for the worship of the pagan idol, in the form of a golden calf, in a story that all of us are surely familiar with, as we must have heard it during our catechism classes. We heard how God became angry and how He punished them for their wrongdoings, by destroying those who have led the people to sin, and those who have refused to repent and follow God.

But many of us would not know or remember the part saying that Moses pleaded with God to spare His people from His anger and from the destruction He intended for them because of their sins. Many of us would not remember how Moses pleaded before God to think of the covenant which He had established with His faithful servants, and to remember of the great love which He had for all of mankind, His beloved creations.

In this story, we see the same narrative of sin and redemption which we often hear during this season of Lent, a time of penitence and repentance, where we are all called to change our wicked and mistaken ways, and to turn away from all these, following once again the path towards God our Lord and Saviour. In the story which we heard today, we hear a very important message for us all, that there is hope for us as long as we are willing to repent and commit ourselves to God.

But it will not be an easy path for us to take, for the path towards redemption and salvation in God is likely to be filled with challenges and obstacles, and Satan who is trying to tempt and lure us away from God, will certainly not remain passive or quiet while we are being drawn into the Lord’s salvation. He is actively trying to pull us away from God and to bring us down into the deepest depths of hell.

Shall we then follow his path or the path of the Lord? Satan’s path is apparently easier for us, more enticing, and more pleasurable, and indeed, more exciting than the path that God offers us, but at the end of that path is a great cliff, from which if we fall, we can never rise back up. On the other hand, God’s path, is a path of challenges, difficulties and also filled with many sufferings, and yet at the end of the journey is our eternal rewards in God.

The people of God in the desert chose the easy way out, when they thought that Moses and God had abandoned them after he ascended for forty days at Mount Horeb. They were too quickly tempted by the temptations of their flesh, and they did not have patience in them. They placed their trust in the gold and in all the wealth that they received when they left Egypt. The love for God was not in their hearts.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is a reminder to all of us, that through this season of Lent, and indeed throughout our lives, we should endeavour to resist the temptations of our flesh, and abandon the false idols that had kept us away from truly being devoted and faithful servants of the Lord our God. Are these false idols the same as the idols of Israel at that time? Maybe, and maybe not.

If we are talking about idols from stone, wood or anything else carved in the images of animals, beasts, and other worldly things, then we may not have these common in our world today, but if we talk about the false idols and gods of money, of wealth and human desires, then we can see indeed, how these, the pursuits of wealth, the greed of men for more and more, are keeping us away from God.

Let us all therefore learn and strive to keep faithfully God’s laws and commandments, and let us be disciplined in our lives, so that we may resist all the temptations of the devil and all of his seducers, and remain true in love to the Lord our God. May God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Thursday, 10 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 5 : 31-47

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

“John was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were willing to enjoy his light. But I have greater evidence than that of John – the works which the Father entrusted to Me to carry out. The very works I do bear witness : The Father has sent Me.”

“Thus He Who bears witness to Me is the Father Who sent Me. You have never heard His voice and have never seen His likeness; therefore, as long as you do not believe His messenger, His word is not in you. You search in the Scriptures, thinking that in them you will find life; yet Scripture bears witness to Me. But you refuse to come to Me, that you may live.”

“I am not seeking human praise; but I have known that love of God is not within you, for I have come in My Father’s Name and you do not accept Me. If another comes in his own name, you will accept him. As long as you seek praise from one another, instead of seeking the glory which comes from the only God, how can you believe?”

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

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Thursday, 10 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Exodus 32 : 7-14

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

And YHVH said to Moses, “I see that these people are a stiff-necked people. Now just leave Me that My anger may blaze against them. I will destroy them, but of you I will make a great nation.”

But Moses calmed the anger of YHVH, his God, and said, “Why, o YHVH, should Your anger burst against Your people whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with a mighty hand? Let not the Egyptians say : ‘YHVH brought them out with evil intent, for He wanted to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth.'”

“Turn away from the heat of Your anger and do not bring disaster on Your people. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the promise You Yourself swore : I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land I spoke about I will give to them as an everlasting inheritance.”

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

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Wednesday, 9 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings from the Sacred Scriptures speak to us about the affirmation of God’s love and devotion to us, and how He cares for us and wanted us to be loved and to be saved from eternal damnation, by bringing us all out of the darkness and into the light, out of wickedness and into righteousness and justice.

He spoke the truth and had shown us the truth through the sending of His own Son, Jesus, into the world, that all those who believe in Him, the Son of God, may believe in the Father also Who had sent His Son, so that we may be saved. Remember the passage, that God so loved the world, that He sent us His only Son, so that all who believe in Him will not perish, but have eternal life? That is exactly what I meant.

He does not desire our destruction or our damnation to hell, although many of us might have think so. As the Scripture says, He does not take pleasure in seeing the suffering of His children, His people, and His beloved ones. And this is why He showed His love in such a way, that He gave us nothing less than the perfect gift of His own Son, to be our Redeemer through even His own suffering and death.

Therefore, as we embark and continue through this season of Lent, it is important for us to take note of this truth and make use of the many opportunities which He had given us, so that we may accept His rich offerings of mercy and forgiveness, and turn back to Him with all of our strength and with all of our hearts. God does not want our destruction, but if we continue in our path in this world as we have often done, then we are risking our downfall and damnation.

If God has shown us such love and tender care, then why should we ignore Him or even reject Him and all the love He had shown us? We have nothing to lose from following God and being obedient to Him, although many of us are easily tempted by the temptations of this world, which Satan and his allies are trying to push onto us, so that we may not be saved and instead fall into sin.

Sin is our great enemy, and it is a great obstacle for all of us who are trying to reach out to God and to His salvation. It is the chains that keep us bound and separated from the love of God. If we want to be freed from this chain, then all of us ought to commit ourselves to change our ways and cast away all of our wicked ways, and find the way to salvation by doing what God had taught us to do, to obey all of His laws and commandments.

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Frances of Rome, a woman religious, who devoted herself completely to the service of the Lord. She committed herself to a life of devotion and service to the people of God. Even though she was born to the rich and aristocratic class, but after her husband passed away, she devoted herself to a life of service for the poor, the destitute and the dying.

She allowed her own house to become a hospital for the sick and the dying, opening her doors for those who are suffering and the poor who did not have anyone who cared for them. She experienced many ridicule and challenges throughout the course of her work and dedication, and she faced them all with faith and commitment that all of us can indeed be inspired with. She continued to work hard regardless, and did her best to love those whom had been unloved.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, looking at the examples of St. Frances of Rome, all of us should also spend our time during this season of Lent to devote our time to serve the poor, the less fortunate, and help all those who have not been so blessed as we are. We should keep in mind those who are suffering, and do all that we can to help them, and to love them just as God had loved all of us.

Let us all imitate our Lord and His glorious saints, and let us love one another just as He had loved us. Let us reject all forms of sins and wickedness, and commit ourselves to a life of righteousness and justice. God bless us all and be with us always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 8 March 2016 : 4th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. John of God, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about God Who brought upon healing on His people, by His love and mercy through which He blessed the sick and those who were with illness, making them whole and healthy once again. God had mercy on them and wanted to bring them to healing and succour, and to remove from them their suffering.

But in order to do so, we ourselves must come to accept God’s offer of love and mercy. We must open ourselves to the outpouring of God’s care and concern for us. After all, if He had come down Himself from heaven, and if He had been willing to sacrifice Himself for our sake, for our liberation and redemption, then we too should show our gratitude and thanks, and devote ourselves to Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God will not abandon us to the darkness and to destruction unless we ourselves desire that destruction, either because we refuse to accept His love and mercy, or if we are stubborn in our insistence to follow our own path and desires, in doing what the world wants from us. Satan, the evil one is trying his best to pull us all away from salvation because through his temptations of the world, he tempts us with many things that may prevent us from following our true path to God.

Sin is the chain that keeps us bound into this world, and prevented us from achieving true liberation in God. Sin is the disease and corruption that is eating at our hearts, our minds and our souls, corrupting us from the inside and turning us into wicked beings. And with the sin we have in us, we have been made unworthy to stand before the presence of God and to be with Him.

Why is this so, brethren? That is because while God loves us all perfectly and greatly, but sin has no place before Him, as He is pure good and perfect. And sin is something that is abominable to God, because it was born from disobedience and rebellion against Him. If we want to have a share in His glory, then we have to endeavour to leave behind our sinful ways and abandon all of those wickedness in favour of righteousness.

This means that, as Christians, all of us should be using our time, and especially during this season of Lent to rectify our ways and to repent from all of our sins. This is the best and perfect time for us to be renewed in all our dealings and in all our ways, and this is the moment for us to look for a new opportunity at redemption and forgiveness of sins, the time for us to reflect on our own lives, and if we have strayed from the path towards salvation, this is the time for us to turn back.

In this season of Lent, we are all called to the presence of God, to be humble and to be sorrowful over our sins and past wickedness. We are all called to commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and to show that faith through our own concrete actions and dedications, through which we are to bring ourselves into God’s loving hands, and to be forgiven from our countless trespasses.

Today, we celebrate the feast day of St. John of God, a faithful religious and preacher, a great and dedicated servant of God, who committed his whole life in the service of God and the Gospel, and the spreading of the Good News of the Gospel to the whole world. St. John of God is truly a role model to all of us the faithful, to follow as we make our progress on the path towards salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, St. John of God was renowned through his extensive service to the poor, the sick and the dying as part of the Knights Hospitallers, what we now know as the Military Order of Malta. He has devoted himself, his whole life and his efforts to serve the least and the last of the society, helping them to get by, and by showing his care and compassion for them, he showed the love of God to mankind.

Many people were inspired by his examples, and rightly, all of us should be inspired by those same examples as well. We should also lead the same exemplary life as those holy men and women had done. They too were once sinners, but what is important is that, they turned away from their sins, and found the path towards the glory of eternal life.

May God help us on our path, and may He bless us in all of our endeavours, so that in everything that we do, we may draw ever closer to the Lord and to His salvation. God bless us all. Amen.