Wednesday

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Wednesday, 15 April 2026 : 2nd Week of Easter (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, all of us are reminded to be courageous in living our lives as Christians, to proclaim the Risen Lord as the Hope, Light and Salvation of the whole entire world. Without Christ, all of us would have perished and we would have to suffer the consequences and the punishments for our many sins. But thanks to His kindness, generosity and compassion, and through the ever-enduring Mercy that He has shown us, the Risen Lord has shown us His great love manifested in the Person of His Son, through Whom we have received the fullness of God’s Love, as He reached out to us, desiring to be fully and completely reconciled with us. Although we have indeed sinned against the Lord and disobeyed Him, but God’s love for us surpasses even the disgust He had against our sins and wickedness.

That is why through our Scripture passages today, all of us are reminded of how God’s love that transcends all things allowed us to come close once again to His embrace and loving Presence. Once we have been cast out of the Light as we have chosen darkness and sin but God has shown us His mercy and love through His Son, as He opened the gates of Heaven by His death and Resurrection, reconnecting and reconciling us by the breaking of His own Most Precious Body and by the outpouring of His own Most Precious Blood. That is what the Lord Himself has foretold to His disciples as well as to Nicodemus, the Pharisee who sympathised with the Lord and would eventually become one of His disciples. As we heard in our Gospel passage today, the Lord told Nicodemus that God so loved the world that He sent us all His own beloved Son, so that all who believe in Him will not perish, and have eternal life.

In another part of this conversation of the Lord Jesus with Nicodemus, He also mentioned how He would be raised up high just like that of the bronze serpent made by Moses, when great plague of fiery serpents struck the Israelites for their sins and disobedience against God. And the Lord Jesus willingly embraced His Cross, punished for our many transgressions and sins against God and our fellow brothers and sisters, to be nailed on that Cross and raised as a Sign for everyone, to all the faithful people of God, that the Salvation of God has indeed come through His Son, the Suffering and Crucified Messiah, Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has not hold all these back from us, and He did all that He could in order to gather us all and save us. He has endured the greatest trials and hardships, persecutions and oppressions, humiliations and troubles all so that He might redeem and liberate us all from our fated destruction because of our sins.

That is what each and every one of us have been reminded of, as we heard of the Lord’s words to Nicodemus today. He proclaimed the salvation of God that has finally appeared and come into our midst, through the Passion, death and Resurrection of God’s own beloved Son, sacrificed and offered for our own benefit, as the perfect and worthy sacrifice, the Paschal Lamb slain on our behalf, and by Whose Precious Blood all of us have been washed clean, through our baptism. However, this does not mean that we can do whatever we want, as sin and the temptations to sin are still common all around us, and if we are not careful, we may end up falling deeper and deeper into the trap of sin, into which many of our predecessors had often fallen into, as they lapsed again and again into sin. We can even look on our own actions in life, and see just how frequent we have been disobeying God all these while.

That is why we should make use of the opportunities provided to us so that we may not lose sight and focus on our true emphasis and attention on the Lord, our Saviour and God. We should always do what we can to realign our focus and attention on the Lord and do not let ourselves be distracted by the many worldly temptations and pressures present all around us, all of which may lead us astray in our journey towards the Lord, our loving God and Father. Unless we make the effort to resist those temptations and pressures, we may easily be swayed to follow the whims of worldly desires and attachments that we have, and end up walking down the wrong path in life. We have to realise that without God and His guidance, we will easily lose sight on what is truly important in our lives, and it is easy for us to do things that are contrary to God’s will.

That was exactly the things that the members of the Sanhedrin, or the Jewish High Council were doing against God’s works and the works of His disciples. Many of them often resisted the Lord and criticised Him for many of His miracles and works, persecuting Him and His disciples. They were also the same ones who have arrested the Lord and condemned Him to death, handing Him to the Romans to be crucified. They refused to believe in the truth and all the words of Wisdom that the Lord Himself has shown them, patiently and consistently, as the Lord had always done, in reaching out even to those who have resisted and rejected Him. From His Cross, the Lord prayed for the sake of those who persecuted and condemned Him to death, and He did die for all of them as well. No one is truly beyond God’s forgiveness and mercy, and He has always been generous in giving us His love and mercy.

However, it requires us all to embrace God’s mercy and love for us to gain the full benefit of His kindness and mercy. God gave us His compassion and forgiveness freely, but unless we accept His mercy and love, we will not be reconciled with Him. Without God’s forgiveness and grace, none of us can attain salvation and eternal life on our own, for it is by God’s grace and guidance alone that we can live our lives truly worthily of Him, and become closer to Him. Unless we open our hearts and minds to the Lord and allow Him to guide us in our path forward, the likelihood of us coming close to the Lord becomes truly minuscule, as our stubbornness and arrogance often got in our way of walking towards God’s love and grace, as what had happened to the Pharisees and the other members of the Sanhedrin.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all hence renew our faith in God, and let us all be the committed and loving disciples of the Lord once again. Let us all turn towards Him and focus our attention on Him, our Risen Lord and Saviour. Let us all in our every moments in life, in our every actions, words and deeds, be always filled with God’s grace and love, that we may bear His truth and love to this world, to everyone that we encounter in life. May the Risen Lord continue to bless and guide us in our journey of faith, and may He continue to be generous in His mercy and love, and help us to humble ourselves and to put our trust in Him so that all of us may truly follow Him wholeheartedly, and allow Him to lead our path in life. May He bless our Easter observances and joyful actions, and guide us always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 15 April 2026 : 2nd Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 3 : 16-21

At that time, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Yes, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him may not be lost, but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world; instead, through Him the world is to be saved.”

“Whoever believes in Him will not be condemned. He who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of God. This is how the Judgment is made : Light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

“For whoever does wrong hates the light, and does not come to the light, for fear that his deeds will be seen as evil. But whoever lives according to the truth comes into the light, so that it can be clearly seen that his works have been done in God.”

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Wednesday, 15 April 2026 : 2nd Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 33 : 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

I will bless the Lord all my days; His praise will be ever on my lips. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the lowly hear and rejoice.

Oh, let us magnify the Lord, together let us glorify His Name! I sought the Lord, and He answered me; from all my fears He delivered me.

They who look to Him are radiant with joy, their faces never clouded with shame. When the poor cry out, the Lord hears and saves them from distress.

The Lord’s Angel encamps and patrols to keep safe those who fear Him. Oh, see and taste the goodness of the Lord! Blessed is the one who finds shelter in Him!

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Wednesday, 15 April 2026 : 2nd Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 5 : 17-26

The High Priest and all his supporters, that is the party of the Sadducees, became very jealous of the Apostles; so they arrested them and had them thrown into the public jail. But an Angel of the Lord opened the door of the prison during the night, brought them out, and said to them, “Go and stand in the Temple court and tell the people the whole of this living message.” Accordingly they entered the Temple at dawn and resumed their teaching.

When the High Priest and his supporters arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin, that is the full Council of the elders of Israel. They sent word to the jail to have the prisoners brought in. But when the Temple guards arrived at the jail, they did not find them inside, so they returned with the news, “We found the prison securely locked and the prison guards at their post outside the gate, but when we opened the gate, we found no one inside.”

Upon hearing these words, the captain of the Temple guard and the high priests were baffled, wondering where all of this would end. Just then someone arrived with the report, “Look, those men whom you put in prison are standing in the Temple, teaching the people.” Then the captain went off with the guards and brought them back, but without any show of force, for fear of being stoned by the people.

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Wednesday, 8 April 2026 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Wednesday we continue to progress through the Easter Octave and the Easter season, as we still continue to mark our Easter joy, a great joy for our Lord’s Resurrection and triumph against sin, evil and death. We are reminded that the Risen Lord has shown us the love of God, the healing and the mercy shown to us, as He reached out to us, embracing us and loving all of us ever so tenderly and wonderfully. God has sent His disciples and followers into the world to proclaim His Resurrection, the salvation, Hope and Light that He has promised to all of us. God has not abandoned us into the darkness, but He has reminded us again and again of His ever loving presence and kindness. That is what we are rejoicing for this Easter season, a great joy that celebrates the love and kindness of Our Lord and Saviour, Who has saved us from certain destruction and death, and bringing unto us the assurance of eternal life and glory with Him.

That is what we have heard in our first reading today, taken from the Acts of the Apostles. We heard how St. Peter and St. John came by the Beautiful Gate of the Temple of Jerusalem, and healed the paralysed man who had been waiting and begged at that gate. The two Apostles told the beggar that they had nothing to offer him, but gave him the gift of salvation and healing through Jesus Christ, healing him in His Holy Name. That was how the beggar was healed and giving praise to God, that surprised and awed many people who remembered the beggar and were amazed at how he was healed. The chief priests and the members of the Jewish High Council had been strict in their enforcement of the ban and the opposition against the works of the Lord and His disciples, persecuting all those who have proclaimed His Name or did anything in His Name, or preached and spoke in His Name, teaching about all that He had done or by being associated in any way with Him.

Yet, all those things could not stop the Apostles who carried out doing their good works in His Name, preaching His truth, proclaiming everything that Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world had done. They would not be silenced by the efforts of those who still continued to stubbornly resist the works of the Lord, His truth and mercy. The Holy Spirit that they had received guided them and strengthened them, led them to do the wonders just as we have heard and witnessed. The Apostles shared the joy they had in seeing and knowing about the Resurrection, and all that God had done for us, to the world, to all the people who have gathered all around them, all willing and curious to know more about the Lord and His salvation. This is what they had themselves seen and witnessed, as they heard of the Risen Lord from the two disciples that came back from the way to Emmaus, having encountered the Lord Himself on their way towards that village.

Not only that, but as we heard from our Gospel passage today, we listened to how the disciples witnessed on their own how the Risen Lord appeared before their very own eyes, as He appeared fully in the flesh before them, all in His Risen glory, truly alive and truly living. The Risen Lord has appeared before them, proving to them that He has indeed Risen from the dead and overcame death itself, and not even death can hold Him. He fulfilled everything that He has promised to His disciples, that He would come back after He suffered, was persecuted and condemned to death, and that He would be with them forever. No one can indeed separate us from the love of God, and He has shown us this Himself through His own beloved Son, Who has come into this world, to lead us by His own hands, and to help and guide us in our journey towards our most loving Father and Creator, our God and Saviour. Through His Resurrection, the Lord has opened the path for us to full and complete reconciliation with God.

Having witnessed all of those themselves, and encouraged and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, it was what drove the disciples to go forth and to proclaim proudly and openly the Risen Saviour, the One Whom the chief priests and the elders had tried to silence and to keep from being known by the people. They proclaimed the Risen Lord, revealing His truth and many believed in Him, giving themselves to be baptised and becoming members of the Church. The Lord has spread His truth and teachings through His Apostles and disciples, that were then passed down through His Church, as the community of the faithful continued to grow and spread, expanding the reach of the Church and the works that they had done. Through them, and through the generations, all of us have received the same truth, the truth about the Lord and His love for us, and all that He had done for us, and His glorious Resurrection.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, having received this truth of God, and having believed in Him, all of us as Christians, as members of God’s Church are called to be part of His Church’s mission, in reaching out to the nations, to all the peoples all around us, to everyone we interact with and encounter in our daily living, that we may proclaim His truth and salvation to everyone we encounter, through our every words, actions and deeds, which are exemplary and full of faith in the Lord. If we are not genuine in how we live our Christian faith, then how can we convince others to believe in God? Worse still, if our actions, our words and interactions are in fact contrary to what we believe in, and we cause others and even our own fellow brothers and sisters to lose faith in the Lord, this is indeed scandal for the Church, for our faith and for the Lord’s Holy Name. As Christians, we have indeed a rather heavy responsibility to lead others towards the Lord, and the best is through our own good examples in life.

Now, as we continue to progress through this Easter season, are we able to commit ourselves anew to the Lord, dedicating ourselves, our time, effort, attention and more to glorify the Lord by our lives? Can we follow in the footsteps of the Apostles and the other disciples of the Lord, who had given their time, effort and even their lives in the service of God? All of us have been given the time, the opportunity and the chance to do what we can in proclaiming the Lord by our own faithful lives, and we should indeed use this time and opportunity to do what we can in proclaiming the Lord and His truth, His Resurrection and everything that He has revealed and taught to us, so that more and more can be saved and can find their way to God and His saving grace. Let us no longer be ignorant of what we should and what we can do in living our lives faithfully as Christians, as members of His Church.

May the Risen Lord continue to guide and inspire us in our daily living, so that we may find our way and have the courage and strength to proclaim His Gospels and Good News by our exemplary lives and actions. May God be with us always and may He continue to bless us all in our every efforts, good works and endeavours, so that our faith may always be made real, tangible and genuine in our world today, and many more will come to believe in God through us because they can see Him in action and being manifested through our daily lives. May God continue to empower and encourage us all to serve Him ever more faithfully each day of our lives. Wishing all of us a most blessed Easter season ahead. Amen.

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Wednesday, 8 April 2026 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 24 : 13-35

At that time, on the same day Jesus rose from the dead, two followers of Jesus were going to Emmaus, a village seven miles from Jerusalem, and they talked about what had happened. While they were talking and arguing about what had happened, Jesus came up and walked with them. But their eyes were not able to recognise Him.

He asked, “What is it you are talking about?” The two stood still, looking sad. Then the one named Cleophas answered, “Why, it seems You are the only traveller to Jerusalem who does not know what haw happened there these past few days.” And He asked, “What is it?”

They replied, “It is about Jesus of Nazareth. He was a Prophet, You know, mighty in word and deed before God and the people. But the chief priests and our rulers sentenced Him to death. They handed Him over to be crucified. We had hoped that He would redeem Israel. It is now the third day since all this took place.”

“It is also true that some women of our group have disturbed us. When they went to the tomb at dawn, they did not find His Body; and they came and told us that they had had a vision of Angels, who said that Jesus was alive. Some of our people went to the tomb and found everything just as the women had said, but they did not find a Body in the tomb.”

He said to them, “How dull you are, how slow of understanding! Is the message of the prophets too difficult for you to understand? Is it not written that the Christ should suffer all this, and then enter His glory?” Then starting with Moses, and going through the prophets, He explained to them everything in the Scriptures concerning Himself.

As they drew near the village they were heading for, Jesus made as if to go farther. But they prevailed upon Him, “Stay with us, for night comes quickly. The day is now almost over.” So He went in to stay with them. When they were at table, He took the bread, said a blessing, broke it, and gave each a piece.

Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised Him; but He vanished out of their sight. And they said to one another, “Were not our hearts filled with ardent yearning when He was talking to us on the road and explaining the Scriptures?” They immediately set out and returned to Jerusalem.

There they found the Eleven and their companions gathered together. They were greeted by these words : “Yes, it is true, the Lord is risen! He has appeared to Simon!” Then the two told what had happened on the road to Emmaus, and how Jesus had made Himself known, when He broke bread with them.

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Wednesday, 8 April 2026 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 104 : 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9

Give thanks to the Lord, call on His Name; make known His works among the nations. Sing to Him, sing His praise, proclaim all His wondrous deeds.

Glory in His holy Name; let those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and be strong; seek His face always.

You descendants of His servant Abraham, you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; His judgments reach the whole world.

He remembers His covenant forever, His promise to a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham, the promise He swore to Isaac.

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Wednesday, 8 April 2026 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 3 : 1-10

Once when Peter and John were going up to the Temple at three in the afternoon, the hour for prayer, a man crippled from birth was being carried in. Every day they would bring him and put him at the Temple gate called “Beautiful”; there he begged from those who entered the Temple.

When he saw Peter and John on their way into the Temple, he asked for alms. Then Peter with John at his side looked straight at him and said, “Look at us.” So he looked at them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you : In the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, walk!”

Then he took the beggar by his right hand and helped him up. At once his feet and ankles became firm, and jumping up he stood on his feet and began to walk. And he went with them into the Temple walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God; they recognised him as the one who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were all astonished and amazed at what had happened to him.

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Wednesday, 1 April 2026 : Wednesday of Holy Week (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we are all about to enter into the time of Holy Week, we are reminded that  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.

In the same way, we are also reminded in how we live our daily lives as Christians in this world, in how we love and treat one another around us. For we are all called to love God and love others equally, generously and sincerely at all times. If we love God, and yet, in our actions, we have caused hurt to others by betraying them, gossiping about them, backstabbing them for our own benefits, and by neglecting to show care and love towards them, especially more so to those whom we love the most and vice versa, then are we not just like Judas himself, who had betrayed one of those closest to Him? Judas had a choice, and yet, he chose money and worldly comfort over loyalty and love to those who are dear to him. Let that not be our choice of action as well, brothers and sisters.

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.

May the Lord, our most loving, compassionate and merciful God continue to help and strengthen us all amidst all the challenges, darkness and difficulties surrounding us. Throughout this time of the Holy Week, may He continue to guide us through the various events and moments we commemorate surrounding the Passion of the Lord, Our Saviour, in everything that He had to undergo, all the sufferings, humiliations and hardships He had to face for us out of His ever enduring Love towards us. Let us all remember that our own sufferings are always united to His, and He will always be with us, journeying by our side, even through the greatest darkness. Let us always have hope in Him and trust in Him at all times. Amen.

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Wednesday, 1 April 2026 : Wednesday of Holy Week (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 26 : 14-25

Then one of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “How much will you give me if I hand Him over to you?” They promised to give him thirty pieces of silver, and from then on, he kept looking for the best way to hand Jesus over to them.

On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare the Passover meal for you?” Jesus answered, “Go into the city, to the house of a certain man, and tell him, ‘The Master says : My hour is near, and I will celebrate the Passover with My disciples in your house.'”

The disciples did as Jesus had ordered, and prepared the Passover meal. When it was evening, Jesus sat at table with the Twelve. While they were eating, Jesus said, “Truly I say to you : one of you will betray Me.” They were deeply distressed, and they asked Him, one after the other, “You do not mean me, do You, Lord?”

He answered, “The one who dips his bread with Me will betray Me. The Son of Man is going as the Scripture says He will. But alas for that one who betrays the Son of Man : better for him not to have been born.” Judas, who was betraying Him, also asked, “You do not mean me, Master, do You?” Jesus replied, “You have said it.”