Wednesday

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Wednesday, 26 April 2023 : 3rd 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, each and every one of us are reminded again today that as Christians all of us are always facing hardships, trials and struggles, challenges and difficulties amidst the lives and the journey that we embark on in this world. However, we must not easily lose hope an we must remain firm in our faith in the Lord, because it is in Him alone we can find the hope, strength and consolation, as well as the assurance of eternal life and true joy and glory. We must always strengthen our faith and trust in the Lord, wholeheartedly believing that He, our Lord and Saviour, the Bread of Life, has the power to help us and to raise us up with Him, and that He will always be with us, never abandoning us even in our darkest and most difficult moments.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles of the persecutions and hardships faced by the earliest Christian community and the Church, in how the faithful were persecuted, arrested and encountered a lot of opposition and challenges especially from the Jewish community and the leaders, namely the members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Council. One of the seven Deacons appointed by the Apostles to serve the Church had been put to death by the mob, as St. Stephen, the first martyr of the Church, spoke courageously in the defence of the Christian faith and truth, amidst all the falsehoods and false testimony of the people whom they had bribed and employed to accuse St. Stephen wrongly of crimes and misdeeds against the Lord and against God’s people. St. Stephen defended his faith courageously, but he was stoned to death by the crowd.

As we then heard from that same passage, we heard of the beginning of a time of persecution against Christians, which the Sanhedrin treated as a wayward sect and misguided people, led astray by the False Messiah, Whom they believed to be Jesus Christ, the Man Whom they had arrested, handed over to the Romans, and condemned to death because of His supposed blasphemous acts against the Jewish Law and traditions. This was in fact due to the stubbornness of many of the members of the Sanhedrin, who belonged to the group of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, as well as the Sadducees, each of whom had gripes and issues in opposing the works and teachngs of the Lord. Each one of them had in truth been mistaken and misguided in their way of observing the Law of God and in their way of life, but they adamantly and stubbornly believed that their beliefs were the right ones.

Those misconceptions and prideful attitude was the reason why many of them hardened their hearts and minds, refusing to believe in the Lord and in His truth despite having witnessed, seen, heard and experienced many of His miracles and words of great Wisdom, unparalleled and unprecedented. Some of them even associated what the Lord had done with the work of the demons, and accused Him of colluding with the demons, or in blasphemy against God. All of those attitudes and misunderstandings, stubbornness and attachment to worldly glory, power and desire ultimately prevented many from among the ranks of the Sanhedrin from coming to believe in the Lord. As we then heard about Saul, the future St. Paul, who was a young Pharisee filled with great and fiery zeal, in persecuting, arresting and torturing the followers of the Lord, the same kind of attitude, prejudices and wickedness was shown in the actions of the young Saul.

Yet, despite all the hardships and challenges faced by the followers of the Lord, most of them remained firm in their faith and endured faithfully the sufferings that they had faced. The Lord has also kept them in His providence and protection, leading them through their difficult times and sending them encouragement and strength to persevere through those challenges. He Himself has foretold all these to His disciples and followers, warning all of them that if the world had opposed, persecuted and treated Him as such, then His disciples and followers must also be prepared that they would be treated in a similar way as well. But He assured them that He would give them guidance and strength, and through the Holy Spirit that He sent to His Church, despite the trials and challenges that His followers had to face, but the Church still thrived and grew rapidly throughout those early years. Not only that, but even Saul himself was converted, and called to become one of the Lord’s greatest servants, as St. Paul the Apostle later in his life.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the continuation of the discourse of the Bread of Life by the Lord Jesus to the assembled people, as He highlighted to them, how He is the Bread of Life Who has come down from Heaven, which was in truth a premonition and advanced revelation of what He would do for the sake of everyone, for the salvation of the whole world. As the Bread of Life, He would be broken down and given up for everyone to partake, much as how earlier on He had fed the multitudes of thousands of people who had no food with the multiplication of loaves. This time, He would feed them with His own Body, the Most Precious Body offered, broken and given to all of His people, and His own Most Precious Blood, also offered and outpoured for the salvation of the whole world, for all the people of God. He spoke to them revealing all of this truth, which the disciples likely would not have realised until everything had happened as the Lord Himself foretold it.

Through this sharing of His Most Precious Body and Blood, the Lord instituted the Eucharist to us, and bringing us together through His sacrifice, suffering and death on the Cross, and ultimately His Resurrection, into the Communion of the faithful, uniting all of us into His Body, the Body of Christ, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. That is why the Eucharist we receive, which we believe is truly the Real Presence of the Lord in His Most Precious Body and Blood, is called Holy Communion, and only those who have lived and shared faithfully the full teachings of our Christian faith can partake in this most sacred gift that the Lord has granted to all of us. Through this Communion, uniting all of us in the Church, both those in this world, all of us, and all those who had gone before us, the Lord has shown us that He has always been with us, and He never abandoned us at all, even in our darkest moments and challenging times.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we are reminded of this fact today, and as we continue progressing through this most holy and blessed season of Easter, let us all therefore do our part as the Christian faithful, the members of God’s own Body, the Church of God, to be evangelising and missionary disciples, righteous and good, faithful and just in all of our works, actions and deeds. Let us all be good role models and examples of our faith in our every words and actions, as well as in all of our interactions with one another. May the Risen Lord, Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, continue to bless and guide us all, and strengthen us so that we may persevere faithfully and continue to commit ourselves to His path, much as how our early Christian predecessors had done. May God be with His Church always, and bless its every works and good efforts. Amen.

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Wednesday, 26 April 2023 : 3rd Week of Easter (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 6 : 35-40

At that time, Jesus said to the people, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in Me shall never be thirsty. Nevertheless, as I said, you refuse to believe, even when you have seen. Yet all those whom the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me, I shall not turn away. For I have come from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of the One Who sent Me.”

“And the will of Him Who sent Me is that I lose nothing of what He has given Me, but instead that I raise it up on the last day. This is the will of the Father, that whoever sees the Son and believes in Him shall live eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

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Wednesday, 26 April 2023 : 3rd Week of Easter (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 65 : 1-3a, 4-5, 6-7a

Shout with joy to God, all you on earth; sing to the glory of His Name; proclaim His glorious praise. Say to God, “How great are Your deeds!”

All the earth bows down to You, making music, in praise of You, singing in honour of Your Name. Come, and see God’s wonders; His deeds, awesome for humans.

He has turned the sea into dry land, and the river was crossed on foot. Let us, therefore, rejoice in Him. He rules by His might forever.

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Wednesday, 26 April 2023 : 3rd Week of Easter (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 8 : 1b-8

This was the beginning of a great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem. All, except the Apostles, were scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria. Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church. He entered house after house and dragged off men and women, and had them put in jail.

At the same time, those who were scattered went about, preaching the word. Philip went down to a town of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. All the people paid close attention to what Philip said as they listened to him, and saw the miraculous signs that he did. For, in cases of possession, the unclean spirits came out shrieking loudly. Many people who were paralysed or crippled, were healed. So there was great joy in the town.

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Wednesday, 19 April 2023 : 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. 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, 19 April 2023 : 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, 19 April 2023 : 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, 19 April 2023 : 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, 12 April 2023 : 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. 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, 12 April 2023 : 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.