Wednesday

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Wednesday, 27 April 2022 : 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, 20 April 2022 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are all reminded of the grace that God has given us through the suffering, death and resurrection of His only Son, Jesus Christ, Whom He had sent into this world to be our Lord and Saviour. Through Christ, all of us have received a new hope and seen the Light of God’s salvation, revealing fully the great and enduring love which God has for each and every one of us, each one without exception. We are all reminded that through His suffering, death and resurrection, Christ has gathered and called us all, the lost sheep of His flock, to find our way towards Him and the eternal life that He has promised and purchased by His death, for all the faithful ones.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles the account of the healing of the beggar who sat by the Beautiful Gate of the Temple of Jerusalem, by St. Peter and St. John who happened to be passing by. The beggar was healed by the Apostles who healed him in the Name of the Lord, and the crippled beggar was made whole again. That miraculous healing made not only the beggar to rejoice, leaping with joy, but also everyone else who have witnessed the miraculous healing, as everyone knew how long that man had been sitting and was crippled since birth, and God had made him whole and fine again.

Then in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the two disciples of the Lord who were on their way to the village of Emmaus from Jerusalem. This happened just right after the Lord had died on the Cross and risen from the dead. This likely happened on the later time of the Sunday of the Resurrection, in the late afternoon and early evening. They had been debating and discussing among themselves about what they had heard and experienced, most perplexing of which was the words spreading amongst the disciples that the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead and had appeared to some among them.

Those disciples apparently did not yet believe in this truth, and they were still doubtful and shaken in their faith, as they thought that the Lord would have led them all in a great revolution against the Romans and the other oppressors of the people and reestablished the kingdom of Israel. But the Lord instead died and went through the worst of humiliations in His sufferings and then crucifixion and death. They could not reconcile their expectations of what their Messiah or Saviour would do with the reality of what the Lord Jesus had done, in suffering the worst of humiliation and dying for the sake of all the people of God. And that was why, they could not recognise God at first, and failed to realise that He had been with them all along, journeying with them to Emmaus.

The Lord journeyed with the two disciples, speaking to them and encouraging them, explaining the words of the Scriptures to them, revealing why the Messiah had to suffer to fulfil what had been prophesied and spoken about Him. The Lord encouraged and strengthened them, giving them the power and the courage once again, and then, He revealed Himself before them, as He broke the bread with them. Those same two disciples had been journeying quite a distance from Jerusalem by the time that happened, but that did not stop them from rushing back to Jerusalem that very instant to proclaim the Risen Lord to the other disciples. Such was indeed the power of God’s strength and courage.

Those two disciples had been healed from their spiritual hurt and lack of faith, just as how the crippled beggar had been healed from his disability by the Apostles. Through what we had heard in those two examples, we can clearly see how God restored us all into a graceful condition, lifting us up from the depth of our misery, despair and the darkness surrounding us. He would not allow us to perish in the darkness by ourselves, and called us, rescuing us back into the light of His truth and love. Through Him, God has touched each and every one of us, releasing us from our attachments to sin, the disease that corrupts every single one of us, crippling us and making us to fall into this terrible state of existence, from which God alone can rescue us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we recall the love that God has shown us, in His great love, mercy and compassion, we are all reminded of the wonderful grace we have received through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, from Whom we have received the assurance for eternal life, the light of His truth and love, the healing for all of our mistakes, faults, shortcomings and all of our imperfections that had kept us in the darkness all these while. Through Christ, we have been made whole once again, and rightfully therefore, we ought to follow Him and commit ourselves anew to the path that He has shown us. We have to be His dedicated and faithful, courageous witnesses in our respective communities and among all those whom we have encountered in life.


Let us all therefore renew our commitment to the Lord, brothers and sisters in Christ, renewing the commitment to love Him and to serve Him wholeheartedly much as how the Apostles and the innumerable saints and martyrs had done in the past. As we are the modern day successors of these wonderful holy men and women, and we have been entrusted with the great works of the Lord in His Church, we cannot stand idle anymore or ignore our obligations as Christians in proclaiming the Good News, the truth and the salvation of God. We have to make good use of the opportunities provided to us and dedicate ourselves in each and every moments of our lives, to glorify the Lord by our lives and to be great inspiration to one another in faith.

May the Lord be with us all, and may our Risen Lord continue to strengthen us and give us the courage and the power to be great missionaries of His love and truth in our present day world. May we help one another to be closer to God, and bring many others to the healing and happiness that can be found in God alone, our Hope and our Light, our Saviour and our God. Amen.

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Wednesday, 20 April 2022 : 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, 20 April 2022 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

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

Give thanks to YHVH, 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 YHVH rejoice. Look to YHVH and be strong; seek His face always.

You descendants of His servant Abraham, you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is YHVH 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, 20 April 2022 : 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, 13 April 2022 : Wednesday of Holy Week (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in our Scripture passages today we heard of the sufferings that the Lord would receive at the hands of His oppressors, as well as everything that would happen to Him in the moment of His Passion, His suffering and death. He would be abandoned by His disciples, betrayed by one of His closest collaborators, and He would have to endure the punishments and sufferings for mistakes, crimes and sins that He Himself did not commit.

Through Christ, our Lord and Saviour, God has willed to redeem us all from our sins, and through Him, He has called us out of the darkness, bringing His light of hope and truth into our midst, as He revealed His perfect and ever-enduring love and kindness, His compassion and mercy through Christ, the manifestation of His love in the flesh. God has become Man so that through this act of supreme love, He can be reconciled with us, and that we may find our way back to Him, and will not perish but have eternal life, as He has always intended for us.

Yet, in order to do that, He had to suffer, and suffer most grievously because the consequence and punishment for sin is rightly death. We have disobeyed and abandoned the Lord and Master of all life, the Source of our life and the One from Whom we gained our existence, and therefore, we deserve death and destruction. We should all have been condemned to hell and the eternity of sufferings, as what the devil and his fellow fallen angels had been sentenced to.

But God loved us all above everything else. For He created us out of love, making us all in His own image, as the most perfect and beloved of all of His creations. He gave us life because He loved us all and wanted us all to enjoy forever with Him the goodness and the bounty of His wonderful works, with the Gardens of Eden, the paradise that existed at the beginning of time supposedly where we should have been, if not for our downfall into sin.

Through sin we have been defiled and therefore separated from God, and yet, God did not condemn us, destroy us or annihilate us when He could perfectly and easily have done so. Instead, He still loved us all very much, and His love for us all surpassed the disgust and the anger He has against our sinfulness. He despised not us, the sinners, but our sins and wickedness. His love for us endures and even grows stronger, as He continued to watch over us and wanted to be reconciled with us.

God has loved us so much that He gave us all His one and only begotten Son, that through Him we may not perish, but have eternal life. He has reached out to us through His Son, Who willingly endured that betrayal and rejection, all the insults and humiliations, the worst of all pains and sufferings imaginable, as He shouldered His Cross and endured countless blows and wounds to His Body. That is why today we heard all of these from the Scriptures as a reminder for us of how much beloved we are by God that He has willingly done all these for our sake, to go through all the worst sufferings for us.

Today we also heard how Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord for the mere price of thirty silver coins, which contextually was the price of a slave. Therefore, God allowed Himself to be treated like a slave, to be punished for us, so that like what He had once done to the Israelites in leading them out of their slavery in Egypt, He may also lead all of us out of our slavery to sin. Judas Iscariot showed us how our greed and desire can be our great undoing and lead us down the path towards ruin. We can end up doing things that we regret, just as Judas was swayed by Satan and overwhelmed by his desire for money and lack of faith to betray his own Lord and Master.

Then, this Holy Week as we draw closer to the beginning of Easter Triduum tomorrow, have we prepared ourselves worthily in our hearts, minds and indeed in our whole entire beings? Have we prepared ourselves so that we may physically, spiritually and mentally celebrate the upcoming greatest events and mysteries surrounding our Lord’s Passion, His suffering and death, His Resurrection by which all of us have received the guarantee of eternal life and true happiness? We are all called to put our faith in Him and spend this time to reflect on our own lives. Have we lived our lives in accordance with God’s ways or not?

May the Lord continue to guide us and help us, so that in everything we do, we will always be exemplary in all things, and be good role models and examples for our fellow men and women. Let us all make good use of our time and the opportunities given to us so that we may be ever better disciples and followers of Our Lord. Let us all not be like Judas Iscariot who easily gave in to temptations and betrayed the Lord for money. May all of us be ever closer to God and be ever more reflective of His love and truth in our lives and actions, now and always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 13 April 2022 : 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.”

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Wednesday, 13 April 2022 : Wednesday of Holy Week (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 68 : 8-10, 21-22, 31 and 33-34

Since I am held in contempt for Your sake, and shame has covered My face. I have become a stranger to My kindred, an alien to My mother’s sons. Zeal for Your house consumes Me as fire and those who insult You insult Me as well.

I looked for sympathy and there was none, for comforters and there was no one. They gave me poison for food and vinegar to drink.

I will praise the Name of God in song; I will glorify Him with thanksgiving. Let the lowly witness this and be glad. You who seek God, may your hearts be revived. For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise those in captivity.

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Wednesday, 13 April 2022 : Wednesday of Holy Week (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Isaiah 50 : 4-9a

The Lord YHVH has taught Me so I speak as His disciple and I know how to sustain the weary. Morning after morning He wakes Me up to hear, to listen like a disciple. The Lord YHVH has opened My ear. I have not rebelled, nor have I withdrawn.

I offered My back to those who strike Me, My cheeks to those who pulled My beard; neither did I shield My face from blows, spittle and disgrace. I have not despaired, for the Lord YHVH comes to My help. So, like a flint I set My face, knowing that I will not be disgraced.

He Who avenges Me is near. Who then will accuse Me? Let us confront each other. Who is now My accuser? Let him approach. If the Lord YHVH is my Help, who will condemn Me?

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Wednesday, 6 April 2022 : 5th Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are called to follow the Lord and to remember His providence and love, the compassion which He has shown to each and every one of us that we will be willing to open ourselves to Him, opening our hearts and minds so that we may listen to the words that our Lord and Father speak to us in the depth of our hearts and minds. Too often we have been stubborn and refused to listen to Him, and instead preferring to walk down our own path, which more often than not led us to ruin.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Daniel regarding the time when king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon built for himself a great golden statue in his own image, and ordered all of his subjects and peoples to bow down and prostrate themselves in worship of the golden statue. It was common at that time and throughout history for rulers to aggrandise themselves and even wanting to be worshipped as gods and treated as divinity. They built for themselves numerous palaces, temples and other edifices to highlight and emphasise their glory and power.

To this end, thus king Nebuchadnezzar, who had conquered the Assyrians and took over control of many realms and countries including that of Judah, glorified himself and forced his people to obey his commands. But among all the people assembled there, as we heard in that passage, only three dared to refuse to obey the king’s order. The king had ordered everyone to do as he commanded on the pain of death for those who refused to obey, and yet, Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah, known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to the king, kept strong to their faith in God and chose rather to suffer and die rather than to abandon or betray their Lord and Master.

We heard the aftermath of what happened after the king of Babylon threw the three of them into a blazing furnace that was purposefully made far hotter because the defence that the three men placed before him angered him greatly. And yet, the three men were completely unharmed by the fire, and the king and everyone present witnessed the great miracle, and saw the Angel of God that God sent to safeguard them as the mysterious fourth man present in the fire with them. The Lord protected the three of them for their faith in Him and to show Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon the futility of his hubris, pride and ego.

In the end, God rescued His faithful ones and those who pride themselves in their own power and glory were ashamed and put down. In our Gospel passage today, we have then seen yet again how the Lord once more reached out to His people and gave them His deliverance and help, in Christ Jesus, the Saviour of the world and His beloved Son. By His coming into this world, He reached out to us who have been scattered and separated from Him due to sin. He showed us the path towards Him and how we can be reconciled with Him, forgiven from our sins that had separated us from Him.

However, as we heard, many among the people refused to listen to the Lord and even took offence at the words He said when He spoke of God as His Father. They also spoke of themselves as the children of Abraham and were displeased when the Lord said that they were still not free because of their attitude and refusal to listen to His words and truth. Essentially those same people proved the Lord’s words by their own actions, their lack of faith and continued stubborn resistance in not following the Law and commandments as the Lord told them to.

All these were because they were too proud to admit that they could have been wrong, and when the Lord came before them telling the truth and calling them to change their ways, they refused to do so, thinking that they knew better how to handle things and that they could not be wrong in their way of life. Unfortunately, this attitude in fact led them even further away from the Lord, preventing them from finding their way towards Him because their hearts and minds had been closed to Him. They trusted more in their own power and strength, rather than in the Lord, in stark contrast to the three friends of Daniel, whose story we heard in our first reading today.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore seek the Lord with renewed faith and desire to love Him from now on. Let us humble ourselves before Him and not be like those who kept their prideful ways, like the king of Babylon or the people at the time of the Lord Jesus, who refused to believe in God and His truth, and even persecuted the faithful. Instead, we should be inspired by the faith of Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah, and remain firmly strong in our faith and dedication in God from now and always. May God bless us all and be with us all, through our journey of faith in life. Amen.