Wednesday

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Wednesday, 23 March 2022 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Turibius de Mogrovejo, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Deuteronomy 4 : 1, 5-9

And now, Israel, listen to the norms and laws which I teach that you may put them into practice. And you will live and enter and take possession of the land which YHVH, the God of your fathers, gives you.

See, as YHVH, my God, ordered me, I am teaching you the norms and the laws that you may put them into practice in the land you are going to enter and have as your own. If you observe and practice them, other peoples will regard you as wise and intelligent. When they come to know of all these laws, they will say, ‘There is no people as wise and as intelligent as this great nation.’

For in truth, is there a nation as great as ours, whose gods are as near to it as YHVH, our God, is to us whenever we call upon Him? And is there a nation as great as ours whose norms and laws are as just as this Law which I give you today?

But be careful and be on your guard. Do not forget these things which your own eyes have seen or let them depart from your heart as long as you live. But on the contrary, teach them to your children and to your children’s children.

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Wednesday, 16 March 2022 : 2nd 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 Lord speaking to us through the Scriptures, reminding us to remain faithful to Him despite the challenges and trials that we may face in the midst of our journey of faith through life. We are reminded that following the Lord may not be an easy as it seems to be, and that just as the Lord Himself had faced a lot of rejection and opposition, hence we also have to be prepared to be treated in the same way.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah in which the opposition and plotting against Jeremiah was highlighted to us. Jeremiah was the prophet sent to the people and kingdom of Judah during its final years and days, reminding God’s people and calling on them to turn away from their wicked and sinful ways, and trust once again in the Lord instead of the falsehoods of the pagan idols and the false prophets that had been running rampant in ruining the kingdom and the people with their lies.

Those same false prophets and idolaters were the ones who hated Jeremiah and his works, plotting against him with each other and with collusion from the powerful nobles in trying to bring him down, accusing him with treason and with various other false accusations. They wanted to remove him as a great threat to their position, power and preeminence in the kingdom and the community as Jeremiah continued to work against them in proclaiming God’s truth to His people.

Jeremiah trusted in the Lord and placed his fate in His hands, and he followed the Lord and His providence, walked in the path that he had been shown, persevering even against the many challenges that he had to endure for the sake of his faith in God, as well as for the sake of the remnants of the people and the kingdom of Judah. He endured the sufferings and trials, and remained true to his faith to the end, as a truly exemplary role model to all of us Christians, God’s followers and people.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the moment when the sons of Zebedee, James and John, two of the Twelve closest among the Lord’s disciples, tried to gain extra favour from Him and brought their mother along in trying to gain for themselves better position among the Lord’s followers and inner circle, despite the fact that they were already among His closest confidants and assistants. They were trying to gain favour with the Lord as they must have thought that following Jesus the Messiah, as was commonly believed at that time, would lead to the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.

Hence, the disciples were jostling for influence and power, for connection with the Lord, hoping that through their closeness to the Lord, they could benefit in terms of being possibly appointed as powerful members of the Lord’s court once He restored the kingdom of Israel. However, they did not know or realise that it was not what the Lord intended to do. He came indeed as King, but not to restore the earthly kingdom of Israel, but to gather everyone into the one true and eternal Kingdom of God.

But in order to do that, first He would have to suffer grievously much as Jeremiah His servant had once suffered at the hands of his enemies. The Lord had to endure rejection and persecution, the most painful torture and a most humiliating death on the Cross, all the cup of suffering that He had to partake and drink as part of His mission, His Passion, His death and eventually, His Resurrection. It was this same cup of suffering which the Lord mentioned to James and John in today’s Gospel reading.

The Lord said it clearly that His disciples would also drink from His cup of suffering, sharing the same fate that He had experienced. In another occasion, the Lord also said that unless one takes up his cross and follows Him, then he cannot truly be His disciple. This is yet again another reminder that as Christians, all of us will likely face challenges and trials in our path, and we have to be steady in faith and not easily give up regardless of what we may be facing along the way. We have to keep our faith and trust in the Lord at all times.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let this time and season of Lent be a time of renewal of faith for us, for us to deepen our relationship with God through more time spent on prayer and our many Lenten observances, through which hopefully we may draw closer to His path, His Law and commandments. Let us help each other in our journey of faith towards the Lord, and help one another to persevere through the many challenges and trials we may have to face for the Lord’s sake.

May the Lord be with us and empower us to live ever more worthily in His presence, now and always. May our Lenten season and observance be truly fruitful, in all the things we say and do, all for the greater glory of God. Amen.

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Wednesday, 16 March 2022 : 2nd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 20 : 17-28

At that time, when Jesus was going to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples and said to them, “See, we are going to Jerusalem. There the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law, who will condemn Him to death. They will hand Him over to the foreigners, who will mock Him, scourge Him and crucify Him. But He will be raised to life on the third day.”

Then the mother of James and John came to Jesus with her sons, and she knelt down, to ask a favour. Jesus said to her, “What do you want?” And she answered, “Here You have my two sons. Grant that they may sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, when You are in Your kingdom.”

Jesus said to the brothers, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They answered, “We can.” Jesus replied, “You will indeed drink My cup, but to sit at My right or at My left is not for Me to grant. That will be for those, for whom My Father has prepared it.”

The other ten heard all this, and were angry with the two brothers. Then Jesus called them to Him and said, “You know that the rulers of the nations act as tyrants over them, and the powerful oppress them. It shall not be so among you : whoever wants to be more important in your community shall make himself your servant.”

“And if you want to be the first of all, make yourself the servant of all. Be like the Son of Man Who has come, not to be served but to serve, and to give His life to redeem many.”

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Wednesday, 16 March 2022 : 2nd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 30 : 5-6, 14, 15-16

Free me from the snare that they have set for me. Indeed You are my Protector. Into Your hands I commend my spirit; You have redeemed Me, o Lord, faithful God.

I hear whispering among the crowd, rumours that frighten me from every side – their conspiracies, their schemes, their plot to take my life.

But I put my trust in You, o Lord, I said : “You are my God;” my days are in Your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, from those after my skin.

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Wednesday, 16 March 2022 : 2nd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jeremiah 18 : 18-20

Then, they said, “Come, let us plot against Jeremiah, for even without him, there will be priests to interpret the Teachings of the Law; there will always be wisemen to impart counsel and prophets to proclaim the word. Come, let us accuse him and strike him down instead of listening to what he says.”

Hear me, o YHVH! Listen to what my accusers say. Is evil the reward for good? Why do they dig a grave for me? Remember how I stood before You to speak well on their behalf so that Your anger might subside.

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Wednesday, 9 March 2022 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, Religious (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Scriptures in which we are all reminded to have faith in the Lord and to trust in Him, believing in all that He has done for us and shown us. We must be strong in faith and do not waver amidst the trials and challenges, the many temptations we may be facing in this world. And through what we have heard from the Scripture passages today, we have to believe in the Lord and turn towards Him with heart full of love and contrition especially during this time and season of Lent.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jonah in which we heard of the moment when the Lord sent His servant Jonah to the city and the people of Nineveh, then the great capital of the mighty Assyrian Empire. Contextually and historically, as the Assyrians had conquered numerous nations and peoples, they were a very proud people and nation, and their glory and power unparalleled. Yet, they had also committed great atrocities and sin before God, and the Lord sent Jonah to them to warn them of this and the retribution that they were to face.

Immediately upon hearing the news of the revelation of their impending destruction, the king and the whole entire people of Nineveh believed in the Lord and in His words, and they immediately humbled themselves before the Lord, went into mourning and contrition, dressed in sackcloth and regretting all the sins which they had committed before God and men alike. And seeing the actions and the sincerity of the people of Nineveh in believing in Him and in repenting from their sinful ways, God spared Nineveh from destruction.

From what we have heard, the Lord truly loves His people, all without exception. He loves all, including even those who have sinned against Him. No sinner, no matter how great, can be excluded from God’s love. They all still enjoy God’s love as always, which is even more powerful than our sins. Unfortunately, it was our own rejection of God’s love and mercy, generously given and offered to us, which had kept us in the state of sin. Many of us proudly stood by our own actions and refused to admit our faults and sins, as contrasted with the attitudes of the people of Nineveh we have heard just earlier on.

That was exactly the attitude showed by the people of Jesus’ time, especially by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law during the time when they demanded to see signs from Him. This was the context of what we heard in our Gospel passage today, as many among the people still refused to believe in the Lord and His works, despite having themselves witnessed in person all the wonders, miracles and hearing the great wisdom with which the Lord had spoken His teachings and parables, all of which clearly indicated and showed that He was the One sent into the world to be its Saviour.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord spoke of Jonah and what the Lord had done through him, as compared to what He had Himself done as He came into the midst of His people. While the people of Nineveh, a pagan people who had no obligations and ties to God whatsoever even believed in Him and in His prophet when he came to their midst, the contrast between those people of Nineveh and those who were supposedly the descendants of the Israelites was really stark, as the latter, who ought to have been faithful to the Lord had faltered in their faith and refused to see and believe in His truth.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we listened to these words of the Lord we are all reminded this Lent to be more dedicated to Him, to walk ever more faithfully in His path and presence. We are reminded to realise how we need God and His love, His compassion and mercy, and how we are all far from being perfect. Instead, all of us have often kept our pride and ego, our greed and desires, keeping ourselves separated from God and remaining in the state of sin as we have always been thus far. The Lord has called us to Him, but we have often been deaf to His call.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we have the good role model and examples of St. Frances of Rome, a great and dedicated woman, a faithful servant of God, whose life and inspirations should be our encouragement to live according to God’s will. St. Frances of Rome was born to a rich noble family and wanted to be a nun at an early age, but she was for ed to marry and although she did have a happy marriage, she remained committed to her desire to love the Lord and to serve Him, through her love for her fellow brethren, her fellow brothers and sisters.

She often visited the poor and the sick, and she has often showed compassion, love and care for those who needed it. She cared for the many of the sick, the poor and the less fortunate in her community, just as much as she also loved her husband, children and family. She led a holy and devout life, full of faith and contemplation, of chastity and righteousness. St. Frances founded the Olivetan Oblates of Mary as a confraternity of women dedicated to serve the Lord, among her many other contributions to the Church and the faithful.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord has called on all of us to follow Him, and all of us should seek Him wholeheartedly and turn towards Him with great faith, and devote ourselves much as how St. Frances of Rome and many of our other holy predecessors had done. Let us all follow the Lord and spend all of our efforts to walk in His presence, glorifying Him and loving Him, at each and every moments of our lives. May the Lord be with us all and may He empower each one of us to walk with Him, especially through our Lenten observances and works, our fasting and abstinence, and our almsgiving and generosity among others. May God bless our Lenten observance and works, and be with us always. Amen.

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Wednesday, 9 March 2022 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 11 : 29-32

At that time, as the crowd increased, Jesus spoke the following words : “People of the present time are troubled people. They ask for a sign, but no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah. As Jonah became a sign for the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be a sign for this generation.”

“The Queen of the South will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and here, there is greater than Solomon. The people of Nineveh will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for Jonah’s preaching made them turn from their sins, and here, there is greater than Jonah.”

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Wednesday, 9 March 2022 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, Religious (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 50 : 3-4, 12-13, 18-19

Have mercy on me, o God, in Your love. In Your great compassion blot out my sin. Wash me thoroughly of my guilt; cleanse me of evil.

Create in me, o God, a pure heart; give me a new and steadfast spirit. Do not cast me out of Your presence nor take Your Holy Spirit from me.

You take no pleasure in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, You would not delight in it. O God, my sacrifice is a broken spirit; a contrite heart, You will not despise.

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Wednesday, 9 March 2022 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, Religious (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Jonah 3 : 1-10

The word of YHVH came to Jonah a second time : “Go to Nineveh, the great city, and announce to them the message I give you.”

In obedience to the word of YHVH, Jonah went to Nineveh. It was a very large city, and it took three days just to cross it. So Jonah walked a single day’s journey and began proclaiming, “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

The people of the city believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. Upon hearing the news, the king of Nineveh got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. He issued a proclamation throughout Nineveh :

“By the decree of the king and his nobles, no people or beasts, herd or flock, will taste anything; neither will they eat nor drink. But let people and beasts be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call aloud to God, turn from his evil ways and violence. Who knows? God may yet relent, turn from His fierce anger and spare us.”

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not carry out the destruction He had threatened upon them.

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Wednesday, 2 March 2022 : Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we begin the blessed season of Lent with the Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten season. On this day we mark this special occasion with the imposition of ashes on our heads, as a very symbolic act of us recognising our own mortality and the fragility of our existence. And as we impose the ashes on the crown of our heads, it represents our willingness to embrace God’s love and mercy, with repentant hearts and open minds, desiring to follow Him once again and to walk in His presence.

In our first reading today from the Book of the prophet Joel, we heard the Lord speaking to His people calling on them all to return to Him, to repent from their sinful and wicked ways so that they would not end up being separated forever. The prophet Joel, according to history and tradition, lived during the years after the return of the exiles of Israel and Judah from their humiliating exile in Babylon and other places, where for many decades they had to endure the sufferings and humiliation of having no place that they could call home.

They also had to endure the destruction of their homeland, their cities and capital Jerusalem, the Temple and House of God destroyed, and them scattered among the nations. They had to endure all that shame, but God did not forget about them, and as He Himself had promised to their ancestors, that He would rescue them and bring them back to the lands they and their ancestors once owned, thus, God fulfilled His promises to the people, who had atoned for their sins by their struggles and by remaining faithful to Him despite their predicaments. Many of them have regretted their ancestors’ and their own infidelity.

Thus, the Lord has shown mercy and compassion on them, embracing them as He moved the heart of Cyrus, the King of Persia to allow them all to return to their homeland, and not only that, but also to rebuild their cities and the Temple and House of God in Jerusalem. The Lord showed how He still loved them no matter what, and regardless of all that they had done in disobeying Him and betraying Him. However, the Lord also called on them to repent and to change their ways, so that they would sin no longer.

God has always remembered us, and He has given many opportunities to us to listen to Him and to change our ways for the better. St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians called on all the faithful to embrace this mercy, compassion and love that God has shown. And today as we listened to these words, we are all reminded of just how fortunate we are that God has always made this available to us, for us to return to Him and to find our way back to Him, and this season of Lent is a perfect opportunity and time for us to return to our most loving and merciful God.

That is why as we begin this season of Lent today, we are all reminded of the importance of this season as a time to prepare ourselves, our hearts and minds, our bodies and our whole entire beings so that we may be ready to welcome the Lord into our midst, to walk with Him and to be in His presence once again. The ashes that came from the remnants of the blessed palms of last year’s Palm Sunday are blessed and then imposed on our heads as the clear sign of our desire to come closer to God and to embrace His mercy, compassion and love especially during this penitential and blessed season of Lent.

And it is important that we understand fully the practices involved in this season of Lent and also on this particular Ash Wednesday. We fast and abstain on this day to mark this occasion of the Ash Wednesday, as we commit ourselves to a time of purification and reorientation of our lives, of our desire to abandon the excesses of worldly attachments and temptations. That is indeed why we practice fasting and abstinence today, and with regards to abstinence which we practice on each Fridays not just during the season of Lent but throughout the entire year as well.

We fast by restricting our intake of food to just one full meal a day with two smaller collations because we want to remind ourselves not to be overcome by greed and by our desires, and to remind ourselves that our physical bodies and existence, the desires of our flesh can and should be transcended, and through this we can also help ourselves to focus better on the Lord. And by abstaining from meat on this day and on other Fridays of the year, we are reminded to focus our attention on the Lord, especially to His most loving sacrifice on the Cross for us, on Good Friday. By the shedding of His Body and Blood, Our Lord has brought salvation upon all of us.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord is therefore reminding us that as we enter into this season of Lent, we should not blindly do what the Church and the Law had instructed us to do, in our fasts and abstinences. We should not fast and abstain because we want other people to see just how devout, holy and committed we are to the Lord, and we should not fast and abstain just because we want to be seen by others and to be praised by them. If we fast and abstain, or do any other forms of Lenten observations and piety for the sake of doing it, or for appearances, then we are not doing it right, brothers and sisters in Christ. Our fasting and abstinence, among other things, are meant to bring us closer to God.

That is why today, on this Ash Wednesday, we must not be superficial in faith any longer. If we have not committed ourselves to a change in our attitudes in life, our outlook and focus, our efforts and others, then we have to seriously begin that change at this very instant. This season of Lent is that time of renewal of our hearts, our minds, our bodies, our souls and indeed, of our entire beings, as we are all called by God to return to Him, to His love and truth, to embrace once again His righteous and virtuous path, His grace and salvation. We may have fallen astray on the path, and have been tempted and dragged once again into the depths of sin, but God has never given up on us. He has kept giving us, again and again, the many opportunities for us to return to Him.

Hence, as we receive the imposition of these blessed ashes, let us not just show our repentance outwardly only, but also strive for a total internal repentance, reorientation and change of our lives, our actions, and indeed, everything that we are, all that we have done thus far. We have to wear those ashes on our heads, as a sign of total humility before God instead of pride. It is not a sign to be shown off as a symbol of piety or superiority over others, as quite a few would have inadvertently ended up making it a show of their faith, or as a measure of holiness and worthiness before God. And in that pride and ego, there can be no true forgiveness and reconciliation, brothers and sisters in Christ.

That is why, more than just receiving the imposition of the ashes on our heads, the crown of our body as a visible and tangible sign of our repentance, what is even more important is for us to rend our hearts, our minds, our bodies, our souls and our entire beings, casting out from them all the vestiges of pride and ego, of ambition, hubris and greed, of all the things that have kept us away from God for so long all these while. We have to cast all these away and renew our hearts, our whole entire beings by humbling accepting God’s freely offered love, forgiveness and mercy. We have to let Him enter into our hearts, to touch our minds and be present within us, in our being, as He dwells in us and among us. We have to allow the Lord to transform our lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore commit ourselves this Lent, to be a better person and to be better Christians, ever more committed and dedicated disciples, followers, and children of Our most loving God and Father. Let us all draw ever closer to His throne of mercy, seeking Him and beseeching Him to welcome us back into His presence, as we come to Him not just with ashes on our heads, but even more importantly with the ashes that cover the whole of our hearts, our minds and our entire inner beings, as we show great regret and shame over our many, innumerable sins. Let us all ask the Lord to forgive us and to help us, so that we all may come ever closer to Him and find our true life and salvation through Him.

May God be with us all, and may He bless our Lenten journey and experience starting today, so that we may strive to be ever better Christians, not just in name, but also in words and deeds, in all things. Let us be more loving and charitable this Lent, and also resist the temptations to sin, in various forms and ways, by our faithful practice of fasting and abstinence, done right with the right focus and intent, not for ourselves but for the greater glory of God. May God bless us all, all of our actions, words and deeds, our many upcoming Lenten observances and works, that we may be worthy of Him in the end, when He comes again to gather all of His faithful. Amen.