Weekday Homily

by

Thursday, 4 April 2024 : Thursday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to proceed through this joyful period of this Easter Octave, we are all continuously being reminded of what we believe in the Resurrection, that Our Lord Jesus Christ has truly risen from the dead, has not remained in the tomb, and as the Church has always preserved and taught it, that the Risen Lord has led us all to triumph against the power of sin and death by His glorious Resurrection, and we truly rejoice because of this great and triumphant victory that we have gained through the Risen Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. Each and every one of us as Christians have the important mission of proclaiming this same truth and Good News of God’s salvation to everyone all throughout the whole world, to all those whom we encounter each day and moments of our lives.

In our first reading today, we heard the continuation of the account from the Acts of the Apostles in which St. Peter and St. John miraculously healed a crippled man from birth at the gate of the Temple of God in Jerusalem. They offered the crippled man God’s healing, His love and mercy through the power and authority of the Name of the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. Through His Name, they made the crippled man whole again, and made many people who witnessed the event to become astonished at the power of God. St. Peter and St. John as we heard in that passage from the Acts of the Apostles today testified courageously about the Risen Lord, proclaiming the salvation of God which had been accomplished through everything that His Son had done in this world, in the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Lord.

They spoke about the events that had recently happened with the Lord’s Crucifixion, when He suffered with the persecution and oppression by the Jewish authorities, the chief priest and all those who refused to believe in Him, condemning Him to death and handing Him over to the Romans, only for Him to rise again on the third day, just as He had predicted before all those events were to happen. Those chief priests and many of the members of the Jewish High Council, the Sanhedrin, attempted to silence the Apostles and the other disciples, bribing the Roman guards and others to spread a false story of how the disciples stole the Body of the Lord from His tomb and hid the Body, and claiming that the Lord had risen from the dead. But this event showed that St. Peter and St. John, like the other disciples of the Lord, empowered and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, were no longer willing to remain silent and idle.

They therefore testified before everyone about the Risen Christ, not fearing the repercussions and oppressions that they might be facing, as they knew that the Lord was with them, and no matter what they might encounter, they were God’s chosen disciples and missionaries, to proclaim forth His truth. They called on all the people of God to heed to His call and to embrace His message of truth, His salvation and love, by walking in the path that the Lord has shown them, and turning away from their sinful ways, having the Lord Jesus, Who has risen from the dead, as their Lord and Saviour. They told the people to believe in the One Whom God has sent into their midst to save them all, firstly for the Jewish people, to whom St. Peter and St. John were addressing to at that time, and then for all the other, non-Jewish people as well.

In our Gospel passage today we then heard of the aftermath of the encounter between the Risen Lord and His two disciples who were on their way to Emmaus. The Risen Lord Himself appeared before the assembled disciples in Jerusalem who had just heard from those two disciples who hastened back on their way from Emmaus after they themselves witnessed in person the Risen Lord revealing Himself to them. The Risen Lord appeared before them miraculously, showing them that His Resurrection was indeed the truth and not a story that was brought up by those women who went to the tomb of the Lord in the early Easter Sunday morning. He showed Himself to them to remind all of them that the Resurrection is not just a myth but a reality, that had indeed happened precisely as He had predicted it.

He encouraged and strengthened them much as He had done so with the two disciples on their way to Emmaus earlier on, teaching them and reassuring them, reminding them that the prophets of God had been prophesying about all that had happened earlier on, but many were unable to see the truth of what they had preached and spoken about, that neither the disciples nor even the teachers of the Law and the chief priests were able to comprehend the fact that the Lord was indeed the One Whom God had promised to the whole world as the One through Whom everyone would be saved, and how all that entailed the suffering, the Passion and the death of the same Saviour, and ultimately through His glorious Resurrection from the dead.

All of us as Christians are reminded today that each one of us are the same witnesses of the Lord’s Resurrection, His truth and Good News much as the Apostles and disciples of the Lord then had been entrusted with this same truth and revelation. They had seen the Risen Lord, suffered and many of them died in martyrdom in defending that truth, but that never stopped them from continuing to go forth and proclaim the Risen Lord to the best of their abilities, so that by their great dedication and courage, many more had come to know of the Risen Lord and the salvation which had been given to them through the same Risen Christ. Thus, all of us have also received this same truth, and we are entrusted with the same mission as members of the same Church of God, to proclaim Him faithfully.

Let us all hence go forth and do our very best, in whatever opportunities that God had provided to us so that we may continue to do what we can in order to proclaim the Risen Lord at all times. Let us all be good role models of our lives and faith to everyone, so that by our every words, actions and deeds, we will be able to share the joy of the Resurrection to everyone, especially to our brethren who are still suffering in the darkness of sin and evil, that they too may come to see the Light of the Risen Christ. May God be with us always, and bless us all in our every good efforts and endeavours. Amen.

by

Wednesday, 3 April 2024 : Wednesday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Scriptures which we are again reminded of the great joy that we are celebrating during this time of Easter when we rejoice most wonderfully because of Our Lord having Risen from the dead, triumphed over sin, evil and death. And as He has shown us therefore the path to eternal life and salvation, all of us are reminded again this day of what it truly means for us to be Christians, that is to be filled with joy of the Resurrection, to be free from the dominion and attachments to sin and darkness present all around us so that we are truly an Easter people, a people full of God’s Light, Love and Hope, armed and strengthened with the knowledge that God has triumphed, and we too shall be triumphant with Him if we remain true and faithful to Him, despite the many challenges and trials that we may have to face.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles of the moment when the two Apostles, St. Peter and St. John, came to the Temple of God in Jerusalem and encountered a man who was crippled from birth, and who asked them for some money, begging for his livelihood. We heard how St. Peter and St. John instead miraculously cured the man from his ailments, in the power and Name of the Risen Lord, showing the grace and love of God, which He has shown to those who have faith in Him and in His Providence. The Lord healed the crippled man through His Apostles, and with that, many of the people saw firsthand the power of God’s healing through His Risen Son, proving everything that the Apostles had been proclaiming about in those days regarding the Resurrection of the Lord.

The Apostles had testified before the people of God about everything that they themselves had heard, witnessed and seen from the Risen Lord, having experienced the glory of the Resurrected Christ and beheld Him with their very own eyes. The Lord had also commanded them all to proclaim His truth, Good News and His Resurrection to all the whole world, calling on them to go forth and to reveal Him to the people of all the nations, which the Apostles and disciples took up faithfully, courageously going forth to the various places where they spoke fearlessly about the Lord and everything that He has taught them. Thus, we heard the testimony of faith of St. Peter and St. John, who proclaimed God’s healing and salvation by the healing of the crippled man, among other works.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Luke the account of what happened on the day of the Lord’s Resurrection, when the disciples first heard about the Lord Jesus having risen from the dead, and then how two disciples of the Lord who were on their way towards the village of Emmaus just outside of Jerusalem were debating and discussing about what they had heard about the Lord’s resurrection. Those two disciples could not agree and were still in disbelief at everything that had happened during those momentous few days since the Lord’s crucifixion, and then later on with His glorious Resurrection from the dead. The Risen Lord then appeared to them, albeit in the form that the two disciples could not yet recognise at first, and He journeyed with them down that road to Emmaus.

We heard how the Lord discussed the matter with the two disciples throughout the journey, and how He quoted the Scriptures and the words of the prophets, to highlight to them that everything had happened exactly as how the Lord Himself had wanted it to be, and just as how the prophets had proclaimed earlier on. He strengthened their faith and gave them courage through His words and what He had gone through with them, and finally, at the end, revealed Himself to them, that He was indeed the Lord, having risen from the dead, and was no longer in the tomb. This was one of the many incidences and moments when the Risen Lord appeared to His disciples, showing them that He has indeed risen as the others had said, and many became witnesses of His Resurrection, His triumph against sin, evil and death.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have heard in today’s Scripture readings, all of us are reminded of the Resurrection of the Lord, which is one of the core beliefs and tenets of our Christian faith. At every moments and times when we profess our faith in the Creed, we always mention our faith in the Lord Who has risen from the dead after His crucifixion and death. But do we truly believe in this truth, brothers and sisters? Do we really embody this faith we have in the Risen Lord, believing that through Him we can be free from the tyranny and dominion of sin, and receive the assurance of everlasting life and true joy with Him. Do we truly trust in Him and allow Him to lead us in our lives so that by walking in the path that He has shown us, we may enter into the more holy and worthy existence in God’s Presence?

Let us all be strengthened and encouraged by what we have heard from the Scripture passages today, being reminded as always that what we believe in is truly the truth. The Apostles and disciples of the Lord had themselves witnessed all these in person, and many of them willingly endured sufferings and hardships, trials, imprisonments and martyrdom, all because they truly believed in the truth of God, His love and everything that He had done for our salvation, which culminated in His glorious Resurrection. Had there been no Resurrection of the Lord, then their movement and efforts would have floundered and fizzled off just as what had happened to the many False Messiahs that were aplenty at that time. The fact that the message of God’s truth and His Resurrection remains strong till this very day is a reminder for all of us of this immutable truth and the mission which we all have, that is to proclaim His Resurrection and Good News to the whole world.

May the Risen Lord continue to help and strengthen us in our respective missions and vocations in our lives, that we may always strive to be truly worthy and good in all of our every actions, words and deeds, so that we may be good role models and inspirations to everyone all around us. May all those who witness us, our words and works may continue to be inspired and called to follow the Lord ever more worthily, so that through our lives we may be the shining beacons of God’s Light and salvation, and more and more people may come closer to Him, to be touched by His light and grace, and come out from the darkness and sin that is all around us in this world. Amen.

by

Tuesday, 2 April 2024 : Tuesday 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 Lord in the Scriptures we are reminded yet again this Easter season that all of us as Christians are called to be worthy and genuine witnesses of the Risen Lord, in proclaiming the truth about Him and His Resurrection and everything that He had done for the sake of the salvation of the whole world. All of us are called and reminded to be the ones to proclaim the Good News of the Lord’s salvation which He has willingly and generously offered to all of us through His Passion, namely His suffering and death, and ultimately through His glorious Resurrection. As Christians we have to be genuine in our actions, words and deeds so that everyone who witness us all will come to know of the Lord and His salvation through us and our exemplary lives.

In our first reading today, we heard the continuation from the account of the Acts of the Apostles in which St. Peter the Apostle spoke to the assembled people coming from various countries, the Jewish diaspora population and other visitors who came to Jerusalem to attend the Festival of the Pentecost. Prior to this event, the disciples had been in hiding, being afraid of the repercussions and the persecutions from the Jewish authorities and the many people who opposed the Lord and His efforts, those who had persecuted Him and condemned Him to death, crucified Him and henceforth continued to resist, refusing to believe that the Lord Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. They were afraid because those same authorities had attempted to silence them and spread their own version of events, claiming that the disciples of the Lord stole His Body from His tomb and hid the Body.

But with the strength of the Holy Spirit, the encouragement and wisdom that they had received, the Lord’s Apostles and disciples had received the encouragement and the drive they needed to go forth without fear anymore, to testify before everyone what they themselves had seen and witnessed, in all the glorious things that they had experienced in the presence of the Resurrected Lord, Who had overcome death itself, and showed them all His Divine and Risen glory, no longer hidden from them as before His Passion, suffering and death. They had also witnessed how the Lord ascended into Heaven in glory, and promised to them that He will one day return at the end of time, and not before sending them out, commissioning them and entrusting them with the important mission of going forth to the whole world and to proclaim His Good News, baptising all the people in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

It is what St. Peter therefore had shown us all, in his courageous stand for the Risen Lord, for all that He had shown His disciples, and thus, in the message which St. Peter proclaimed to the people, convincing so many among those people, astounded by their words and wisdom, and many of them able to understand the words of the Apostles because of the gift of tongues that the Holy Spirit had given them. We heard how three thousand people gave themselves to be baptised on that day, and that marked the beginning of the public face of the Church, which was unveiled to the whole world on Pentecost. This also reminds us all of the important mission and calling that we ourselves have as Christians, to be God’s faithful disciples and followers, and to do His will in all opportunities, as much as possible.

Then in today’s Gospel passage, we heard from another account of the appearance of the Risen Lord to His disciples, and this time it was the appearance of the Lord to Mary Magdalene, one of His closest disciples, who was distraught outside the tomb of the Lord, having discovered that His Body had gone missing from the tomb. She was desperate and lost, and did not know what to do, although the Angels of God at the tomb on Easter Sunday morning had told her and the other women with her that the Lord had indeed risen from the dead as He Himself had predicted it earlier. It was there then that the Lord appeared to her, while initially she did not recognise Him. Eventually, Mary Magdalene recognised the Lord when He revealed Himself to her, and told her to proclaim His message to all of His disciples.

Through what we have received in today’s Scripture readings, we are all reminded that each and every one of us as Christians must always put our faith and trust in the Lord, remembering everything that He had done for our sake, in His Passion, suffering and death on the Cross, that He has brought unto us the hope of everlasting life and salvation, liberation from the tyranny and dominion of sin and death. By His Resurrection, He has shown and reminded all of us that sin and death do not have the power or the say over us any more, and as long as we adhere closely to Him, following everything which He had done, we shall have no need to fear about anything. We may face hardships and persecutions, trials and oppressions like the Lord and His disciples themselves had faced, but we are reassured of triumph and victory with God in the end.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all therefore come together today to commemorate the glorious celebrations of Easter, which still continues on until the Solemnity of the Pentecost, let us all hence remind ourselves of our calling and mission as Christians, to be truly faithful and committed to the Lord, in all of our way of life, our every words, actions and deeds. We have to strive to live our every moments in life in service to God, in doing His will and in being truly worthy of Him, as best as we can so that by our lives we may indeed be good inspiration and role models for our fellow brothers and sisters around us. We should always be committed to live our lives in the manner that God has shown us so that our lives may truly proclaim our Risen Lord to all.

Let us remember that through our baptism we have been made parts of the Church, the one united Body of Christ. And as part of what we have been entrusted to do, we are to go forth to proclaim the Lord to all the people of all the nations, and we can do this in our own small little ways, in each and every moments of our lives, by carrying out our duties and responsibilities faithfully as Christians in even the smallest things we do, and in our every interactions with our brothers and sisters around us. May the Risen Lord continue to bless us all and guide us, and may He give us the strength and courage to proclaim His Resurrection, truth and Good News like His Apostles and disciples. Amen.

by

Monday, 1 April 2024 : Monday within Easter Octave (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we continue with the glorious celebration of Easter, we are all reminded of the truth of the Lord’s Resurrection which He has shown to all of His Apostles and disciples who have witnessed all the events and things that happened at that time, when the Lord Who have died on the Cross and was buried, rose in glory, appearing in all of His Risen wonder and brilliance, having conquered and sin and death, proving to every one of us that sin and death do not have the final say over us. He has triumphed through His Holy Cross, and what was known as the symbol of the ultimate punishment and humiliation has become the instrument of salvation and liberation for all mankind, and also the sign of ultimate Hope and Victory, which He has brought unto us, and we have received the assurance of this triumph and victory.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Acts of the Apostles in which St. Peter the Apostle stood firmly before all the people assembled in Jerusalem during the time of the Festival of the Pentecost, when many people came to Jerusalem from all over the Jewish diaspora, together with many other visitors, all of whom were astonished at the great wisdom and courage showed by the Apostles and the other disciples, who have received the Holy Spirit descending upon them, giving them the strength and the wisdom to speak out their minds, with the Divine guidance and providence, proclaiming everything that they themselves had witnessed about the Risen Lord, the glorious Resurrection of the Saviour, as well as everything that He had done in this world, His mission and how He has called on all the whole world to follow Him.

That was how St. Peter the Apostle spoke with such great fire in him, proclaiming all that the Lord had done in reaching out to His beloved people, in gathering all of them once again from being scattered all over the whole world, only for Him to face opposition, ridicule, rejection and stubborn refusal by so many who refused to listen to Him, or to believe in His truth and wisdom, in all that He has done and shown to them. St. Peter spoke courageously amidst the people about the suffering, all the things that this Saviour has suffered and endured during His Passion, the moment when He had to face a lot of hardships, trials, humiliations, and ultimately faced the punishment for the sins and mistakes which He Himself had not committed, but which He willingly took upon Himself, so that by His loving and most selfless sacrifice and offering of Himself, He has become the source of our salvation and redemption.

God has sent His Son to us all, so that by His coming into this world, and by everything that He has done, in obeying His Father’s will and in offering His most perfect and worthy offering, His actions had broken us all free from the prison of sin, evil and death. No longer that sin and death have any more power over us, although they can still harm us if we choose to stay away from God and reject His love. His glorious Resurrection is like a great Light that illuminates our path in the darkness of this world, piercing through the veil that sin has placed before us, that now we all can see the truth and the salvation which God has been promising us, and we have this Hope placed in us, knowing that if we remain true and faithful to Him, then in the end, we shall share in His glory and triumph, and enter into the eternal and glorious inheritance promised to us.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the account in the Gospel of St. Matthew of the appearance of the Lord Jesus after His Resurrection to some of His followers, the women of the group, whom He told that they should tell His other disciples to find Him in Galilee just as He Himself has told them. We then also heard how the opponents of the Lord made many efforts to try to stop the truth about the Lord’s Resurrection and His disappeared Body which had made quite a ruckus among the people, even to the point of making bribes and false, made-up stories about what happened, in order to try to sway the populace to belief in their version of the story, saying that the disciples of the Lord had stolen His Body, while the truth was that the Lord has indeed risen gloriously from the dead. They tried in vain to stop the truth from spreading, even so far as to persecute the Lord’s disciples and ordering them not to proclaim the Resurrection, to no avail.

That was because the disciples of the Lord themselves had seen the Risen Lord, experienced His Presence and everything that He has done and spoken to them, and through the courage and strength that God had provided to them, He has helped all of them to remain true and strong in their faith, and in their commitment to walk the path that He has called all of them to follow. The Risen Lord has commissioned them all to go forth and proclaim the Good News to all the whole world, to all the people who have been called to His love and compassion, to spread to them more of the truth about everything, and this same mission has also been entrusted to us all as members and parts of God’s Church. It is important that each and every one of us as Christians realise this calling and the mission which we have been entrusted with so that we can do our best to fulfil everything that we are all supposed to do.

As Christians, this Easter time and season is a reminder for all of us to go forth and be active in doing what God had called us to do, to be His worthy disciples and great role models, inspirations and strength for everyone around us so that by our every actions, words and deeds, by everything that we say and do, in every moments and opportunities, even in the smallest things, we will be the shining beacons of God’s Light and truth, His love and kindness towards us, being good inspiration and strength for all our fellow brethren who may still be struggling in their faith and in their willingness to follow the Lord in all that He has entrusted to them in their own various ways. Let us all be their pillars of support and strength, helping each other to carry out God’s will and mission, at all times and opportunities, as courageous and faithful servants and followers of the Risen Lord.

May the Risen Lord, Our Saviour, continue to bless us all and guide us in all of our journey throughout life. May He empower and strengthen each and every one of us in our struggles and in our efforts to follow Him, despite all the challenges, trials and hardships that may come our way. We must not easily lose hope and we have to remain firmly focused on the Lord, entrusting ourselves to Him, and believing in everything that He Himself has shown us, that in the end, we shall be raised together with Him into an everlasting existence with Him, in true bliss, joy and glory. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

by

Sunday, 31 March 2024 : Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is Risen from the dead, He has risen and conquered sin, destroyed the chains that had held us down all these while, broken free the prisons of the underworld, and led all of those who have faith in Him to Himself. Alleluia! He is Risen! And we all truly rejoice greatly and wonderfully this evening because at this moment we mark the occasion when Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, the Son of God, on the third day of the Triduum of His Passion, His suffering, Crucifixion and death, rose in glory just as He Himself had predicted and told to His disciples, showing them and all of us, that sin and death truly have no power over Him, and that those do not have the final say over all of us.

At this moment of Easter Sunday, after having gone through the entire season and time of Lent from Ash Wednesday, having not sung the great and most joyful Alleluia, now we finally sing out with great joy this hymn of great praise to God, and rightly so because we give Him thanks for everything the He had done for our sake, and we thank Him most graciously for having given us all His Son to save us all, just as we have commemorated everything that happened throughout His Passion or Suffering, when Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, endured the worst punishments, sufferings and trials, all for the sake of our salvation and liberation from evil, sin and death. We rejoice because through His Resurrection afterwards, the Lord Jesus showed us all that not even sin and death can rule over us, and in the end, we can have the sure hope of eternal life with God.

In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard the words of St. Peter the Apostle who exhorted the faithful, the disciples of the Lord, proclaiming all that had happened and taken place at that time and earlier, with the coming of the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ, the Son of God Who has brought the revelation of God’s truth and salvation into our midst. He was rejected, oppressed and made to suffer for all of our sins, but one which He has willingly accepted and embraced out of His love for us all. Through His Cross, Christ has brought us the sure hope of eternal life as well as the assurance of redemption because by His Cross, His death and ultimately by His Resurrection from the dead, He has conquered death, and broken forever the hold which sin has over us. His Light has dispelled the darkness present all around us, and showed us all the path towards God.

The Lord had told St. Peter and the other Apostles and disciples, shown Himself to them and proclaimed the truth about His mission, and how He has entrusted this mission to them all, to the Church of God. Each and every one of us as Christians have been called to various different missions, vocations and purpose in life, in each and every areas that are pertinent or unique to us, to the abilities and opportunities which the Lord has given to us and blessed us all with. The Apostles and disciples of the Lord responded faithfully and courageously to their calling, proclaiming the Risen Lord with great courage and dedication, being witnesses of His truth and love, His Good News to all the people of all the nations. Through their exemplary lives and actions, their commitments to God’s Law and commandments, they have indeed become the shining beacons of God’s light and salvation, which is something that we must do as well in our own lives.

In our second reading taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians, and the alternative from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, all of us are reminded by the Apostle of the grace which God has blessed us all generously with, and the path which Our Risen Lord has shown us, in leading us all towards God’s grace and salvation, leaving behind our old and past sinful way of life, our past attachments to worldly pleasures, desires and all the things which have often kept us all away from the fullness of God’s grace and love. We must get rid from ourselves all the ‘yeasts’ of sin, the impurities of our worldly attachments and all those obstacles that often kept us away from truly being able to develop a strong, lasting and wonderful relationship with the Lord. We have to focus our attention on the Risen Lord, and look upon His Light and Hope, so that we may tear ourselves away from the darkness of sin in this world.

Then finally, we are reminded yet again through the Gospel passage in which the account about the Resurrection of the Lord was highlighted to us, how the Lord has truly indeed risen from the dead and did not remain in the dominion and realm of death, for sin and death had no hold over Him, and He Himself has conquered those two, breaking forever the chains binding us to their dominion and power. Through His Resurrection, the Lord showed us all that His Light, His love and the hope in His salvation are far greater than the greatest power and forces that sin, darkness and evil can muster against us, and hence, as Christians, we must not be afraid of following the Lord and entrusting ourselves to Him, in whatever it is that He has called us all to do, to be His disciples and missionaries, His witnesses in our world today.

That is why on this most joyous occasion of Easter, as we finally rejoice in great joy and exultation upon the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord, let us all therefore remember our own moment of baptism, the time when we pass through from the old life and existence of sin into the new life and existence once again filled with God’s grace and love. We must remember our calling, mission and whatever God has entrusted to us all as Christians, in embarking on this journey we have been entrusted with through our baptism. Baptism is merely just the beginning of our journey as Christians, the moment when we enter into this new life, and not the end of the journey. There are bound to be trials, challenges, difficulties and many other obstacles in our path, and if we are not careful, we may easily slip and fall again back into the path of sin. However, if we continue to remain true and faithful to our calling and mission as Christians, then we will surely remain true in our path towards God and His salvation.

Therefore, just as we pray today for our all those who have just joined the Church earlier at Easter Vigil, let us all remind ourselves of our own journey as Christians, renewing the promises we have made at our baptism so that each and every one of us will continue to go forth, ever joyfully proclaiming the Lord and His truth, His love and salvation to all the whole world through our lives, through our every actions, words and deeds. Let us all be truly good and worthy disciples and followers of the Lord, by doing His will and by continuing the great works which He has entrusted to us through His Church. May the Risen Lord be with us all and may He bless our every actions, efforts and endeavours, all for His greater glory, now and always. Alleluia! Amen!

by

Sunday, 31 March 2024 : Easter Vigil Mass, Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is Risen from the dead, He has risen and conquered sin, destroyed the chains that had held us down all these while, broken free the prisons of the underworld, and led all of those who have faith in Him to Himself. Alleluia! He is Risen! And we all truly rejoice greatly and wonderfully this evening because at this moment we mark the occasion when Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, the Son of God, on the third day of the Triduum of His Passion, His suffering, Crucifixion and death, rose in glory just as He Himself had predicted and told to His disciples, showing them and all of us, that sin and death truly have no power over Him, and that those do not have the final say over all of us.

At this moment, after having gone through the entire season and time of Lent from Ash Wednesday, having not sung the great and most joyful Alleluia, now we finally sing out with great joy this hymn of great praise to God, and rightly so because we give Him thanks for everything the He had done for our sake, and we thank Him most graciously for having given us all His Son to save us all, just as we have commemorated everything that happened throughout His Passion or Suffering, when Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, endured the worst punishments, sufferings and trials, all for the sake of our salvation and liberation from evil, sin and death. We rejoice because through His Resurrection afterwards, the Lord Jesus showed us all that not even sin and death can rule over us, and in the end, we can have the sure hope of eternal life with God.

In tonight’s Easter Vigil liturgy, we heard of the glorious retelling of the entire story of the salvation of the world, as narrated to us through the Scriptures, particularly from the seven readings taken from the Old Testament, while the number may vary, but the readings highlighting the Creation of the World from the Book of Genesis and the liberation of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt in the moment when they walked through the Red Sea are always read in tonight’s Mass celebrations, as all these highlighted to us how God truly brought everything that He had created all good and perfect, back into their original state of perfection and goodness, by everything which His Son had done, in restoring the once broken relationship between God and mankind, His ultimate creation, made in His own image.

From the Book of Genesis where we heard the story of the Creation of the world, we heard how God created all things from nothingness, through the power of His will, and how the Son Himself was present in the work of Creation, for Christ Our Lord, the Son of God Incarnate, is also the Word of God, through Whom God created the world, when He willed all the things in Creation into being through His Word. God made all things perfect and all good, without blemish or flaw, until He created us all mankind in His own image, making us all to be partakers of His love, and to be the stewards of all the things that He had created. However, our ancestors chose to follow the falsehoods and lies of Satan instead, and succumbed to temptations, which was why sin entered into our hearts and bodies, corrupting us and leading to the loss of our state of grace, as well as expulsion from Eden.

But God never forsake us, not even once. While we had to wander in this world, full of sufferings and challenges, as the consequences of our rebellion and disobedience against God, as sin and corruptions caused by those sins have separated us from God’s grace and Holy Presence, but God has proclaimed from the very beginning the salvation which He would bring unto us, the deliverance that He promised to all of us, and which He fulfilled perfectly through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Through His suffering and death, He has led us to die to our own sins, to our past sinful and wicked selves, abandoning our past evils and wickedness, so that through His glorious Resurrection from the dead, He might lead us all to a new existence and life, one that is full of God’s grace and love.

From the other reading taken from the Book of Genesis, we heard how God called Abraham to bring his beloved son, Isaac, and offer him as a sacrifice to God at Mount Moriah. This sacrificial offering of Isaac is indeed intriguing first of all because Isaac was Abraham’s beloved and long-awaited son, as he had not been able to have a child with his wife, Sarah for a long time. God promised Abraham and made a Covenant with him, saying that he would become the father of many nations, and that he and Sarah would bear a son, even in their old age, which came true with the arrival of Isaac. God was testing Abraham, to see if he truly had faith in Him, and Abraham obeyed completely, trusting in God, and telling Isaac to trust in the Lord and to obey His words. Abraham trusted that the Lord knew what was best for him and his son, and that God will never break the Covenant which He Himself had made with him and his descendants.

At Mount Moriah, where Abraham brought Isaac to, God told Abraham to stay his hands and not to sacrifice Isaac as He had seen Abraham’s faith, and how he chose to obey Him completely and unquestionably, sending a ram instead to be sacrificed in the place of Isaac at that mountain. Now, this Mount Moriah according to tradition was where Jerusalem itself now stands, where the Temple of God once stood, and most importantly, where the Lord Jesus went up with His Cross to Calvary, the hill located just outside of the city of Jerusalem, where He suffered and died on His Cross. That hill of Calvary or Golgotha is therefore likely the exact same Mount Moriah where Isaac was supposed to be offered to God, only for God to place a ram in his place instead.

That was in fact a prefigurement of what would happen on Good Friday, at the moment when the Lord Jesus suffered and died on the Cross at Calvary. God gave His Son willingly to us, mirroring what Abraham had done, in giving and offering his son Isaac willingly to God. And then, the ram which God put in place of Isaac to be sacrificed is also a prefigurement of the role of Christ as the Paschal Lamb, the Lamb of God Who has been slaughtered and offered on the Altar of the Cross, offering the most worthy sacrifice and offering on our behalf, for the atonement of our many sins, so that through this offering of His own Most Precious Body and Blood, all of us can have the assurance of eternal life and liberation from the tyranny and dominion of sin and death.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, that reading reminds us of God’s love which has been manifested through His Son, Who bore upon Himself all the blame and punishments for our many sins and faults. He was blameless and without fault, and yet, He willingly took upon Himself the punishments due for our sins and evil deeds, offering us all the sure path to salvation, sparing us from the destruction that would have been our fate, had God not intervened and showed us all His love. God not sparing even His own beloved Son, all for our sake, is the ultimate proof of His faithfulness, His steadfastness to the Covenant which He had made with us, and renewed once and for all into a new and eternal Covenant through the Blood of His Son.

Then, as mentioned earlier, in the reading from the Book of Exodus we heard of the story of the moment when the people of Israel were brought out of the land of Egypt, stepping out from the land of their humiliation and misery, their slavery and sufferings in Egypt, as God miraculously opened the sea itself before all of them, through Moses His servant, who led the Israelites to walk safely through the sea to their freedom. The people of Israel was led by God to enter into the sea, safe from harm and led through to the other side on their journey to the land promised to them and their ancestors, and as we heard, later on God crushed their pursuers and enemies, the Egyptians and their war chariots, which God destroyed and smashed with the waves and the water of the same sea.

This reading is compulsory to be read this Easter Vigil because of its link and symbolism to the Sacrament of Baptism which many catechumens all around the world will be receiving during the Mass, as through baptism, they will receive the grace of sanctification from God, led through the waters of baptism to die to their old sinful lives and past actions not in harmony with God, sharing in the death of Christ on the Cross. Not only that, but just as Christ has risen gloriously from the dead, therefore, all those who have received the Sacrament of Baptism has also received a share in this glorious Resurrection, and at the appointed time, we shall also be raised in glory to enter into our heavenly and eternal existence with God, the life that is to come for us.

Water is both an agent of life and death, representing both the capacity for rejuvenation and destruction. It can take lives, but also can restore lives to those who need it. It is representing the renewal of our beings, our whole body, heart, mind and soul, as we are restored back to the unity and connection which we once had with God. Through Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, we have been brought from the darkness of this world into the light of God’s salvation and grace, taking us from the precipice of destruction back to where we are all supposed to be, to be once again in the loving presence of God and to enjoy once again the fullness of His love and grace, just as He has always intended it for us, from the very beginning, when He created us all, before sin corrupted us all and led us down this path of damnation.

That is why on this most joyous occasion of Easter, as we finally rejoice in great joy and exultation upon the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord, let us all therefore remember our own moment of baptism, the time when we pass through from the old life and existence of sin into the new life and existence once again filled with God’s grace and love. We must remember our calling, mission and whatever God has entrusted to us all as Christians, in embarking on this journey we have been entrusted with through our baptism. Baptism is merely just the beginning of our journey as Christians, the moment when we enter into this new life, and not the end of the journey. There are bound to be trials, challenges, difficulties and many other obstacles in our path, and if we are not careful, we may easily slip and fall again back into the path of sin. However, if we continue to remain true and faithful to our calling and mission as Christians, then we will surely remain true in our path towards God and His salvation.

Therefore, just as we pray today for our catechumens and all those who are going to be welcomed into the Church, let us all remind ourselves of our own journey as Christians, that each and every one of us will continue to go forth, ever joyfully proclaiming the Lord and His truth, His love and salvation to all the whole world through our lives, through our every actions, words and deeds. Let us all be truly good and worthy disciples and followers of the Lord, by doing His will and by continuing the great works which He has entrusted to us through His Church. May the Risen Lord be with us all and may He bless our every actions, efforts and endeavours, all for His greater glory, now and always. Alleluia! Amen!

by

Friday, 29 March 2024 : Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is Good Friday, the day marking Our Lord’s suffering and death on the Cross at Calvary. On this day we remember primarily everything that Our Lord Jesus Himself had done in bearing up all the burdens of our many sins and wickedness, all the evils and corruptions we have had in our lives, the punishments due to them, as He willingly sacrificed and offered Himself on our behalf, giving us the assurance of eternal life and salvation because He, the Paschal Lamb and the High Priest of all of us mankind, had given Himself up and offered Himself as the perfect and worthy for the atonement of all of our many and innumerable sins. It was indeed Good Friday because while we are sorrowful over the suffering and death of Our Lord, but it was indeed ‘Good’ because through this event, all of us have received the assurance of salvation and eternal life.

In order to appreciate and understand this better, we have to go back all the way to the very beginning of time, at the moment of Creation. The Lord created all of creation, all of the whole Universe, and each and every one of the living things in it, and ultimately all of us mankind because He has loved everything that He has created, and He wants to share this overflowing love with each and every one of us. That was why He had created us, and yet, our ancestors from the beginning chose to disobey Him, disregard His commandments and guides, trusting instead in the falsehoods and lies of Satan, who tempted them to sin. They chose to eat from the fruits of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which God had told them not to eat from, and thereafter, they sinned against God and were cast out of the Gardens of Eden.

God has always intended for us to enjoy the fullness of His love and grace, and we were never intended to suffer in this world as what we and our ancestors have been experiencing. But it was by our own conscious choice to disobey the Lord, rejecting His generous offer of love, compassion and mercy, His guidance and help, which He has always provided to us along throughout our whole lives, we have therefore turned away from His love and grace, and having to endure the consequences and punishments because of those sins which we have committed. It was never His intention to punish us or see us destroyed, as if He had wished us to be destroyed, He could have just easily done it with the mere whim of His thought and will from the very beginning.

Instead, God has assured all of us that He would be sending us His Saviour, the One Who would bring about the deliverance of all mankind, the whole entire world from the power of sin, evil and death, all of which had dominated over us for a long period of time, as He would not let us all to suffer forever under their dominion and power. From the beginning, the Lord had already proclaimed the ultimate defeat of the evil one, and how He would avenge our forefathers, while gathering all of His faithful ones, all those who cling on to His truth and love, from being scattered all throughout this world, through none other than His own beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus, Who as our Good Shepherd and Guide, laid down His life for us because of His love for us.

In our first reading today, we heard from the passage taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, in which the Lord told His people through Isaiah of the prophecy of the coming of the Suffering Servant, the same One Whom God would send into the world to save His people. We heard of how Isaiah described that this Servant of God would face beatings, hardships, sufferings and pains for our sake and on our behalf, so that by His wounds and hurts, His injuries and pains, all of us would be healed and brought towards God’s salvation and grace. This was indeed the prophecy of everything that would happen to Jesus Christ at the moment of His Passion, when He suffered greatly, bearing His Cross and enduring the worst and most humiliating punishments known then, reserved only for the worst criminals.

For the crucifixion was the Romans’ ultimate form of punishment, reserved to the worst offenders and criminals, for those who were found to deserve death for their crimes. In particular, most crucifixions in fact did not involve the criminals being nailed to the Cross, but rather only being hung there on their respective crosses until they all died from thirst and exhaustion, or until they died when their legs were broken if they had not yet died. The Lord’s crucifixion was much worse because He was not just hung on the Cross, but pierced by the nails on His hands and feet, and He was also lashed and tortured, forced to wear the painful crown on thorns upon His head, bleeding and wounded from all over His entire body, stripped and humiliated before everyone to see His Suffering Self.

Thus in the Crucifixion of Our Lord at Calvary, everything that God had promised and prophesied through the prophet Isaiah came true, and as the author of the Epistle of the Hebrews mentioned in our second reading passage today, He, as Our one and true Eternal High Priest, Who has taken up our human nature and existence, obeyed His Father’s will so perfectly, so that He, as the New Adam, would come to the ‘Tree’ of the Cross, and obeying what God has planned for all of us, for our salvation, He would lead us all out of the darkness and reconciling us to our loving and ever merciful Father, Whom we can call Father because Jesus Himself, as the Son of God, through His Incarnation, has become one of us, sharing our human nature, and therefore, we share in His Sonship, becoming the adopted sons and daughters of God.

And through His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus as the New Adam, by His perfect obedience, showed us all the way out of our disobedience, as once caused by the disobedience of the first Adam, and his wife Eve. Together with Mary, His blessed Mother, who is the new Eve, the Lord showed us all the path that we all should follow in our journey towards God, in our pursuit of His salvation and grace. While our forefathers had chosen to disobey the Lord, eating the forbidden fruits of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and wanting to become like God, the Lord Jesus Himself showed us the exact opposite. He showed us all not just perfect obedience, but how God willingly humbled and emptied Himself, that He became a humble being like us, in our broken and imperfect human existence, just like us, with the exception of being without any sin.

Thus, we can see clearly here the opposite ideals shown in the Book of Genesis, when mankind’s fall happened because of a Tree and their disobedience, listening to Satan’s lies and allowing themselves to be swayed by those lies, and being driven by their desires and the temptations in their hearts, on the other hand, mankind’s salvation and return to grace came about because of the other Tree, the Tree of the Cross, upon which the Saviour Himself, the Son and Word of God Incarnate, chose to willingly suffer and die for our sake, in emptying Himself from all glory, and in humbly submitting Himself to His heavenly Father’s will, rejecting earlier on the three temptations of the same Satan, who failed to tempt the Lord with worldly power and glory in the desert.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, having understood better the greater idea and appreciation behind the means that the Lord had chosen in saving us, by reversing everything that had happened through our downfall into sin, and raising us up again through His obedience and His Cross, He showed us all the perfect path to redemption. Through His offering as our High Priest and sacrifice of His own Most Precious Body and Blood, broken and outpoured for us from His Cross, He has given us all the perfect offering in atonement for our sins, that no earthly means can give us. Our Paschal Lamb, Christ Himself, has suffered, died and was slain, sacrificed on the Altar of the Cross, and by His offering, truly worthy and acceptable, a most selfless and loving sacrifice made for us, He has saved us all.

Through His suffering and death, Christ has united each and every one of us to His death, which we share through our baptism, where we commit to die to our past sinful way of life, and we are reminded of this fact every time we renew our baptismal promises at Easter. And then, as we are about to celebrate with Easter in just over a day’s time, through His glorious Resurrection, Christ also united us all to His Resurrection, and we are brought into new existence and life, one that is no longer put under the power and dominion of sin and death, but one that is instead filled with God’s grace and love, and directed towards His Holy Presence, bound for eternal life.

That is why each and every one of us should make good use of the time and opportunities which God has given us, and the love He has shown us all from His Cross. As we gaze upon the Cross, looking upon our Crucified Messiah, let us all come to realise that every single wounds inflicted upon Him are our sins, caused by our disobedience against God and our folly in thinking that we know it better than to follow God and His path as we should have done. Let us all keep our focus upon the Cross, with sorrow and regret in our hearts for the many sins which we have committed in our respective lives, and from there, coming with the strong desire to seek God’s forgiveness and mercy, embracing His Son’s most loving sacrifice on the Cross. Let us all embark on this journey of faith, to enter into God’s Redemption and grace, and to be once again in His Loving Presence.

May the Lord Jesus Christ, our Crucified Messiah, be with us always in our journey of faith and life, so that we may also bear our crosses in life and follow Him faithfully. May He continue to help and guide us all, carrying His Cross together with us so that we may continue to persevere and do our best in enduring the many challenges and trials that we may encounter in our journey as Christians, in living our lives ever more faithfully in the path that God has shown and taught us. May God bless us all, at all times, and may He strengthen us all in faith, that we may draw ever closer to Him, now and always. Amen.

by

Thursday, 28 March 2024 : Holy Thursday, Mass of the Lord’s Supper (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this evening we are all celebrating the beginning of the important events of the Paschal or Easter Triduum in which we immerse ourselves into the very moments when the Lord Our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, had His Last Supper with His disciples the night before He was to suffer and die on the Cross at the pinnacle of His Passion. On this commemoration of the Last Supper, we celebrate the moment when the Lord instituted two important Sacraments of the Church, namely that of the Eucharist as well as the Holy Orders, especially that of the ministerial Priesthood. And at the same time, at that moment the Lord also mandated to His disciples what they all ought to do as His followers, which is why this Thursday is also known as Maundy Thursday, after the ‘Mandatum’ that the Lord gave to His disciples.

On this day, at the moment of the Last Supper, the Lord revealed to His disciples yet again how He would have to suffer grievously for the sake of the world and for all of us mankind, and how He would be betrayed by one of His own, persecuted, tortured and eventually die on the Cross. It was also at that moment, in which the Lord revealed that He would lay down His life, and get His Body broken, and His Blood shed for everyone, and He gave His Most Precious Body and Blood to all through His disciples, as He instituted the Eucharist by the sharing and giving of His Body and Blood when He prayed over the bread and wine that He and His disciples shared and partook in during that Last Supper. The bread and the wine had been transformed into the essence of the Lord’s own Most Precious Body and Blood, at the very first Mass.

That Last Supper itself was in fact part of the celebration of the Jewish Passover as how it was celebration two millennia ago, which in itself was based on the original first Passover that happened in the land of Egypt at the moment when the Lord brought out all the people of Israel out of the land of their slavery. That is what we heard from our first reading today, from the Book of Exodus in which the Lord told Moses and Aaron how they should be marking and celebrating the Passover, with the proper preparations before the event, and most importantly the provision of an unblemished lamb which had to be set aside and prepared, and then slaughtered, so that the blood of that Passover lamb can be used to mark the houses of the Israelites, and so that the lamb itself could be shared during the Passover meal.

In the Last Supper, what is obviously missing is the Passover lamb, which was not mentioned anywhere in the accounts of the Supper. From the earlier accounts of the preparation of this Supper, it was clear that this Last Supper was the Passover meal, as the Lord asked His disciples to find a place for them all to have the Passover meal, also known as the ‘Seder’. That particular meal then, was a peculiar one because the Passover lamb, the centrepiece of the whole meal was not mentioned. The truth and reality is that, the Lord Himself was the Passover Lamb, as He was to be the Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, the One Who would offer Himself as the worthy offering and sacrifice, for the atonement of all of our sins. Through His willing offering of His own Most Precious Body and Blood, slain for us, broken up for us, and His Blood outpoured upon us, He has marked us all for salvation, just as how the blood of the Passover lamb marked the houses of the Israelites that Death might pass them all by.

Therefore the Last Supper marked for us the beginning of the new Christian Passover, the one true and eternal Passover, the heavenly banquet which the Lord has prepared for each and every one of us. In that Passover, Christ Our Lord Himself is the Passover Lamb, Who offered Himself as the Sacrificial Victim, as the One Who willingly gave Himself so that through His suffering and death, He could lead us all into a new and everlasting life, a new existence filled with God’s love and grace. All of us who have share in His Body and Blood, given to us through the Eucharist, all have received the Bread of Life Himself, and as He Himself had said, that we who have eaten and shared of this Bread of Life will never perish but have eternal life. He did all these as He went through His Passion or suffering, all the things which He had done for us, out of His ever generous and ever present love.

The bread used in the Passover meal is known as the matzo, a type of unleavened bread used because the Israelites ate in haste when they were on their way out of the land of Egypt. The unleavened bread are wrapped in layers of cloth, which came with it deep symbolism to the Lord’s Passion, suffering and death, because this bread which the Lord took, blessed and then gave to His disciples is His own Most Precious Body, free from all blemish and corruption of sin, represented by the unleavened bread, which would soon be broken and slain on the Altar of the Cross, and those who are familiar with the detail of the Seder or Passover meal will know how the three matzo bread represent God’s work of salvation made through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour Himself.

The first bread which remained hidden in the layers of cloth throughout the meal represents God the Father Whose works were shown to us through Christ, Who manifested His love and compassion to us, and while the Father is not visible to us, it is the Son Who has revealed Him to us. The third bread is the representation of the Holy Spirit, through Whom God made His work tangible to us, through the Incarnation of His Son, and through all the works that the Holy Spirit had done in our midst, assisting the Father and the Son in the work of salvation. Lastly, the second bread which is broken, is the very representation of Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God, Who would be slain, broken and put to death for our sake, and this broken bread represent His death, which also represents His burial, when half of that second bread is put and wrapped back with the cloth.

It was indeed truly wonderful how the Lord’s instructions and rules regarding the Passover so many centuries before the time of Christ has already prefigured and prepared everyone for His coming and for all that He would do for the salvation of the whole world. Certainly no one could have foreseen or knew about it back then, and only after everything had happened, then those who have been blessed with hindsight and knowledge of the matter realised that God had been in the working all along, and the New Passover which Christ has brought unto us, which began at the Last Supper and culminated on His Crucifixion and death, all are in tandem and parallel with the original Passover, that while the original Passover marked the liberation of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt, the New Passover marks our liberation from sin and death.

And if we pay attention more carefully to the details of what happened, the Last Supper was not properly concluded as per the Jewish Passover, as there were four cups of wine to be drunk during the occasion of the Passover meal, namely the Cup of Sanctification, the Cup of Deliverance, the Cup of Redemption and the Cup of Praise, in which the promises of God’s salvation and the memory of how God had saved His people out of their slavery by the Egyptians were remembered. When the Lord shared and drank from the cup of wine in the Last Supper, He also told them that the next time He would drink the fruit of the vine would be in the Kingdom of God, representing the moment when He would accomplish everything that He had come to do in this world, with His Passion and death.

The Passover as mentioned, culminated on the Cross, when the Lord mentioned that He was thirsty. Many of us may be puzzled of the significance of these phrase that the Lord mentioned at the time. But when the Lord had drunk of the sour wine or vinegar as mentioned in the Gospel, He then mentioned, ‘It is accomplished.’ This signified the moment when the Passover of the New Covenant that the Lord had established, was indeed accomplished perfectly and completely, as the Lord drank the Cup of Redemption, the fulfilment of the New Covenant made between God and mankind, sealed through none other than His own Most Precious Blood. It is through the Lord, Our Paschal Lamb and Our Eternal High Priest, Who had offered on our behalf such a great and worthy offering and sacrifice, that we have been redeemed.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, as we continue to journey through these important moments of the Easter Triduum, and as we traditionally keep vigil with the Lord after the Mass this evening, let us all therefore reflect upon our own lives and our disposition in faith. Let us all remember the great love which God has shown us through His Son, Who has given us all His own Most Precious Body and Blood, through which He instituted the Most Holy Eucharist, so that we can partake in Him and therefore gain admittance into the promise and assurance of eternal life, grace and true joy with Him. At the same time, we have also been reminded of the Mandatum or the commission which He has entrusted to us, to do as He had done, in serving and loving one another. In that, He has also instituted the Priesthood, for those whom He has called and chosen to be His servants and ministers to His people, to all of us.

However, this does not mean that for the rest of us we do not have things for us to do. As Christians, each and every one of us are expected to do our part and live our lives most worthily, in doing what we can so that more and more people may come to know the Lord through us, and be inspired by our own faith and commitment to God. All of us should continue to do our part so that in everything that we say and do, we will always continue to be good examples for others, and that we will continue to show God’s love in all things, in caring for the needy and for the marginalised, and in inspiring others who are downtrodden and troubled. Let our lives be the beacons of God’s light and truth, and be the bearers of hope for all those who are in darkness and sin.

May the Lord continue to bless us and guide us in our journey of faith so that especially throughout our Paschal Triduum observance, and all that we are commemorating in the coming few days, we will grow ever stronger in our faith, commitment and love for God. May the Lord bless us in our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.

by

Thursday, 28 March 2024 : Holy Thursday, Chrism Mass (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this morning we all gather together to celebrate this occasion of the Chrism Mass, when everyone assembled together, the priests of each dioceses in the world, in their respective dioceses, together with their respective shepherds, the bishops of the dioceses, to renew their commitment to the Lord, renewing their priestly vows and promises, and at the same time also celebrating the blessing and the consecration of the holy oils that are crucial for the use in the Church and its liturgical celebrations. On this day, this Chrism Mass, which is usually celebrated traditionally on the morning of the Holy Thursday, but which can be celebrated on other days, we all remember how our priests have dedicated and committed themselves and their lives to God, answering and heeding His call to be His servants, to be the ones to minister to His people.

In our first reading today, we heard from the passage of the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which the prophecy about the coming of God’s salvation that would come through the Saviour, Messiah or Christ, and everything that He would do for the salvation of the world. It was the Lord Jesus in our Gospel passage Who chose this exact same passage given to Him, to proclaim the fulfilment of everything that God has prophesied and promised to all of His people, through none other than Him, as the One Who would save the whole world, all of mankind, from the destruction due to our sins and wickedness, our evils and our infidelities. God has sent His own Beloved Son to our midst so that through Him He might gather us all, and being our High Priest, He might offer for us all, the perfect and most worthy offering and sacrifice for the atonement of our sins.

That is what we are going to celebrate starting this evening with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the Institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Institution of the Sacred Priesthood, that is foreshadowed now in this Chrism Mass. This is also what we are commemorating in this Paschal or Easter Triduum, as we are about to enter into the commemoration of the most important and remarkable events that happened two millennia ago, when Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, gave Himself to be betrayed and rejected, persecuted and oppressed, and condemned to death, so that He might offer on the Altar of His Cross at Calvary, the most perfect offering of His own broken and Most Precious Body, and the outpoured Most Precious Blood that He had given freely to all of us.

All these came to be so that He might free us all from the tyranny of sin and death, breaking forever the chains and the power, the dominion and control that sin has over any one of us. Through His perfect obedience, He has ended the dominion of sin, caused by the disobedience of mankind. He has shown us how to be truly and perfectly obedient to God, our heavenly Father and Master, by taking up His Cross, and willingly took it up all the way to Calvary, where He laid dying, suspended between the Heaven and the earth, bloodied and broken, having offered Himself, as our Eternal and True High Priest, giving to us all the new hope of eternal life, the freedom from the dominion of sin and death.

And He did not do it all alone, as He has called those whom He had called and chosen, to walk in this path, to be His servants, to be priests like Him, in the Order of Melchizedek the High Priest, to be God’s priests and servants forever. He has given the authority and power to all of His priests, those who are serving all of the people of God, namely our Pope, our bishops and priests, with the power to turn the bread and wine at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to be His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, being offered freely for us, for our salvation, at every celebration of the Holy Eucharist in the Mass. He has empowered all the priests to celebrate this Eucharist for us, so that all of us may also benefit and witness the same Sacrifice that He has performed at Calvary, for our redemption and salvation.

That is why today, the priests of the whole world renew their commitment to serve the Lord, to be His representatives in this world, to be the ones to celebrate the Sacraments, particularly that of the Holy Eucharist, to bring forth unto us all the same Sacrifice at Calvary, done in their presence ‘in Persona Christi’ during the time of the Consecration of the bread and wine, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, and by the authority given to all of them through the Church and the Apostles, from the Lord Himself, they may turn all the bread and wine, into the very essence and Real Presence of the Lord Himself, into His Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, which all of us partake, in one Holy Communion of all the faithful, that we become part of this same One Body of Christ, the Church.

That is why the role of the priests here are very important, as they are the only ones who can do so, and they are the ones given the power and authority to do this, and no one else. Without priests, we will not have the Sacraments to help us in our journey towards God and our salvation in Him. That is why today, as the priests renew their commitment to the Lord, let us all also pray for them and give them more of our support, strength and help, so that in whatever challenges and responsibilities that they are carrying, they can continue to shoulder them faithfully and courageously, doing whatever they can to serve the Lord to the best of their abilities, at all times and circumstances.

Today we also mark the occasion of the blessing of the holy oils, the Oil of the Catechumens used to mark the catechumens seeking for baptism and reception into the Church, the Oil of the Sick used in the Sacrament of the Sick and for the ministry to the ones who are suffering from illness and in the danger of death, and lastly the Sacred or Holy Chrism used in various purposes in the Church and its various liturgies, from the baptism and confirmation liturgies, for those who are baptised and confirmed in the faith, in the Ordination of those called to the Holy Orders, and in the Consecration and Dedication of churches and altars, to mark as sacred, holy and worthy all those that had been set aside for Divine worship and purpose. Like the kings of old had been consecrated to God with the pouring and anointing with the holy oils, thus, each and every one of us have received the holy oils at different stages and parts of our Christian living as well, as part of our mission and calling in life.

Yes, these holy oils have been blessed today so that we can also remember what the Lord had called us to do with our lives, in the respective missions that have been entrusted to us. While primarily we focus our attention today to those who have given their lives and dedicated themselves to the ministry of sacred priesthood, but we should also remember that each and every one of us in our respective parts and areas of life also have specific calling, ministries and vocations to do, and we have been called and reminded to follow them faithfully, and to do whatever we can so that our lives and vocations may be carried out well and faithfully, and by our lives and actions, we may truly glorify God and lead even more people ever closer to God and His salvation.

All of us must always be active members and parts of the Church, as the priests alone cannot do everything on their own. Instead, each and every parts and members of the Church must actively contribute in whatever way they can, so that through their actions and contributions, each and every one of them may assemble their efforts together and bring about lots of good deeds and actions that will help so many in their journey towards the Lord. Let us all therefore also commit ourselves anew on this occasion, together with all the priests who have renewed their priestly vows and promises this day, that each and every one of us will also continue to commit ourselves to live our lives worthily in the manner that the Lord has shown us through His Church. May the Lord be with us all, and bless particularly all of our priests, in everything that they all do, for His greater glory. Amen.

by

Wednesday, 27 March 2024 : Wednesday of Holy Week (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, each and every one of us are reminded of the need for all of us to resist the temptations of sin and to reexamine our lives and actions, to see if we have not done what the Lord has called us to do in our lives, and if we have allowed the evil one to lead us astray, betraying and abandoning Him for worldly matters, glory and achievements, for the pursuit of worldly attachments, fame and for many other things that have often kept us away from God and His love for us. This is what we are all reminded today especially through the reading of the account of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of the Lord Jesus on this Wednesday of the Holy Week, just as we are about to enter into the most solemn commemoration of the Paschal Triduum.

In our first reading today, we first heard of everything that the Lord Himself would have to suffer as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah, who have been entrusted by the Lord with the prophecy of the Suffering Messiah and Suffering Servant of God, foretelling everything that this Saviour that God would send to His people, would do for the sake of all of God’s beloved ones, and how He would have to endure the worst punishments and sufferings all because of our disobedience, wickedness and stubbornness in continuing to sin against God, in all that we have done which caused and brought about hurt and betrayal towards our most loving and faithful God. And yet, this Servant, Our Lord and Saviour Himself, obeyed perfectly and completely, enduring all those sufferings and challenges, for our sake.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, Our Lord Himself had come to us in the flesh, to extend to us the most loving reach of His forgiveness, love and compassion, and He did so in order to gather us all back once again, from being scattered in this world in darkness, evil and sin, being our loving Good Shepherd Who sought us all, His beloved but lost sheep. Despite our stubbornness and our refusal to obey Him, He still reached out to us patiently anyway, calling on all of us to love Him and to seek Him out, as He poured out upon all of us most generous mercy and compassion, all the love and kindness that He has always had for us since the very beginning. He had created us all out of His overflowing love, and He wants us all to share in that love, which He made tangible and approachable to us through His Son.

And in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the moment when Judas Iscariot decided to betray the Lord to the chief priests at the Temple, guided by the devil who went into him and tempted him, having sowed the seeds of disbelief and lack of faith in Judas’s heart and mind. Earlier in this week, we heard how the same Judas Iscariot criticised the actions of Mary who tearfully and humbly anointed the feet of the Lord with perfume, and we heard his motivations for doing so, how he had been stealing for himself from the group’s common funds that had been entrusted to him under his care. Judas Iscariot was likely an intelligent person, as he was entrusted with a responsibility that usually only an educated person could have done, and yet, he allowed himself to be tempted by the evil one.

Why did Judas betray the Lord? It was not revealed for certain, but likely his love for money and worldly pursuits, and his frustrations at the Lord’s rebuke on him against his criticism of Mary led him to commit such a heinous act, in selling off his own Lord and Master for a price of thirty pieces of silver coins. This act was in fact prophesied by the prophets who spoke about how the Lord, the Saviour of all and Master of all Creation would be priced at the mere price of a slave, which at the time of the Lord Jesus was indeed about thirty pieces of silver coins. Judas betrayed his Lord and Master for his greed for money, and because he let the devil to tempt him with all those worldly desires and attachments that he lost sight of the truth of God.

Now, as I have said it earlier on this week, before we are then quick to judge or point finger at Judas for what he had done, let us all first look at ourselves and reflect on our own lives and actions. Have we truly been innocent and without sin ourselves, and have we really not done something similar to what Judas himself had done? Each and every one of us have sinned at some point in our own lives, and we have disobeyed God in different ways. Yet, the Lord finds it in His love and compassion to be patient with us and He has kept on calling on us to return once again to His loving embrace and to be in His grace once again. He does not want any one of us to be lost to Him, and that is why we are reminded today not to follow the path of Judas into sin and damnation.

Let us all make good use of all the opportunities and moments that we have been given in this time of Holy Week, during this particularly solemn and holy occasion that we may remember what it truly means for us to be Christians in the first place. Our lives and way of living them should indeed be filled with true dedication and commitment to God, and we must always remind ourselves how fortunate and blessed we have indeed been, to be loved in such a manner by the Lord our God, although we have frequently disappointed and rebelled against Him. Let us all be attuned ever more deeply to God’s will and realise how we should carry on living our lives, no longer overshadowed by sin and evil, but following in God’s light, truth and love henceforth.

May the Lord our most loving and compassionate God, Whose Passion we are remembering this most solemn Holy Week, continue to be with us all and bless us in our journey of faith and life. May He continue to strengthen our faith and empower each and every one of us so that we may persevere and remain committed to Him despite all the challenges, trials and obstacles that we may face in life. May God bless us all, now and always, and bless our remaining Holy Week observances and Paschal Triduum beginning tomorrow. Amen.