Weekdays of Lent

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Sunday, 25 February 2024 : Second Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday, the Second Sunday of Lent, all of us are presented with the story of the sacrifice and offering of Isaac by Abraham on Mount Moriah as asked by the Lord in our first reading, and then, we heard about how God offered and gave us all His own Beloved and only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, so that He could be the source of our salvation and hope, as elaborated by St. Paul in his Epistle in our second reading. Lastly, we also then heard of the account of the glorious Transfiguration which the Lord Jesus experienced at Mount Tabor, before three of His disciples, which revealed to them and all of us, of the true nature of the Lord, and of His mission henceforth.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Genesis of the moment when God called on Abraham to bring his beloved son, Isaac, the promised one, to Mount Moriah to be offered and sacrificed to God. Isaac was the son whom God had promised to Abraham, which he and his wife, Sarah, would have even though they were unable to have any child beforehand. God had given Isaac miraculously and then suddenly, as we heard, He asked Abraham to offer and sacrifice this same precious son to Him. Yet, despite any sorrow or surprise that Abraham might have experienced, he obeyed the Lord and listened to Him.

We heard how Abraham brought Isaac to Mount Moriah to be offered and sacrificed to the Lord, and he faithfully obeyed the Lord as he has always done, not sparing even his precious son in doing so. The Lord saw all that Abraham had willingly done, and therefore told Abraham later on, that he had been truly faithful to Him, and to the Covenant which he had made with him, that he did not spare even his own son, and faithfully obeyed God in this matter. Thus, God sent an Angel to stop Abraham from sacrificing his son, and a ram to be offered and sacrificed instead of Isaac, on top of that Mount Moriah. Thus, Isaac was spared and protected from harm, while God blessed Abraham and his descendants for the faith which he had shown.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, this place of Mount Moriah would indeed be very important later on, as it would be the site where the great city of Jerusalem would be established and built later on. And it was in Jerusalem, at the same site of Mount Moriah, that the Lord Himself would send us His Son to be offered, sacrificed and broken up for our sake, in parallel to what Abraham and Isaac had experienced many centuries previously. There is a clear parallel between the occurrence in the case of Abraham’s offering of Isaac and the Lord offering His own Son, to be a worthy sacrifice for the sake of the atonement of our many sins. Not only that God had sent to us His Beloved Son, but He also spared us all from certain destruction through the same Son, Our Lord and Saviour.

In his Epistle to the Romans, which is our second reading today, St. Paul the Apostle spoke of how Christ, the Son of God, has redeemed us all by His suffering and death, as He offered Himself as the perfect and most worthy sacrifice for the atonement of our sins, through which all of us are forgiven and made whole once again, reunited and reconciled to God, our loving Father and Creator. God did not spare His own Beloved Son for our sake, in showing His ever strong and enduring love for us, and as the tangible and real example of how He is and has always been faithful to the Covenant that He had established with us all.

In our Gospel passage today, as mentioned, we then heard about the account of the moment when the Lord entioned earlier, we heard of the account of the moment when the Lord was revealed in His Divine Glory to His three disciples, St. Peter, St. James and St. John, at Mount Tabor. It was there that the Lord was Transfigured in glory, as His Divinity that has been hidden in His Humanity shone through, and made it clear that He is truly the Son of God, the Divine Word of God Incarnate, and not just merely the Son of Man or a Prophet. It is also through this revelation that the Lord Jesus has shown us the love of God made flesh, personified and becoming tangible and approachable to us all. He offered on our behalf the perfect offering of His own Most Precious Body and Most Precious Blood, on the Altar of His Cross, at Golgotha or Calvary, which was exactly at the same site of Mount Moriah.

Through this great action of selfless love and undying devotion to us, the Lord has brought us all a new hope and a new life, the reassurance of eternal life and glory, which He has promised us all, and which He has ushered through His sacrifice, by which He spared all of us from our fated destruction and damnation, offering us all the sure path to redemption and eternal life, if we adhere to Him, follow His path and obey Him. Through our baptism and initiation into the Church, we have been united to Christ’s death, and died to our past sins and wickedness, and thereafter, brought into the new life and sharing in Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead, representing our liberation from sin and death.

In that same account of the Transfiguration of the Lord, we also heard how the Lord appeared in all His Divine glory with two great figures of the Old Testament, namely Moses and Elijah. This appearance of Moses and Elijah further affirmed the Lord’s status and intentions, in what He was about to do for all of us mankind. Moses represented the Law of God, the Ten Commandments, and all the precepts which God had revealed and taught to us, while Elijah represented the Prophets, those whom the Lord had sent into the midst of His people in order to remind all of them of the need for each and every one of them to turn away from their wicked ways and to embrace once again the path of God, His Law and commandments.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of that shows us that Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, is truly the fulfilment of everything that God has promised to us all, in His ever enduring and wonderful love for us, and in His desire to be reconciled fully with us, and to bring us all back once again to His presence. What God truly wants from us in our faith and love, just as how He Himself has always loved us from the very beginning. Like Abraham, our father in faith, who has shown such great faith in God, all of us should also do the same as well in our own lives. We should always strive to follow the Lord’s path and obey His Law and commandments, resisting the temptations of sin and evil.

Let us all therefore make good use of this time and season of Lent which has been provided for us, so that we may reevaluate our path in life. Let us all remember the great love which God has shown us through His giving of His Son for us, to suffer and die for us on the Cross, so that by His death and glorious Resurrection, He has provided us all with the sure path out of the darkness and evil. Let us all turn away from the path of wickedness and evil, and embrace wholeheartedly from now on, the way of the Lord. May our every actions, words and deeds henceforth be truly filled with faith and commitment to God, and may we become good role models and inspirations for our fellow brethren all around us. Amen.

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Sunday, 25 February 2024 : Second Sunday of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Mark 9 : 2-10

At that time, six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain. There, His appearance was changed before their eyes. Even His clothes shone, becoming as white as no bleach of this world could make them. Elijah and Moses appeared to them; the two were talking with Jesus.

Then Peter spoke and said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to say; they were overcome with awe. But a cloud formed, covering them in a shadow, and from the cloud came a voice, “This is My Son, the Beloved : listen to Him!”

And suddenly, as they looked around, they no longer saw anyone except Jesus with them. As they came down the mountain, He ordered them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept this to themselves, although they discussed with one another what ‘to rise from the dead’ could mean.

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Sunday, 25 February 2024 : Second Sunday of Lent (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Romans 8 : 31b-34

If God is with us, who shall be against us? If He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not give us all things with Him? Who shall accuse those chosen by God : He takes away their guilt? Who will dare to condemn them?

Christ, Who died, and better still, rose, and is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us?

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Sunday, 25 February 2024 : Second Sunday of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 115 : 10 and 15, 16-17, 18-19

I have kept faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted.” It is painful to YHVH to see the death of His faithful.

O YHVH, I am Your servant, truly Your servant, Your handmaid’s son. You have freed me from my bonds. I will offer You a thanksgiving sacrifice; I will call on the Name of YHVH.

I will carry out my vows to YHVH in the presence of His people, in the courts of the House of YHVH, in your midst, o Jerusalem.

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Sunday, 25 February 2024 : Second Sunday of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Genesis 22 : 1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18

Some time later, God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.” Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I shall point out to you.”

They came to the place to which God had directed them. Abraham then stretched out his hand to seize the knife and slay his son. But the Angel of YHVH called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

And he said, “Here I am.” “Do not lay your hand on the boy; do not harm him, for now I know that you fear God, and you have not held back from Me your only son.” Abraham looked around and saw behind him a ram caught by its horns in a bush. He offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.

And the Angel of YHVH called from heaven a second time. “By Myself I have sworn, it is YHVH Who speaks, because you have done this and not held back your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the land of their enemies. All the nations of the earth will be blessed through your descendants because you have obeyed Me.”

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Saturday, 24 February 2024 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded yet again of the fundamental expectations and what it truly means for us all to be Christians. To be Christians means for us all to be filled with God’s love and kindness, His mercy and compassion for everyone. Without love, we cannot truly call or consider ourselves as Christians, as without love, our faith is dead and empty, meaningless and without purpose. God Himself is Love, and He has always shown us all this great love, at all times. That is why, as His beloved and holy people, it is only apt and proper that each and every one of us follow Him in this same path of love and compassion, and show love and kindness in each and every parts of our lives.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, we heard the words of the Lord spoken to His first chosen people, the Israelites, during their Exodus from Egypt. The Lord spoke to them through their leader, His servant Moses, in which He reminded them all to stay true and obedient to the Law and the commandments which He had revealed and passed to them, namely the Ten Commandments, as well as the many other rules, precepts and practices which He has given to them, for them all to follow and inculcate in each and every moments of their lives. Those laws and commandments were meant to show them and to teach them how they should behave and act as a people that God has chosen and blessed.

This is because how the people of God lived their lives and carried out their actions and works, in their obedience to the Law and commandments of God, all these would be measured up by others around them against what they believed in. If they had not been sincere in their faith and did not obey the Law of God as they should have, then it would have made them all to be no better than hypocrites who only paid lip service to their obligations and commitments to God. This reminder was made to them because although the Lord has revealed His Law and commandments to the Israelites, but they often disobeyed them and chose to follow pagan and false idols rather than remaining faithful to the Lord.

This is then elaborated further in our Gospel passage today, in which the Lord Jesus highlighted to His disciples and all the people that the commandments of God are all ultimately and essentially about Love, first of all, loving God their Lord and Master with all of their strength, might and capacity, and then showing the same kind of love towards all of our fellow brothers and sisters around us. Without these kinds of love, then we cannot truly consider ourselves as being obedient to the Law and commandments of God.

Contextually, at that time, when the Lord was performing His ministry, the Law of God was preserved, kept and enforced by the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who were particularly strict and rigid in their observances and interpretations of the Law of God. Therefore, as the Lord came into the midst of His people, He showed and taught them the true meaning and purpose of the Law, which was meant to help teach and show the way for the people of God to follow in their lives, by teaching them about God’s Love, and how to show the same love to Him, our Lord and Creator, as well as to our fellow brothers and sisters.

Unfortunately, for many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, they had become swayed by their sense of superiority and pride, which led to them refusing to listen to the Lord and persisting in their misguided and wrong understanding of the meaning and purpose of the Law of God. They were too concerned about the manner how the Law and its precepts ought to be practiced and carried out, that they usually paid too much attention to the details of the Law and the commandments, that they forgot about the reason and the purpose why the Law had been given by God to us in the first place.

They also looked down on the others around them who did not manage to carry out the commandments and the precepts of the Law as strictly as they had done, and many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law also had that sense of superiority amongst them, that they considered others to be less worthy than they were, or that they alone were the sole guardians and the ones whom everyone else ought to be following. However, they failed to realise that in their pride and ego, their ambitions and desires, and attachments to worldly glory, they became blinded and misguided in their path.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us are reminded today that we should always strive to follow the Lord and His examples in loving us, in how we should always focus ourselves and our whole lives on God, on His love, compassion and mercy. We should also restrain and resist all those temptations of the world, the temptations of worldly glory, pleasures, and also of our pride, ego, greed, ambition and desires, so that we do not end up falling into the trap of sin and evil. Let us all be humble before the Lord, and listen to Him speaking to us, and ask Him to help and guide us in our journey of faith and life, that we do not falter and end up falling into the wrong paths.

May the Lord continue to bless and guide us all, and may He empower each and every one of us to live ever more worthily in His Presence from now on. May God bless us all in our every good efforts and endeavours, particularly during this time and season of Lent, in rejecting the temptations of worldly evils and false pleasures, all around us. May our lives and good examples be good inspiration to others, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 24 February 2024 : 1st Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 5 : 43-48

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples and to the people, “You have heard that it was said : Love your neighbour and do not do good to your enemy. But this I tell you : love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in Heaven. For He makes His sun rise on both the wicked and the good, and He gives rain to both the just and the unjust.”

“If you love those who love you, what is special about that? Do not even tax collectors do as much? And if you are friendly only to your friends, what is so exceptional about that? Do not even the pagans do as much? As for you, be righteous and perfect in the way your heavenly Father is righteous and perfect.”

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Saturday, 24 February 2024 : 1st Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 118 : 1-2, 4-5, 7-8

Blessed are they whose ways are upright, who follow the Law of the Lord. Blessed are they who treasure His word and seek Him with all their heart.

You have laid down precepts to be obeyed. O, that my ways were steadfast in observing Your statutes!

I will praise You with an upright spirit when I learn Your just precepts by heart. I mean to observe Your commandments. O, never abandon me.

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Saturday, 24 February 2024 : 1st Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Deuteronomy 26 : 16-19

On this day, YHVH, your God, commands you to fulfil these norms and these commandments. Obey them now and put them into practice with all your heart and with all your soul.

Today YHVH has declared to you that He will be your God, and so you shall follow His ways, observing His norms, His commandments and His laws, and listening to His voice. Today YHVH has declared that you will be His very own people even as He had promised you, and you must obey all His commandments.

He, for His part, will give you honour, renown and glory, and set you high above all the nations He has made, and you will become a nation consecrated to YHVH, your God, as He has declared.

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Friday, 23 February 2024 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called to live our lives righteously and in accordance with the teachings and the ways which the Lord Himself has presented to us, that we should be good, righteous, just and worthy in all of our actions, words and deeds, in each and every moments of our lives, and therefore, we must always strive to do what we have been taught and shown to do through the Church. Each and every one of us must remind ourselves that righteousness and virtues, all these will be rewarded by the Lord, while sins and wickedness in our lives will be counted against us in the end, at the time of the Final and Last Judgment. We must keep this in mind so that we will continue to live virtuously and strive to do God’s will in all things and at all times.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, we heard the Lord speaking to His people through Ezekiel reminding all of them that the righteous and the just will be judged by the sins that they all committed, and should in the end, they are found wanting and lacking in faith overall, they shall be condemned and cast down by those sins and wickedness. In the meantime, the wicked and those who are considered as sinners, shall be saved and brought out of the darkness, saved and brought into the Holy Presence of God, filled with His grace and love, and receive from Him the assurance of eternal life and glory, by the righteous deeds and repentance through which they had done and embraced.

This means that first of all, no one is truly beyond God’s redemption and forgiveness, as even the worst of sinners can have the opportunity to turn away from their many sins and be forgiven from all of them, should they consciously choose to abandon those sinful ways and turn back once again towards the Lord. At the same time, it is also an important reminder for us that ultimately sin is still dangerous and harmful to us, as God despises sin and evil, and while He does not despise us, but as long as we continue to commit sins against the Lord and refuse to repent from those sins, then those sins and wickedness shall become our obstacles and shall be counted against us. This is a reminder for all of us to remain ever faithful and committed to the Lord, to His path at all times.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Matthew in which the Lord Jesus Himself reminded His disciples and all of us once again to be truly full of faith and love for God, and to be sincere in how we live our Christian lives, our dedication to God in all things. We should always do our best in all of our actions and words, in every moments to follow God’s path, to do His will and to love one another, as we should always do. We should not hold grudges and hate each other, and we must learn how to forgive and to let go of our anger and emotions, forgiving each other just as the Lord Himself has been so merciful and forgiving towards us. We must keep in mind this love and kindness shown to us, and we must do the same in our own lives as well, that we ourselves may be good examples and inspirations to others.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Polycarp, holy bishop and martyr, whose life and dedication to God should serve as good inspiration and examples for all of us as well, in how we ought to live out our lives. St. Polycarp was one of the earliest Church fathers who were the contemporaries of the successors of the Apostles like St. Ignatius of Antioch and others, and was a possible disciple of St. John the Apostle. According to the Apostolic traditions, he was converted by the Apostles, was made a priest and later on a bishop of the Church, and he was involved in many discussions about the works and proceedings of the Church, including the differences in practices such as the computation of the dates of Easter between the churches in Asia Minor and Rome.

Then, when persecutions came upon the Church and the faithful as it was common at that time in the early Church, St. Polycarp was persecuted and tortured, as he, like the many other Christians at the time, were forced to burn incense offerings and worship the Roman Emperors, which were considered as divine at the time. St. Polycarp refused to do so and proclaimed his faith before his persecutors, that he cannot betray and abandon his Lord and God, because in all his many years of life, God has always been with him and had done him no wrong. He also spoke bravely and firmly about the eternal flame of punishment that would punish all sinners, and whatever flames or torture he would have to endure, none of those could be compared to the eternal flames of hell. Thus, St. Polycarp was martyred by being burnt at the stake and pierced with a spear.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the great courage and faith which St. Polycarp had in the Lord should inspire all of us to have that kind of strong and unwavering faith in God as well. We should have that strong desire to love and serve the Lord faithfully to the best of our abilities so that in all that we say and do, we will always strive to glorify the Lord by our lives, distancing ourselves from sin and evil, and like St. Polycarp before us, to be inspirations and good role models in faith for our fellow brothers and sisters. We must do our part in every moments of our lives, to proclaim the Lord’s path and His ways to everyone all around us. We must lead by example, and show that our faith is not merely just superficial, but instead, we are truly full of genuine and real faith in God.

Let us all therefore do our best, especially in this blessed time and moment of Lent which we have been presented with, so that in all the things we do, we will continue to walk ever more courageously and faithfully in the path of the Lord, as we continue to draw ever closer to Him. Let us all continue to be the worthy and shining beacons of God’s light, truth, Good News and love in our world today, filled with sin, darkness and evil. May the Lord be with us always, and may He bless us in our every good endeavours and efforts. Amen.