5th Week of Lent, Saturday, 01-04-2023

Ezekiel 37:21-28 / John 11:45-56    

Today's gospel ends with questions, and those questions will be answered in the coming days as the liturgy unfolds.

It was also a questioning time for Jesus as His hour of reckoning approaches.

So as He retreated to the countryside with His disciples, He could have decided to remain there.

He could have gone on with His work of healing and teaching in a quiet way.

Many people would have supported Him and kept Him safe.

But Jesus knew that that was not the Father's will, so He moved out of His safety zone, a move that will cost Him His life.

Hence whenever we talk about doing God's will, we have to remember that it involves risk.

It involves moving out of our safety zone and moving out of our comfort zone.

But it is only in moving out that God moves in.

It is only when we move out of our pride, our resentment, our selfishness that God can move in to strengthen us with His love and to face the questions of life.

5th Week of Lent, Friday, 31-03-2023

Jeremiah 20:10-13 / John 31-42   

Life is not all that rosy and easy, and that is a reality that we have to accept.

There will be people who do not like us, and there will be some who are our enemies, for whatever reason.

And we can feel like how the prophet Jeremiah felt, as he said in the 1st reading: All those who used to be my friends are disparaging me.

And in his despair and distress, he wished that his opponents or enemies will stumble, mastered, confounded by their failure; everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs.

As for us, in our anger and resentment against our opponents and enemies, we would wish the same as Jeremiah wished for his enemies.

But what about faith in God and what about Jesus taught us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us?

As much as Jeremiah hoped that the Lord will let him see the vengeance that God will take on his enemies, he also said this to God:

I have committed my cause to you. Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hands of evil men.

So, to the Lord belongs judgement and vengeance. And that means we should not give in to revenge and retaliation.

Let us put our faith and trust in the Lord and He will vindicate us. 

Then, even if life is not rosy and easy, we will be at peace with ourselves and with the Lord.

5th Week of Lent, Thursday, 20-03-2023

Genesis  17:3-9 / John 8:51-59       

Some of us are cradle-Catholics, meaning that we were born into a family that is Catholic and practises the faith.

Some of us are converts, meaning that we became Catholic later in life, whether it is through the RCIA process or by some other means.

Whatever it is, the faith has taken root in our lives and it is our mission to keep the flame of faith burning and to hand it over to the next generation.

In the 1st reading, we heard that God called Abraham and made a covenant with him.

God said to Abraham: You on your part shall maintain my Covenant, yourself and your descendants after you, generation after generation.

So, the faith is not just about a set of beliefs, or a set of practices, or belonging to a group or a church.

It is a covenant relationship between God and us, and also between God and those to whom we will hand the faith to.

So, we remember the forefathers or ancestors of our faith, as we thank the Lord God for calling them and for the faith that we have received from them.

It is our responsibility to nourish and nurture the next generation in faith and to keep that covenant relationship with God.

Even if we are the only one in the family who is baptized, then it is our mission to tell them about the love of God and to lead them into a covenant relationship with God.

May the Lord God bless us and to help us keep the flame of faith burning for generation after generation.

5th Week of Lent, Wednesday, 29-03-2023

Daniel 3:14-20, 24-25, 28 / John 8:31-42     

The fiery furnace of tribulation is something we will come across in our lives. Not just once, but many times.

It is in this fiery furnace that our faith in God is tested, our faith in prayer is tested, our faith in others is tested, and our faith in ourselves is tested.

The fiery furnace comes in all forms: the loss of a job, the hurt form a broken or painful relationship, ill-treatment and accusations from others, etc.

And we often get trapped in the flames of doubt, despair, anger and resentment.

In the 1st reading, when the three young men were threatened with the fiery furnace, they stuck to their faith in God.

In doing so, they were freed from their fear of death.

They believed in God, and that set them free to face and overcome the fear of the fiery furnace.

It is also by believing in God and in His Word of truth that will set us free.

By forgiving those who hurt us, we are freed.

By praying for those who wrong us, we are freed.

By not nailing judgment on others, we are freed.

By loving others, we are freed.

The flames of the fiery furnace may not go off, but by believing and living in the truth, we live in the freedom of walking together with our God in that fiery furnace.

5th Week of Lent, Tuesday, 28-03-2023

Numbers 21:4-9 / John 8:21-30       

In life, we will always have stress, which of course we do not welcome at all.

More so when stress turns to distress, then we will get all flustered and frustrated.

In the 1st reading, we heard how the Israelites were in distress, but that was due to their own grumblings at God and the consequence was the scourge of the fiery serpents.

But out of this distress, arose the intercession of Moses which brought about healing for the people.

For Jesus, His greatest moment of distress was when He was nailed to and lifted up on the cross.

But it was also on the cross that He revealed His full identity as Saviour.

The cross was also His throne of glory.

Whenever we sink into the depths of distress, or face trials and difficulties that wear us down, let us remember this.

That in times of great distress, God is closest to us in His full power to lift us up so that we can see His glory.

The times of distress are also the time in which God reveals His saving love for us.

That is somehow difficult to believe, just as it would seem strange that by looking at the image of a bronze serpent on a standard would bring about healing.

But as we look as Jesus being lifted up on the cross, then we will understand. Then we will believe.

Because we are looking at our Saviour who came to heal and forgive and save us.

5th Week of Lent, Monday, 27-03-2023

Daniel 13:41-62 / John 8:1-11     

The name Daniel in Hebrew means "My God is judge" or "My God is justice".

And true to his name, the prophet Daniel brought about God's justice and saved the innocent Suzanna from being executed.

When we talk about God's justice, we often see it as judgement, as in punishment for evil and vindication for good.

Indeed, the two evil men in the 1st reading got what they deserved for trying to harm an innocent woman in order to cover up their evil deeds.

In that sense, it is true that justice means judgement.

But God is a judge, not merely in the sense of passing sentence over our evil deeds.

The biblical understanding of God and His justice is that He looks at the good we do and the good that we are capable of doing.

Because God, in His justice, is essentially mercy and love.

He affirms our goodness with His mercy and love.

With His mercy and love, He increases our capacity for goodness.

Jesus is the true light that brings about God's love and mercy to us.

Let us open our hearts to the light of Christ and reflect it to others in order to help them do good and increase their capacity for goodness.

5th Sunday of Lent, Year A, 26.03.2023

 Ezekiel 37:12-14 / Romans 8:8-11 / John 11:1-45 

One of the profound lessons of life is that we don't really treasure or value something until it is lost. 

It is a recurring lesson and we don't seem to learn enough of it. 

So, we take a lot of things for granted and we seem to think that we will always have them. 

We won't value the convenience of our mobile phone until it is spoiled or lost. 

We don't really take care of our health until we fall sick. 

We don't appreciate the love of our parents and loved ones until they have passed on. 

And we don't often think about the meaning and purpose of our life, until we are faced with the reality of death. 

No doubt, we have experienced the loss of a loved one, and we have attended the wakes and funerals of relatives and friends. 

It may affect us for a while as we think about death and what the afterlife is about. 

But we move on, and those who have passed on become a memory that slowly fades away like the sunset. 

Today's gospel brings up the topic of death, and makes us think about the meaning and purpose of our lives. 

We may not know exactly what is the afterlife about. But we know that Jesus is the Resurrection, and He is our life, and in Him, we have a new life after death. 

As Christians, we live our lives here on earth in preparation for our eternal life in heaven. 

We want to be happy on earth, so that we will be eternally joyful in heaven. 

We want to live in peace on earth, so that we will truly rest in peace in heaven. 

And in following the Commandment of Jesus, then whatever love and good that we can do for others, we will want to do it, because we only walk this way once, and we want to walk with others all the way to heaven. 

So, our life on earth is to be a life of love, and we will be prepared to face our own death, because we long for the eternal love of God in heaven. 

But, the worries and anxieties of this world, the wear and tear of life, make us hide in the tombs of our darkness. 

And in that darkness, we succumb to the sins of anger, resentment, bitterness, frustration, disappointment, greed, selfishness, in short, the corruption of the tomb. 

But just as Jesus called out to Lazarus, He calls out to each of us to “Come out!” 

Let us listen to the voice of Jesus, let us listen to the voice of life and love. 

Let us come out of our self-made tombs to encounter Jesus who is the Resurrection and who is our life. 

Jesus wants to unbind our sins, so that we can be freed, freed to live with love. 

And Jesus sends us out to love, so that others can find the meaning and purpose of their lives, and to journey with us to have life on earth, and eternal life in heaven.