Good Friday 2025 Year C

We are better than we think we are. There are some of us who suffer from poor self-esteem. Those with low-esteem can be filled with such self-loathing or self-deprecation that they are unable to see themselves for who they truly are. They tend to paint themselves in rather unattractive light. However, there is another side to our poor self-esteem. We are more sinful than we think we are. Some may feel that we are not that sinful or rather our sins are just nothing compared to someone who murders or rapes or steals millions. Either perspective of ourselves is myopic.

This short-sightedness is the reason for our inability to appreciate what Christ had done for us. But then, why do we lack the capacity to acknowledge our sinfulness or even appreciate that our soul could be in danger of eternal damnation?

Firstly, the notion of sin is that it resides in others and not in ourselves. Take the case of the Woman caught Adultery and was nearly stoned to death. The crowd that gathered around her definitely felt that sin was in her until Christ challenged them. It is possible that for some of us, sin is the other person and not me. The way we look at ourselves is “I am sinful but not really”. A good example is “my spouse makes me very angry”. We justify our anger because somebody else did not behave better. We this on the roads or the government offices or services. We justify our racism because someone does subscribe to our work ethics.

Secondly, we are traumatised by pain. Thus, many lament why there should be pain, sorrow and suffering? Perhaps this is coming from our logical and rational side which considers suffering as incompatible with the idea of a good God. How can a good God allow suffering? Or we have simply forgotten that this is a fallen world. We are affected by concupiscence and are always in need of conversion. However, when we feel unjustly done to, the attendant feeling is victimhood. In a therapeutic society, one whose goal is to feel good, we have been taught that poor self-esteem is detrimental to our mental well-being. We must never be guilt-ridden.

As we become more and more entitled victims, we may find it hard to process personal responsibility let alone contemplate our sinfulness or even the possibility of damnation. Sin makes one feel guilty and since we are taught to reject guilt-feelings, it is hard to have remorse for one’s multitude of sins. Furthermore, we have reduced sins and our responsibility for them, to sicknesses or pathologies in which case we consider ourselves less culpable since we are suffering from some forms of mental illness. I have a condition that causes me to do something bad. Therefore I cannot be held fully responsible.

Thirdly, there is a sense that we also feel useless. How many of us have gone confession after confession and come out only to commit the same sin. The inability to modify our behaviour leaves one with a horrible sense of helplessness and nobody wants to be reminded of that. Uselessness or even low self-esteem besides, the point of confession is to take ownership or personal responsibility for one’s sinful behaviour. It is not on account of big sins that I go to hell. Instead it is because of the small sins I ignore that imperil my soul.

It is not a form of self-loathing to think of sin. In fact, there are three graves underneath the main aisle. Graves in the Church or Cathedral, apart from giving prominence to ecclesiastical figures—like Sovereigns or Bishops—are basically memento mori. They are reminders of death, not macabre because their presence is to encourage reflection on one’s sinfulness and also to invite one to repentance. For without contrition, it is not easy to appreciate what Christ has done for us.

The recognition of sin should lead to the awareness that we need a Saviour. But if we have no sin, then He has died for nothing which makes this rather long service a total waste of time and also confirms that we may be suffering from the disorder of self-hatred or masochism. Do we need to subject ourselves to this self-torture if that is not self-loathing? Perhaps the greatest obstacle to our conversion is found in the remark made by Pope Pius XII in 1946. The greatest sin is the loss of the sense of sin. While modern man may suffer from the lack of self-esteem, he suffers even more by the lack of conscientious acknowledgement that he is a sinner.

The Passion Gospel today is read in its entirety for a good reason. It is a form of contemplation because it basically to carry us into the scenes of what He had to undergo. We are transported to the Via Dolorosa so that we can feel for ourselves that He died to free us from the shackles of sin. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Good Friday is the celebration of the ultimate act of love by God for the redemption and salvation of humankind.

Thus, the fact that we are here reveals that whether we know it or not, we desire to be saved. Unless one were self-loathing, a masochist or a pain-addict, everyone is searching for the Saviour. It is by His grace that we are not in hell. Such an expression may sound rather condemnatory but if it should help one to recognise and change, then one soul is saved.

Holy Thursday 2025

To say that death takes some by surprise is not really a remarkable statement to make. Why? I realise and I am sure some of you may have an inkling of what I am talking about. This comment about death is actually played out in our lives daily because as we age, we catch a glimpse of death every now and then. To state categorically that we will all die is a statement that sounds ordinary and factual. In reality we are terrified by death.

How is death a part of the Triduum? Firstly, we are entering into the most sacred days of Lent—the Easter Triduum. And death must be spoken off in relation to the Resurrection. But here I want to speak about a kind death and its impact on us and our future.

The Chrism Mass is over. We have brought back the three sacred oils and the bottles stands proudly in our ambry. Shortly after the homily, there are supposed to be two priests who will be washing the feet of twelve parishioners. But we only have one.

If we follow Tradition, we should have had the Chrism Mass this morning and tonight, the Mass of the Last Supper. Maundy Thursday, derived from the Mandatum of Christ—is His mandate or instruction for the Church whereby He institutes the Eucharist and also the Priesthood, the two Sacraments which are necessary for the Church to carry out His mission.

In order to appreciate His mandate and the repercussion that dying and death has on the viability of His instruction, we turn to John’s Gospel, Chapter 6. The long conversation is centred on food but Jesus tried to draw the crowd’s attention to a craving for the supernatural food that allows one to live for ever. To satisfy one’s supernatural hunger, Christ told the crowd that eternal life is premised upon the eating of His Flesh and the drinking His Blood. The crowd reacted to the cannibalism implicit in Christ’s commands and even when everyone deserted Him, He did not chase after them. He did not mitigate nor soften His insistence, proving that He was firm in this requirement.

This necessary condition for eternal life poses a challenge to ensure the availability of His Body and Blood. This therefore raises the issue of how Jesus must provide for His Church, His Body and Blood necessary for eternal life.

Two issues which I would like to raise here because there are so many of you this evening.

Firstly, you may be aware that in the past, the practice was that Catholics were encouraged to marry Catholics. Why? So that we do not have the conundrum that is quite prevalent today. What faith should the children be brought up in? In the name of diversity and respect, it is not uncommon for the Catholic spouse to defer the baptism of the child or children.

However, if the Catholic spouse receives Holy Communion based on a firm belief that it is truly the food of eternal life but denies his or her child the possibility of eating the Bread of eternal life, the very act of Holy Communion would be either be (a) illogical or (b) selfish.

Why would it be illogical? It is the bread of eternal life. Parents instinctively give their children the best education, medical attention, nutrition etc. Thus, to deny an offspring the possibility of receiving Holy Communion could be that one does not really know “Whom” one is receiving. But if that were not the case then the other conclusion to draw would be selfishness.

Why would it be selfish? A parent who believes that Holy Communion is truly the Body of Christ and not feed it to the child would be plainly selfish based on the same instinct of providing the best for one’s child or children. A parent would not give scorpion to a child who ask for bread.

The Eucharist is our food of salvation. We all know this. We value it but here is the challenge. There is another side of the equation which we have taken for granted. How can we be certain that there is an assured and adequate supply of the Bread of Life.

Unless we change the rule, meaning, that it is not necessary for eternal life, then the situation would be different. However, the requirement remains. We have not changed. There is a supply chain disruption if we were to use a post-pandemic description. The question point-blank is this: Where are all the vocations needed for this mission? The reason why the Assistant PP is not here is because he is helping out in another parish whose PP is sick. Where are the young men who dare to stand up and be counted? All we need is a priest to drop dead and the whole diocese is thrown into a disarray. The journey to the priesthood is not easy and if one seminarian falls along the way, the diocese isset back by the shortage of one future priest. The next ordination will be threeyears from now.

In many countries, parishes are being closed down or amalgamated. We may not face their problem yet but we will get there soon if no one answers the call to serve as a priest. The Mandarin community regularly laments the lack of a proper Mandarin-speaking priest. Where are your sons?

As we enter the holiest days of the liturgical year, let our silence be deepened so that we can sense the sadness of Holy Mother Church, deepen our love for the Eucharist and pray for more vocation to the Priesthood. We need the Eucharist because the Eucharist makes the Church and we need the Church because the Church makes the Eucharist. Without the Priesthood, there is no Eucharist. As we accompany Jesus, it is also a moment for our young men to ponder if they would like to rise to the challenge because Christ’s Church also needs your response.

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord Year C 2025

Today we enter the holiest week of the Liturgical Calendar. To mark this period, we begin with the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem. It is the Gospel of the Mass read either before the Procession or at the Entrance. We cannot miss the irony at play here. Christ enters as a victor into His own city. However, His victory culminates in His Passion and Death on the Cross. And yet that is not the final story.

The whole panoply of human reactions is on display this Sunday. The landscape of popularity is simply treacherous. Human loyalty is as fickle as the shifting sand in the desert. The Gospel read at the beginning projects victory. The Passion heard just only is wrapped in pain and sorrow. From hero to zero, Christ was acclaimed only to be condemned.

What then should our response be?

In the face of human treachery, the natural tendency is to react with outrage but the only proper response to it is silence. Holy Week marks the beginning of a powerful silence to allow us to embrace and enter the depth of what Christ would undergo for the salvation of our souls.

The week is heavy and is ordinarily filled with frenetic activities. Flowers to be arranged, statues and images to be veiled, then come Maundy Thursday—the washing of feet and adoration until midnight. Good Friday—Veneration of the Cross and the Easter Vigil—all 9 Readings and baptisms by immersion. There are many things to consider and to be done. Yet this is the week of Mary of Bethany. She sits to contemplate the Lord in His Passion. And the one path that can lead to a profound and prayerful contemplation is silence.

Silence is the language of God’s presence. It is almost like Jesus peeled back the curtain of His divinity so that we can peer behind the scenes to savour His humility at work. He speaks but mostly in silent recesses of our hearts.

It is not a silence of inaction or inactivity. Rather it is a silence which is intentionally slow. One of the foci we should have is our need. Indeed we have so many wants that we can be distracted by them. We eat, entertain, shop and travel believing that all these will make us happy. Or that these activities will complete us. However what we may fail to recognise is that they may hide our real need.

Our need to be saved. There is ugliness and there is a lot of that during this week. Even as we get first-hand experience of treachery at work, still we can be distracted because whatever Christ had to undergo and endure, it was to save us.

The challenge is if we need salvation. Nothing of the treachery makes sense if we do not require salvation. If we have no need of a Saviour, then what Jesus went through was plainly stupid and unnecessary. Perhaps Pope Francis’ primary concern with God’s mercy stems from this truth. God wants so much to save us and mercy is how He reaches out to us. The foremost image for God’s mercy, according to the Pope, is the “Field Hospital”. The Church is the place where wounded and traumatised souls are treated.

Right now, the earthquake in Myanmar is fresh in our memory and the urgency for charitable outreach is also vital. People want to help but as in many disasters today, it has also spawned a modern-day phenomenon for some have developed a taste for what is called “disaster tourism”. Have you watched videos of people who stand around filming a tragedy so that they can have the thrill of being the first to post it on social media? There are some who visit sites of calamities even with the noble intention of helping the victims but nevertheless, they are still driven by a curiosity or a fascination with disasters.

Translate that to a hospital setting. A hospital is meant for those who are sick and need treatment. Any salutary or sanitary setting which is targeted towards those who are not sick is merely cathartic or simply therapeutic. On Friday Bishop came to launch the Perjalanan Salib and I happened to sit next to him and with the new renovation, I can see outside across the street. The crawl sign flashing massage, massage, massage. A massage is therapeutic because it helps to relieve aches and tension. Feeling good is a good feeling but feeling good is not necessarily what we need. In fact, to be good is miles apart from feeling good. To be good is our goal and quite regularly one actually feels bad even as one tries to be good. A good example is to apologise. How often is it that one refuses to apologise (to be good) because it feels lousy for one feels like a loser having to be the first to say, “I am sorry”? Hence, religion or our religious observance is meant to deepen our need for salvation. Our rituals are targeted at highlighting this need. While therapy is good for our mental health and personal growth, it does not guarantee our salvation.

If we have no need of Christ’s salvation, it does not take much for our rituals to become therapeutic treatments which do not really save the soul. A spatreatment only makes us feel good about ourselves and no more.

Silence is therefore unnerving because it penetrates the darkness of our heartsthat are eclipsed by self-will and sin. It is there in our restless hearts that Christ fights to save our souls. The only way we can appreciate His salvation is when we allow the silence to challenge us, challenge our sin and challenge our apathy toward His salvation. Silence is for us to say, “I need you, my Saviour. I need you more than I need air to breathe”.

5th Sunday of Lent Year C

In this viral age of hyper-connectivity, jokes become old very fast. For this Sunday’s Gospel, Christ is presented with a woman caught in adultery. The theme of God’s mercy seems to be a continuation from last weekend’s parable of the Prodigal Son.

The Pharisees and the Scribes wanted to trap Jesus. So they brought Him an adulteress. It echoes the same dilemma they posed to Jesus with respect to taxation—to pay or not to pay taxes to Caesar. They wanted Jesus to choose between going against Moses or going against Rome. But Jesus out-manoeuvred them by returning the ball into their court. “Let him who has no sins cast the first stone”. At this point a stone landed on Jesus’ head. He had to call out, “Not you, Mother, not you”.

It is an old joke but imagine right at the beginning, Jesus Himself confirmed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Since the rest of humanity is not immaculately conceived, it is time to savourGod’s mercy even as we recognise and acknowledge our sins. As we heard earlier, the story ended well for thankfully the Pharisees and Scribes were not as self-righteous as they have been painted to be. One by one, they slinked or slipped away, aware that they were not as pure as they had judged the woman to be impure. It is a lesson on being judgemental. We necessarily judge but we should avoid that kind of condescension as if we were the standard.

Christ was not looking for a fight with the Pharisees and Scribes. It was not as if He needed to be one up on them. It was not a victory as it was a compassionateresponse. It was clear that she was an adulteress. Did she warrant punishment? She did under Mosaic Law. But in sentencing one ought to measure the degree of punishment according to the value of what one is protecting. In the case of adultery. Why is it so wrong? It breaks one’s promise made before God and spouse. It is a form of betrayal which in the end will hurt the family. The severity of the punishment is meant to protect the bedrock of society and that is the family unit for without the family, society crumbles.

However, Christ chose another way of fulfilling the intent of the Mosaic Law. He did not condemn the woman, nor did He let her go scot-free. “Since no one has condemn you, neither have I, but go and sin no more”.

Go and sin no more is what many of us fail to appreciate.

Lenten conversion requires a turning away from sin. This brings us to the Gospel which for the Elect is taken from John. The 5th Sunday of Year A is the Raising of Lazarus. Here, there is a clear connexion between Lazarus and the Resurrection. Christ raised Lazarus as a way to illustrate the profound truth of the Resurrection. Even though Lazarus was raised in a most spectacular manner, the reality is that his return to life was not the main focus. The answer is found in the question that Jesus posed to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”.

The focus for the Elect is faith in the Resurrection. But notice what happened at the tomb of Lazarus. Christ called out to him and the dead man emerged from the tomb with “his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face”. Close your eyes and appreciate what this scene represents? It is a powerful portrait of the bondage of sin. Christ said, “Unbind him, let him go free”.

Many of us are caught in the bondage of sin that it is not easy to escape. The image of Jesus with the condemned woman is helpful. He judges truthfully as He calls out to us who can be living a life of sin. Yet, His judgement is compassionate. In His mercy, He invites us to shake off whatever might impede our path towards the Resurrection.

Thus, St Paul provides the perfect picture of this desire. What I want is Christ and Him alone. Today our Elect are presented with the view of life after death, that is, what happens to us after we die. We are freaked out by death. We witnessed that during the Pandemic. In no way is this a judgement about the fear of death nor does it mean that those who are fearful should be looked down upon. Rather what this fear may have revealed is an unsettling reality. We believe in the Resurrection but not really. Our struggle mirrors St Augustine’s, “Lord make me pure but not yet”.

Why our hesitancy? We have never had it so good to the point that we cannot really fathom a life better than this. Instead of life as a preparation for the Resurrection, what has happened is that we acknowledge that the Resurrection is our goal but we have no strong desire for it. For if the Resurrection were more than we can imagine, so many more would look at death as a doorway rather than fear it as annihilation and an end to who we are.

Belief in the Resurrection is the basis for a change in the direction of our lives. We live for Christ which means we turn away from sin or more likely the case, we resolve at all times to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin. Secondly, belief in the Resurrection means that we have to find a way to perceive reality for what it is. The Prayer after Holy Communion of the 1st Sunday of Advent expresses this truth very succinctly. “May these mysteries, O Lord, in which we have participated profit us, we pray, for even now, as we walk amid passing things, you teach us by them to love the things of heaven and hold fast to what endures. Through Christ our Lord”.

In conclusion, this rhymes with the movement of the season. Our earthly senses are curbed in order to heighten their celestial awareness. If we follow the older tradition, today we cover our statues and images. This liturgical action follows the traditional Gospel used for this Sunday. It is the first of a season within the season—Passiontide which stretches from the 5th Sunday until Lazarus Saturday on Holy Week. In the said Gospel of John chapter 8, verse 59, after the heated exchange with the authorities, Jesus left the Temple and went into hiding. The veiling or covering thus signifies the concealment of Christ’s divinity. In a way, His humanity is also diminished because He would be beaten to a pulp to a point of being unrecognisable. The point is not the graphic and gory detail of torture but rather a possibility of entering into a first-hand experience of Christ’s humility and humiliation for that is the price He was willing to pay for our salvation.

4th Sunday of Lent Year C Laetare Sunday

We would like to believe that our civilisation has become more merciful and tolerant. It would appear that for a community to be accepted as civilised it must show that it is warm and welcoming. With this kind of expectation, the margin has come to the centre, meaning that those belonging to the categories of the least and the lost are to be welcomed and celebrated. Thus, society, of which the Church is a part of, should strive to create a friendly, inclusive and hospitable environment where each person can feel respected, valued and at home regardless of background or beliefs. If John Lennon were here, you can imagine living life in peace.

Contrast this image with the present American experience. A sizeable portion of the USA thinks that Trump is a fascist dictator. In this way, he is no different from the two groups of people in the Gospel today. The Pharisees and Scribes have rigid rituals and are restricted by religious boundaries whereas Trump just wants to exclude and restrict migration into the US. What is more? Jesus is supposed to be an observant Jew and so they complained to Him about His choices of dining companions. Since ritual purity is central in a Jewish religious outlook, any engagement with outcasts will render one a social pariah. As they say, guilty by association.

Since Jesus welcomes sinners, the only logical assessment of the complaining Pharisees and Scribes is that they are basically hypocritical, unforgiving and unwelcoming. It is ironical though. While we may pride ourself as merciful, tolerant and much more enlightened than the hypocritical Pharisees and Scribes, all a person needs is to commit a grave sexual sin and he will be condemned for life. We are not as forgiving or welcoming as we would like to believe we are. Maybe we use a less graphic example. Remember David Walliams, one of the judges in Britain’s Got Talent. For something he had said in private he has lost his place as a judge in the show. Our merciful mindset has a particular measure or metric whereby one must not breach.

It brings us to this Sunday’s parable, found only in Luke’s Gospel and no other. In response to the Pharisees and the Scribes’ criticism, Jesus related a compelling parable highlighting God’s mercy. He profoundly welcomes those who are deemed unacceptable by whatever metrics we have of people. However, in the matter of God’s mercy towards us, we might want to think of our mercy towards God. This is such a weird perspective, not to mention arrogant too. Who are we to extend “mercy” towards God?

This view makes sense if we accept that we have been socialised into entitlement. We have been trained through our talks and theology to expect a God whose compassion envelops us. For example, a recurring motif of Pope Francis’ papacy has been on mercy as a way of leading us to back to God. The sad reality is how we may have corrupted the image of a merciful God to one who is possibly weak and incapable of anything but forgiveness. What appears to be God’s mercy toward us, we may have turn that gift into an entitlement.

When mercy becomes an entitlement, then repentance and conversion will no longer be necessary. St Thomas cautioned that mercy without justice is indulgence but he also balanced his warning by alerting us to the fact that justice without mercy is cruelty. An entitled generation is an indulgent lot andwe project that attitude into God. A good illustration is how we tend to frame God’s attitude towards what we have come to deem as the “Pharisaical concerns”, that is, we presume that this is how a merciful God views ritual or religious taboos. He is not bothered by our petty nit-picking attitude. “Does God really care how one dresses?”. Or “Do you think God is upset that we did not abstain on Friday?”.

Such questions may betray a presumptuousness. We presume that little things are unimportant because God is unaffected when in reality, it is we who have become apathetic. In a way, we sanctify our disregard by presuming God’s mercy. Perhaps, a good way to understand this presumption or our apathy is to look at how we treat a person of importance.

What happens when the King visits or a special person makes an appearance? We dress up and go out of our way to welcome them. When we assume that they do not care about our appearance, the truth is, we are just not bothered to honour them. In other words, God’s mercy must be reciprocated by a changed behaviour towards Him. In the context of Lent, when we ask God for His mercy, like the Prodigal Son, our response should be “I will return to my Father”. Conversion is a response to mercy.

Interestingly, the young man’s conversion is described of as a journey. “He came to his senses”. Thus, a pilgrimage is not just any excursion but rather a journey of conversion. It requires that we come to our senses by recognising our sinfulness and by repenting as we seek forgiveness.

The Elect this Sunday are meditating on the Gospel of the Man born Blind. He was healed by Jesus but the greatest gift that he received was not the gift of physical sight but rather the gift of spiritual sight to recognise Jesus as Lord. For the blind man, his healing was a chronicle of conversion. At first, Christ performed a sacramental act. He spat onto some earth, made a paste and daubed it on his eyes. Recall the ashes on our forehead that was made into a paste by Holy Water? The first sacramental act was followed by another as the blind man was asked to wash himself in the pool of Siloam. Thus, for the Elect,the aim of the Scrutinies is to deepen their Sacramental journey.

In conclusion, Laetare Sunday symbolises the forgotten joys that accompany conversion. Both the Prodigal Son and the Man born Blind are diaries of change and conversion. It appears that for the Pharisees and Scribes, conversion has been reduced to a dreadful duty—much like having to submit to Lenten fast and abstinence. Take the recent incident where a boy was slapped for eating publicly during fasting month. Imagine a squad who goes around enforcing the duty to fast or abstain highlighting that one can be lost in the chore of “doing” Lent correctly while missing out that conversion is a joyful pilgrimage. We are not compelled to make this pilgrimage. Conversion is a journey we joyfully desire and trustingly embrace because of God’s welcoming and compassionate mercy.

3rd Sunday on Lent Year C 2025

Today, we begin the 1st Scrutiny. Our Readings come from Year C but since there is also the Scrutiny, then the Readings will resort to the set from Year A. It is usually a headache to have to prepare two homilies for a weekend.

The gist of this weekend’s Gospel is found in the parable of the Fig Tree which is basically focused on the centrality of conversion. The context was the phenomenon of untimely deaths and the inevitable question arose on culpability and consequence for sins. God’s punishment, though certain, is not as swift as one would expect. Christ pointed to the fruitless Fig Tree that was not chopped down instantly.

There is a connexion between sin and death but the association is not direct as the Jews would have thought. The price of sin is death, but not every death is the result of sin. Jesus is our prime example. He was the sinless one who was put to death. In the example of the Fig Tree, Jesus pointed out the lack of repentance or prolonged fruitlessness will result in its annihilation. When we do not repent, then the dire consequence will be death.

The Fig Tree symbolises the invitation to repent and the call to be fruitful. The theme is supported by the 1st Reading and St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians. Since Lent is a season of penance and conversion, then Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt foreshadows our journey from sin and death to grace and life. It is an on ongoing pilgrimage and as such, St Paul urged the community not to be complacent in their spiritual life.

The call to conversion is appropriately this Sunday’s Lenten theme for us to consider. When it comes to the process of conversion or repentance, the usual train of thoughts is to focus on changing our lifestyle and it mainly involves giving up on something. It feels like a New Year’s Resolution revived. The central goal of repentance is not so much “giving up something” as it is “giving up something for”.

We can now turn to the Gospel for Year A because it is good illustration of giving up something for something else. The Samaritan Woman at the Well in her conversation with Jesus began with a very natural need. She had come to the well searching for the elixir of life. In the desert, water is the commodity central to human survival. But the conversation did not stop with her natural need. Christ elevated her natural thirst for water to the profound need within her. As He steered the conversation, a deeper desire welled up within her to the point that she was willing to even abandon her natural thirst. Deep within her was the latent supernatural thirst for eternal life. She was ultimately freed to embrace the eternal life that Christ promised her.

The Woman at the Well is appropriately the theme for the 1st Scrutiny. Through this particular Scrutiny, the Elect are led to concentrate on their personal journey of conversion and also to embrace their new life centred on the Sacraments; water being the primary matter necessary for Baptism.

All of us want to get close to Jesus. We seek that experience which the Samaritan woman had, that is, to have a close encounter with the Lord. For many of us, we define close encounters as exceptional, in terms which are described of as experiences that are out of this world. In other words, we crave the extraordinary. Closer to our lived experiences, the Sacraments are unexceptional. They are mostly mundane rituals and predictably boring.

On the other hand, there are many alternative programmes that we want to implement that are touted as life-saving. We believe that we can create events or talks that give people a personal encounter with Jesus. Programmes are good and they may be helpful. But they cannot save us. They can make us better but ultimately they do not bring us to heaven.

Instead, we need a Saviour and there is only one, as the Samaritan woman found out. He is Jesus Christ. Indeed, Jesus Christ is the Sacrament of the Father’s salvific will. God desires to save us and He has sent us His Son. As Saviour, Christ instituted the Sacraments as channels to reach out to us through time. Every Sacrament represents Christ saving act. How much closer can we get to Christ, if not through the Sacraments?

Most of the times, the celebration of the Sacraments is too predictable and unexciting and there is always the need to supplement them with more exciting experiences. Somehow, we miss the point of boring and predictable rituals. Predictability has a role, meaning that it does a job of ensuring that what we get is no less than the very grace intended for us.

The Seven Sacraments are “efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us” (CCC 1131). Christ intends to save and the surest signs of His saving desire are expressed through the Sacramental system that we have. I would rather have boring over exciting, if I am assured that I can be saved.

In summary, both the Gospels of Year A and C are focused on the Lenten themes of repentance, conversion and salvation. There are two similar posters outside the walls of the two confessionals and both feature a quote from Hippocrates: “Before you heal someone, ask him if he’s willing to give up the things that made him sick”. If we follow the example of the woman at the well, conversion involves giving up sin for grace. Christ invited her to choose thepath of freedom by giving up the good for the better. Indeed, the Lord desires our salvation and thus every Sacrament is an expression of His intention to save. Each Sacrament is an articulation of His divine mercy extended to us. The only response we can return for God’s mercy and salvation is to admit our sins, repent and be saved.

2nd Sunday of Lent Year C The Transfiguration

There was a woman who was cheated of her huge inheritance. She fought hard to regain what was unjustly snatched from her. The legal litigation took years but finally she won. Sadly, it was a pyrrhic victory for she died soon after she won. In the end, nothing of her massive inheritance was useful to her.

This is not a story to stop people on the pathway toward justice. While it may suggest the futility of their struggles for material compensation, the point is that, if one has a case, one should go for it because it is a right and a just course of action. For example, if you were scammed, you should seek restitution. The story about the woman who died after she won may help us appreciate our history beyond this temporal existence.

Each person has a history and that history does not end when we breathe our last.

In the Gospel today, Jesus ascended Tabor and there in the midst of His sleeping disciples, He is transformed. The Transfiguration opens up a window providing a glimpse beyond the present realities of life. Somehow, our vision can be myopic that at times we are unable to discern the bigger picture. The analogy is a camera lens focussing on a painting or picture too closely that all the details are blurred out. The larger canvas of the Transfiguration is that it is closely associated with the Passion in the Garden. They both belong to the bigger picture and are connected one to the other.

If a coin has two sides, then the Transfiguration is actually the other side of Gethsemane. There is almost a perfect symmetry between them but some may find it hard to recognise that. Both took place on top of a mountain. Tabor for the Transfiguration. Mount Olives for the Agony in Gethsemane. He was transfigured on one but He was somewhat disfigured on the other as He sweated of blood. One highlighted His Divinity whereas and the other showcased His humanity.

There should not be any problem for Peter to be warned by the Lord of His impending Passion. Yet, Peter was unable to digest it. He was not able to see how Christ’s Transfiguration was a preparation for the Passion. All Peter knew about the Passion was the Disfigurement of Christ and that was unacceptable to him. His vision for Christ was a “transfiguration” which mirrors an earthly victory.

The exchange between Jesus and the other two prophets emphasises the change that Jesus would accomplish. He was about to effect the Exodus, the salvation that would come via His Passion and Cross in Jerusalem. Humanity would be saved by His suffering and the Transfiguration is a foretaste. When Moses led the Israelites, they left Egypt for the Promised Land. For Jesus, the Promised Land will no longer be a place but an exalted state of being. We will be saved and His dazzlingly white Body is a promise of the fate that is ours.

St Paul in the 2nd Reading spoke of mimesis. It is the Greek word for our English “mimicry”. Imitate me. Why? He had imitated Christ and thus the Philippians were supposed to imitate Paul for he has shown the way to live the Transfiguration. He reminds us that our homeland is not here on earth. Our homeland is the eternal one in heaven. This makes sense of the story of the woman who regained her inheritance only to discover that she could bring nothing with her into the eternal homeland.

If at all, the only possibility for us is to work for the treasures that neither rust nor rot. This is not in any way a counsel to ignore life temporal but to have an attitude of planting our feet, one here and the other in heaven. However, between here and heaven, Jesus taught: “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him take up his cross and follow me”. Peter struggled to accept that the path to Tabor passes necessarily through Golgotha. Only later did Peter come to know that Calvary was not the final stop for Jesus.

What Calvary does is to change us. It tempers our body for the life that we are all called to. The change we can appreciate is that both the phenomena of the Transfiguration and the Passion point us in the direction of the Resurrection. “For us, our homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes the Saviour we are waiting for, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of His glorious body. He will do that by the same power with which He can subdue the whole universe”.

The promise of the Resurrection gives us a footing to stand firm in Christ. However, when faced with trials, we cave in to despair. When we feel that road we have taken leads nowhere, we are broken. But the voice that reached out to the Disciples is the assurance we need. “Listen to Him”. He who has travelled the rocky road grants us the guarantee that when we follow Him to Calvary, we will not end in defeat but victory.

The grace we desire is that momentary glimpse into a future of possibilities. It is a glance into eternity which we sorely need especially when we feel as if the weight of the world is on our shoulders and we are unable to cope. At time, it is in a situation between life and death that we catch a glimpse of eternity. These are the near-death experiences that grant a person the realisation of the futility of life and all its attendant achievements. “What gains a man the whole day but loses his soul”. Furthermore, Jesus went up the mountain to pray. The height grants Him a perspective. Essentially, it is through prayer that one catches the fleeting shadow of God’s presence. Every Thursday the Cathedral provides the opportunity to encounter the Lord through silent Adoration. Sometimes, a retreat too. Or maybe a pilgrimage or a talk that one attends. All these are basically experiences that might allow us to catch God at work. Thankfully, we are one of the pilgrim’s centres. It gives us the possibility to encounter Christ during this year of hope. As we continue with our Lenten journey, may we experience many transfiguring events to strengthen our hope and to grant us the confidence for the life to come and the longing to reach heaven.2nd Sunday of Lent Year C The Transfiguration.

There was a woman who was cheated of her huge inheritance. She fought hard to regain what was unjustly snatched from her. The legal litigation took years but finally she won. Sadly, it was a pyrrhic victory for she died soon after she won. In the end, nothing of her massive inheritance was useful to her.

This is not a story to stop people on the pathway toward justice. While it may suggest the futility of their struggles for material compensation, the point is that, if one has a case, one should go for it because it is a right and a just course of action. For example, if you were scammed, you should seek restitution. The story about the woman who died after she won may help us appreciate our history beyond this temporal existence.

Each person has a history and that history does not end when we breathe our last.

In the Gospel today, Jesus ascended Tabor and there in the midst of His sleeping disciples, He is transformed. The Transfiguration opens up a window providing a glimpse beyond the present realities of life. Somehow, our vision can be myopic that at times we are unable to discern the bigger picture. The analogy is a camera lens focussing on a painting or picture too closely that all the details are blurred out. The larger canvas of the Transfiguration is that it is closely associated with the Passion in the Garden. They both belong to the bigger picture and are connected one to the other.

If a coin has two sides, then the Transfiguration is actually the other side of Gethsemane. There is almost a perfect symmetry between them but some may find it hard to recognise that. Both took place on top of a mountain. Tabor for the Transfiguration. Mount Olives for the Agony in Gethsemane. He was transfigured on one but He was somewhat disfigured on the other as He sweated of blood. One highlighted His Divinity whereas and the other showcased His humanity.

There should not be any problem for Peter to be warned by the Lord of His impending Passion. Yet, Peter was unable to digest it. He was not able to see how Christ’s Transfiguration was a preparation for the Passion. All Peter knew about the Passion was the Disfigurement of Christ and that was unacceptable to him. His vision for Christ was a “transfiguration” which mirrors an earthly victory.

The exchange between Jesus and the other two prophets emphasises the change that Jesus would accomplish. He was about to effect the Exodus, the salvation that would come via His Passion and Cross in Jerusalem. Humanity would be saved by His suffering and the Transfiguration is a foretaste. When Moses led the Israelites, they left Egypt for the Promised Land. For Jesus, the Promised Land will no longer be a place but an exalted state of being. We will be saved and His dazzlingly white Body is a promise of the fate that is ours.

St Paul in the 2nd Reading spoke of mimesis. It is the Greek word for our English “mimicry”. Imitate me. Why? He had imitated Christ and thus the Philippians were supposed to imitate Paul for he has shown the way to live the Transfiguration. He reminds us that our homeland is not here on earth. Our homeland is the eternal one in heaven. This makes sense of the story of the woman who regained her inheritance only to discover that she could bring nothing with her into the eternal homeland.

If at all, the only possibility for us is to work for the treasures that neither rust nor rot. This is not in any way a counsel to ignore life temporal but to have an attitude of planting our feet, one here and the other in heaven. However, between here and heaven, Jesus taught: “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him take up his cross and follow me”. Peter struggled to accept that the path to Tabor passes necessarily through Golgotha. Only later did Peter come to know that Calvary was not the final stop for Jesus.

What Calvary does is to change us. It tempers our body for the life that we are all called to. The change we can appreciate is that both the phenomena of the Transfiguration and the Passion point us in the direction of the Resurrection. “For us, our homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes the Saviour we are waiting for, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of His glorious body. He will do that by the same power with which He can subdue the whole universe”.

The promise of the Resurrection gives us a footing to stand firm in Christ. However, when faced with trials, we cave in to despair. When we feel that road we have taken leads nowhere, we are broken. But the voice that reached out to the Disciples is the assurance we need. “Listen to Him”. He who has travelled the rocky road grants us the guarantee that when we follow Him to Calvary, we will not end in defeat but victory.

The grace we desire is that momentary glimpse into a future of possibilities. It is a glance into eternity which we sorely need especially when we feel as if the weight of the world is on our shoulders and we are unable to cope. At time, it is in a situation between life and death that we catch a glimpse of eternity. These are the near-death experiences that grant a person the realisation of the futility of life and all its attendant achievements. “What gains a man the whole day but loses his soul”.

Furthermore, Jesus went up the mountain to pray. The height grants Him a perspective. Essentially, it is through prayer that one catches the fleeting shadow of God’s presence. Every Thursday the Cathedral provides the opportunity to encounter the Lord through silent Adoration. Sometimes, a retreat too. Or maybe a pilgrimage or a talk that one attends. All these are basically experiences that might allow us to catch God at work. Thankfully, we are one of the pilgrim’s centres. It gives us the possibility to encounter Christ during this year of hope. As we continue with our Lenten journey, may we experience many transfiguring events to strengthen our hope and to grant us the confidence for the life to come and the longing to reach heaven.