JESUS IS MY LORD AND MY GOD

Without the Resurrection, Christians would be the most hopeless of all people. The Resurrection stands out forever as the greatest. It doesn't demand intellectual acceptance, but more importantly, the element of FAITH.

Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in today's Gospel reading (JN 20: 19-31) is actually the second time He appeared to them after His resurrection.

Christ’s promise to “receive the Holy Spirit” (JN 19:22) is an affirmation of the Great Commission. When the Risen Lord breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples, He commissioned His mission to them. The apostles, then, received their commission to witness to the truth and be instruments of healing and forgiveness. The Holy Spirit accompanies us on our faith journey, just as He did for the disciples.

We have received both the commission and the Holy Spirit to do Christ’s works in transforming our faith into a living experience, “…do not be unbelieving, but believing,” (Jn. 20:27). Resurrection gives us emphasis to new life and rebirth. It requires our surrender to the Holy Spirit and to grow in Christian maturity and opens wide our hearts to the message of the Risen Lord.

A CELEBRATION OF VICTORY

This year, Ash Wednesday coincided with Valentine’s Day and Easter with April Fool’s Day. God willing, we will celebrate Lent and Easter again on Valentine’s Day and April Fool’s Day respectively, in the year 2029.

Today we can once again sing the “Halleluiah” that we have not sung all through Lent. “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad,” (Ps 118:24). The Lord has risen. He has risen, indeed. The crucifixion is a historical event; the resurrection is a faith event. “If Christ is not raised, your faith is in vain,” (1 Cor 15:17). Without the Resurrection there would be no Church and there would be no Christians. The Resurrection is everything for us Christians, and without it, we would be nothing. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said, “The Christian faith stands or falls with the truth of the testimony that Christ is risen from the dead.”

It is Easter. In the Catholic Church, Easter is a lengthy season at fifty days. In the next few weeks we will walk with the disciples who encountered the risen Lord, until his Ascension and then we will await the Holy Spirit’s coming at Pentecost. We have begun living the greatest mysteries of our Faith in the Sacred Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil) and will continue to do so through the Easter season. So why do we keep celebrating when those around us have moved on? We continue to celebrate because it is the highest, holiest, happiest and most important days of the year.

In this season, we shall deepen our understanding of this great mystery and truth of our faith in His resurrection. During this time, we should read and meditate on the 14 stories about Jesus’ resurrection in the four Gospels and on the various chapters of Scripture and the testimony of St. Paul to the Resurrection. We should also reflect on the daily Mass readings, which are related to the Resurrection. We can live the spirit of Easter in our homes by keeping lighted candles and simple decoration throughout the entire season. Make Easter the central aspect of prayer during this beautiful season. As we pray every day, we ask the Risen Lord continually to enter our lives to conquer sin. God in the resurrected Jesus, is living in us and He will strengthen our faith. Our lives will be full of joy as we allow ourselves to be pointed to the truth that He is risen and He is alive.

The Lord is truly risen to fill and inspire a new spirit and new meaning in our Christian lives. It has awakened a new purpose in us. Our lives have beauty now because He has risen and He lives in us always. We are Easter people - people of joy and people of hope, filled with the spirit of Alleluia, the Risen Lord.

As the sun rises in the East to begin a new day, may this Easter - the celebration of the Victory of the Lord - bring us all a new commitment to the Life of Jesus and to the life of our community. “We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song!” (St. John Paul II).

WISHING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A BLESSED AND JOYFUL EASTER!

KL ARCHDIOCESE CELEBRATED CHRISM MASS

On Wednesday, 21^st March 2018, the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur celebrated the Chrism Mass at the Church of St Ignatius, Petaling Jaya at 7.00pm. The presence of a large number of individual and families from the various parishes to celebrate together the Chrism Mass was an expression and gesture of solidarity with Bishops, priests, deacons and religious. There were also those who couldn’t make it in person, but instead viewed the live stream telecast on their electronic devices.

Archbishop Julian Leow celebrated the Mass with his deacons and priests, inviting them to reaffirm their commitment to the Church once again. It is one of the most significant moments for priests to come together recommitting and rededicating ourselves to our priestly ministry. Just as the laity renew their baptismal promises and their Christian commitment on Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday, priests and deacons renew their priestly commitment during the Chrism Mass, in order to obey our Archbishop and serve God’s people faithfully.

The Archbishop blessed the Oils (Oil of the Sick, Oil of Catechumens and Oil of Sacred Chrism) which will be used in the administration of sacraments throughout the year. These mixture of olive oil and balsam fragrance are symbols of richness and fullness of God’s grace and spiritual strength. These Oils are given the grace of the Sacraments to nurture our relationships with God.

In many Arch/Dioceses of the world, the Chrism Mass often takes place on Holy Thursday morning and after the celebration, the priests and deacons return to their respective parishes for Holy Thursday celebration in the evening. At some other Arch/Dioceses however, the Chrism Mass takes place days or weeks in advance, as travelling is inconvenient. For us, we have the Chrism Mass within a week before Holy Thursday, at the discretion of the Archbishop.

As preparation for this renewal and recommitment, priest from the Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese gathered for our monthly Recollection on 20 and 21 March 2018, where we were given input, reflections and prayers. It is a reminder for us to be of service to the Church and its people, and to be faithful stewards of God. During the Chrism Mass in the presence of the Archbishop and the people of God, priests and deacons renewed our dedication to Christ when we responded, “I AM.”

We united ourselves with one voice, promising to carry out Christ’s work in more effective ways, as we witness the Lord’s presence throughout our ministries. This response and renewal of commitment to our priestly ministry, is the same as when we were ordained. We believe that as the Lord began His good work in us, He will bring it to fulfilment, though us.

My dear parishioners, we are in the Holy Week, a very sacred time of the year and an important week for all Christians. Once again we are going to commemorate and remember the last week of Jesus’ life on this Earth, leading us to the great Easter celebration – the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. During this week, fix our minds and hearts on the final week of Jesus’ life - his betrayal, his trials, his suffering, his crucifixion and his death on the cross. This Holy Week, lets put aside our busy schedules and make time to read and pray the last two chapters from any of the four Gospels, in order to enact the suffering, passion and death of Jesus.

Blessings, healing, joy and peace await you and for your family this Easter. Let’s open ourselves to God, and turn our hearts and words into actions, so that it makes a difference in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

HAVE A WONDERFUL HOLY WEEK!

JESUS' PROCESSION INTO JERUSALEM

Today we celebrate Palm Sunday. It is a day that we look at the final week of Jesus ministry before He goes up to Calvary. In our celebration of Palm Sunday, the same crowds that had sung “Hosannas” would shout, “Crucify Him” on Good Friday.

Jesus knew that the end of his earthly ministry was near. It was time to do what he had come to do. He was ready to be obedient to God the Father, and to accomplish the purpose set out for Him.

Now, as we start Holy Week, it is time to decide once again to love God with all our hearts, and our neighbors as ourselves. We are given a chance to look at our lives and our relationship with God and become disciples of Jesus.

As we move to the most holy time of our Christian faith, take time to discern where Jesus is in our lives. If we are too far from Jesus, move a step closer to Him and make Him the center of our life.

Holy Week has begun – the most wonderful 7 days of the liturgical year, beginning with Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday) and ending with Easter Sunday (the Lord’s Resurrection).

Have a wonderful Holy Week!

AN EARTH-FRIENDLY LENT

We are drawing closer to Holy Week. It is a week where we place ourselves nearer to the suffering servant, Jesus Christ. His Life, Passion and Death will bridge us to Easter and the joy of resurrection. He willingly sacrificed His life to save us from sin. He paid the price to heal and liberate us. As St Peter says, “He was bearing our sins and live for uprightness; through his bruises, you have healed,” (1 Peter 2:24).

Lent is a time where we focus and reflect on repentance, and about giving up an item or two that we consider as sacrifice and penance. These past 5 weeks, we have been examining, reflecting, contemplating and practicing the Lenten observances – prayer, penance and almsgiving. These three pillars are for purification and strengthening of our love for God and our neighbours. The Lenten season encourages us to live our lives with humility and simplicity.

We need a praying life. Our prayer life connects us with Jesus Christ and helps us to stay connected to Him. We need to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). Fasting and penance purifies our hearts to live the value of the Gospel and to restore our broken lives. Almsgiving magnifies our concern for neighbours’ needs (Matt 25: 35-36) and it gives us an opportunity to see Christ in the poor, the suffering and dying, and embracing the 5Ls (lost, last, least, little and lonely).

The Holy Father in his recent encyclical, “On Care of Our Common Home (Laudato Si’) asked everyone around the world to “take good care of creation” and to care for our common home as “our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience,” (Paragraph 217).

The Church urges us to learn and practice earth care issues and take action that will honour Christ’s teachings about caring for creation. Thus, the Church  invites us to be stewards of God’s Creation and pray for the environment. We Christians, have a unique opportunity and responsibility to make efforts and be challenged to take action on the issues affecting the environment, especially on matters of water, energy, consumption and food. During this Lent, take time to reflect on creation and care, in order to bring greater Ecological harmony with all living creatures of God.

Few things we can give up, starting this Lent and for the rest of our lives, which will help the environment, include:

Ø  Reduce using plastic and paper bags but reusable shopping bags. Just keep few of them in your car.

Ø  Put a stop to receiving unwanted catalogues.

Ø  Cut down the amount of food we throw away.

Ø  Go green by using recycled and earth friendly materials. Teach our kids to reused and recycled products. 

Ø Send your recycled products to our parish and put them in the prepared containers. We collect them and the income goes to the poor. Just for your info, every month we gain RM200-400 from these products.

Each of us has a duty to care for God’s Creation. As Lent draws to a close with Holy Week around the corner, it is good for us to reflect and contemplate what we buy, what we waste, how we preserve and how we spend our time during Lent. These things impact the environment and us. It is also a way of preparing for Easter, celebrating a New Creation by glorifying the goodness of our Creator through our words and deeds.