Dear Friends in Christ,

Palm Sunday begins with a beautiful celebration of the crowds waving palms, voices raising in joy, chanting “Hosanna!” and Jesus being welcomed like a king. But suddenly, the same voices fade gradually as we begin the Passion narrative. These voices begin to chant “crucify him.” Such a sad betrayal that led Jesus to His suffering and death on the cross. This is not accidental. The Church wants us to face a hard truth: the distance between “Hosanna” and “Crucify Him” is not as far as we think. I would like us to meditate on five major points and listen to the words of the saints on the Passion of our Lord.

Dear Friends in Christ,

The readings of today speak about the restoration of life by God, especially when all hope is lost. In the first reading from the Book of Ezekiel 37:12–14, God promises to restore life to His people who feel hopeless and spiritually dead. This passage is part of the vision of the “valley of dry bones.” Ezekiel interpreted the word of encouragement from the Lord to the people, making them understand that they were still God’s chosen people even though they neglected God and His commands.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Lent and it is also called Laetare Sunday, a Sunday of joy in the middle of our Lenten journey. It is a Sunday when we take a break from Lent to see how far we have gone in the season of Lent and encourage ourselves that the journey to Easter is not too far anymore. In all three readings of today we are meant to understand that God sees differently than we do, and Jesus comes to open our eyes to see the things we cannot see.

God satisfies the deepest longing of the human heart from thirsting to satisfaction, trust and salvation.

On this third Sunday of Lent, three readings are beautifully connected. They all revolve around one powerful theme: thirst — physical thirst, spiritual thirst, and the thirst for salvation.

But deeper still, they reveal this truth: that God meets us in our dryness and brokenness, not to condemn us, but to give us living water.

This Sunday’s readings invite us on a journey — a journey of trust, transformation, and courage.

In Genesis 12:1–4, God tells Abram, “Go from your country… to the land that I will show you.” Abram makes this journey of over a thousand miles from Ur to Canaan without a map or details; he is given only a promise, and he sets out. That is faith.

The Season of Lent is a season of grace when through the tripartite holy practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we strive to climb and arrive at the glorious mountain of Easter, the season of renewal. The Lenten Season, which runs between Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper exclusive on Holy Thursday, has a double character, namely to prepare both catechumens and the faithful to celebrate the Paschal Mystery. The Catechumens, both with the Rite of Election and Scrutinies, and by catechesis, are prepared for the celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation; the faithful, ever more attentive to the Word of God and prayer, prepare themselves by Penance for the renewal of their Baptismal promises.

The Old Testament Theology was developed among the people of Israel to hold that one gets saved through fidelity to the law. The First Reading at the liturgy this weekend begins with this understanding. “If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you.” (Sirach15:15). This is understandable especially when one considers that with the exile, most of the important aspects of their culture and religion, with the fortunate exception of the law, were lost.

The Gospel passage this weekend is taken from the “Sermon on the Mount” that immediately follows Jesus’ proclamation of the Beatitudes, the ordinary and necessary precepts for a true Christian life. Here, Jesus used concrete images of light and salt to demonstrate that glorifying God is the purpose for which we are called and chosen to be His disciples and to be witnesses to the Gospel. Something is considered good only to the extent that it fulfills the purpose for which it exists.

The Bible is a story of two Covenants, the Old and the New Testaments. Each Covenant had its precepts and a process through which the precepts were handed down to the people who chose to be partners with God in a Covenant. In the Old Testament, Moses became the mediator through whom God gave the decalogue that codified the precepts of the Covenant, made God with the patriarchs, and renewed on Mount Sinai with the people of Israel who were on their way to the land promised them.

Since 2019, the Universal Church dedicates the third Sunday of every year to the celebration of the Word of God. This celebration is very apt in Year "A" of the liturgical calendar for two reasons. First, it is at this third weekend of Ordinary Time that the almost serial Gospel Readings from Matthew begin and continue throughout Ordinary Time of the liturgical year. It is also on the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year "A" that Matthew gives us an account of the beginning of the preaching part of the public ministry of Jesus.

During the Season of Advent when we prepared for the coming of Jesus at Christmas, we had two weekends when the Gospel passages focused on the person and mission of John the Baptist, the forebearer of Christ, who came to prepare Israel for the coming of the awaited Messiah. On Christmas Day, the Gospel passage for the Mass during the day, which was taken from the prologue of St. John’s Gospel, took a sudden break at some point to introduce John the Baptist and distinguish him from the Christ whose arrival John prepared Israel for.

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which we celebrate this weekend, brings to an end the Christmas Season. Next weekend we shall return to Ordinary Time when we shall be nourished with Readings for a few weeks before we begin the Season of Lent. The Baptism of the Lord, which signified the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus, emphasizes our identity as beloved Children of God, our mission being to share Christ’s light and the transformative power of our own Baptism through which we received adoption into the great family of God and the mandate to live out God’s love and justice in the world, acting as prophets and servants.

The Epiphany of the Lord is traditionally celebrated on January 6, but here in the United States it is moved to the First Sunday of the New Year as it is done in other countries. In the Feast of the Epiphany, we celebrate Jesus revealing Himself, not as a mere “King of the Jews,” but as Savior of the whole world. This is the story of the Magi, noble men who saw His sign and traveled from the east to arrive at His birth place in order to worship Him.