When the Purple turns Red

After 5 weeks of preparation, now the Holy week comes again..


With the same message every year...

Holy Week begins with the sixth Sunday in Lent.  This Sunday observes the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem that was marked by the crowds who were in Jerusalem for Passover waving palm branches and proclaiming him as the messianic king. The Gospels tell us that Jesus rode into the city on a donkey, enacting the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, and in so doing emphasized the humility that was to characterize the Kingdom he proclaimed. The irony of his acceptance as the new Davidic King (Mark 11:10) by the crowds who would only five days later cry for his execution should be a sobering reminder of the human tendency to want God on our own terms.

Traditionally, worshippers enact the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem by the waving of palm branches and singing songs of celebration. Sometimes this is accompanied by a processional into the church.  In many churches, children are an integral part of this service since they enjoy processions and activity as a part of worship. This provides a good opportunity to involve them in the worship life of the community of Faith. In many more liturgical churches, children are encouraged to craft palm leaves that were used for the Sunday processional into crosses to help make the connection between the celebration of Palm Sunday and the impending events of Holy Week.


From the usual color of lent which is purple..


The color of the church will now turn into RED.


Red symbolizes the blood of Jesus.


The blood that shed for us..
The blood that He offers for us..
The blood that saves us..
The blood that symbolize His unending love for us, His sacrifice for our salvation.


Let us make this week meaningful, and be thankful to the Lord, for all things He has done for us.




Tomorrow, as we remember the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
.


Let us pray for each other and let Jesus enters your heart triumphantly.


May Your life be truly Blessed,

Ash

The Choice of LOVE

Matthew 5:38-48




If you read that part of the gospel, that is the part where most of us do not want to read.
This is the part where we want to skip. Why? because the Lord is telling us a command that is very hard for us to obey.


But on that part of the gospel, there we can measure how far and how deep we are as a Christian? 


To love a person that is lovable, that is easy.
To like a person who has a qualities that you like, that is easy.
everybody can do this things.


Jesus is telling us that being a Christian does not depend on this;
That you love those people who loves you.


Jesus wants to say, you are unique from others, you are my follower because you learn as a Christian to love your enemy.


that is a very hard thing to do.


To love a person who hurts you,
To pray for a person who persecutes you
that is what God is asking for us. but that is not an easy thing to do.




What if, suddenly there was person who spreading a rumour about you and tells everybody that you are doing a bad things? 
What if that person is one of your friends?
What if that person is the one you never imagine to back stab you?
What will you do?


That is the moment, when we feel good hit a person with full forced punch on his/her face.
That is the moment when we feel good to take revenge. You can do all of these.


But the Lord is telling us,
The one who is being hurt,
A Christian who is truly my follower, at a moment when he/she was hurt, it is not his/her right to take a revenge. 


It can be his choice. 
But the other choice is the choice of Christ.
In a natural way, human would choose to take revenge.
A choice that one can make is to say, a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye.


Today God tells us, you want to be my follower? 
Choose the way I have chosen.
The choice of Love.

It is easy to forgive a person who hurts you, but to forgive and to love him also that is so hard.
But Christ is telling us today, that is My way.
That is the Christian way.
That is a choice a follower of Christ must make.


Pray for that person who hurts you,
talk to him, and ask to the Lord to bless that person.
ask to the Lord that his mind may be enlightened.
ask also that both of you must learn how to be humble and to admit your own weaknesses.
So that you can both move forward.


These are choices that a Christian must make, in a world where violence is the name of the game.


The world says, Take revenge.


But Christ says, What will make you different from the rest of the pagan world if you only love those who loves you?


Today, we ask the Lord for that great gift.
No wonder He said, Be perfected as your heavenly Father is perfect.


When it reach to the point that a person can not only forgive but to love also, you have become like your Father in heaven, who makes the rain to fall both on the just and the unjust.


We ask for that grace, it is a very special one.
It is a grace that makes John Paul II reach out to the one who almost kill him and say, I forgive and I pray for you.


It is what we dream to have one day in our hearts.










May your life be truly blessed,


Ash










(inspired by Fr. Mar)