Homilies

When We Break, We’re Broken; but he Broke First, so We’re Blessed!  Genesis 14:18-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11-17 Life is full of breaking and breakage! I am not talking about broken promises and marriages; I’m not thinking of broken economies and planetary break down; far from it! Rather, I am talking about breaking eggs to make omelet. Indeed, when we relish our omelet at breakfast, that was not the first breaking; when a chick breaks its shell, a new life begins in earnest; it begins in freedom, rather than in the confinement of an egg. Interestingly, this chick, when it hatches out, the roleRead More →

Times and Pentecost: The Continuous Intervention and Presence of the Holy Spirit in the World Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23 Why do we talk of 1900 or 2017 or 1960? Obviously time is the measure of human activities, and astronomical and galaxic movements help human beings to talk about times and seasons. This is not the case for a Christian. What is “time” for a Christian? “Time” is always in reference to Christ and the salvation he wrought for humanity. When a Christian talks of centuries and millennia, it is always in reference to the Christ event. Even within Scripture itself, timeRead More →

We’re God’s Intercessors Acts 7:55-60; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; John 17:20-26 Sin is a reality that needs no researchers to prove; it suffices to look at ourselves and realize that we too are sinners. This doesn’t mean that virtuous persons do not exist, but the presence of sin necessitates a new vocation, the vocation to become intercessors: those who spend their lives in prayer and penance for the salvation of the world. Monasticism has long shown us the need for people like that, not just the present day Charismatic intercessors. Today’s gospel provides us with two models of intercessors: visible and invisible. Jesus spent hisRead More →

Heaven is our Home, Jesus is our GPS Do not ask scientists about Heaven, because they do not know where to find it. Of all the places they have been able to locate, Heaven is not one of them. The closest they have come to Heaven is the statement, “Heaven doesn’t exist”. Come to think of it, how does science get its knowledge—by discovery! For instance, America didn’t exist, up until Christopher Columbus “discovered” it; River Niger didn’t exist before Mungo Park “discovered” it. My friends, beware of those who “discover things,” because they are yet to discover themselves! How can things only exist atRead More →

Let’s Talk About Peace Our world today cries out for peace, as if peace is not an edifice requiring everyone to participate in building it! While today’s gospel suggests the presence of the Holy Spirit as the recipe for peace, our first reading proposes the need for a center for peace, those who possess the Holy Spirit (the Apostles), to broker peace in the name of the Holy Spirit (the apostolic letter of peace which our first reading contains). Let us limit our reflection to today’s gospel. A literary exegesis, which we employ today, looks closely at the relationships created by the different verbs inRead More →

Report Card Sunday [Acts 14:21-27; Revelation 21:1-5a; John 13:31-33a, 34-35 It all depends! At the end of the elementary or secondary school term, some of us couldn’t wait to get home to report that we  either came first, second, or third in our class. The joy of a chicken that will be killed to celebrate our success animated us. Of course, returning home to face the music of either failure at the end of the school year or not being among the top 3 in our class dragged the feet of some of us. It really depends on the news we have to announce toRead More →

Vocation Sunday: A Call to Fidelity, NOT Celebrity  Acts 13:42-52; Revelation 7:9, 14b-17; John 10:27-30 If the resurrection saga of Jesus has stirred so much controversy because the Jews wanted to discredit it, this Sunday’s readings have decided to shift gears and attention. Instead of dwelling on Jewish opposition to the resurrection story, the search light is turned on how those who preach the resurrection should do their job: we move from opposition to witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus Christ as individual Christians. The fundamental question is how does one respond to opposition to what one stands for? Better put, how does one dealRead More →

From Philos to Agapē: “Do you love me? . . . . Follow me!” Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41; Revelation 5:11-14;  John 21:1-19 How normal is it for anyone to say, “I am glad because I am suffering?” Yet, that is what the apostles said in our first reading – “So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name” (Acts 5:41). This courage, and similar acts of valor, turn our minds to the real meaning of Christianity – a religion of the cross, the cross of Jesus Christ, the cross of aRead More →

Hope of Salvation Sunday Acts 5:12-16; Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19; John 20:19-31 A story was told of a man who died and went to Hell. While in Hell, he decided to review his life on earth to ascertain that he really deserved to be in Hell. In his retrospections, he consoled himself for being in Hell because he began to enumerate his sins to himself and his conclusion was that Hell was where he belonged, on account of his wrong doings on earth. However, he lifted up his gaze, and to his utmost surprise, he saw his pastor/parish priest in Hell. In his amazement heRead More →