Homilies

On the Road to Jericho, I am a Samaritan: What about You? Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37 The book of “Deuteronomy,” from where our first reading is taken, means “second law.” In other words, the Law of the Lord was either  forgotten or abandoned, which warranted the need to revamp it. You know what, it is high time we, too, revamped the laws of the Lord in our lives today. If that Law stood our ancestors in good stead in the past, it can do the same for us today who are faced with genocides, gun violence, abortion, etc. Laws normally get negative pressRead More →

Let the Real Me Appear: The Power of Reform Luke 10:1-12, 17-20; Galatians 6:14-18; Isaiah 66:10-14c Patience is a relation of reform. As the saying goes, “Rome was not built in a day,” even though what was done daily led to the building of Rome! The creation of personality and character, too, take very long, and perseverance leads to the desired goal and reward. “Let the real me appear: the power of reform” becomes a very urgent question given the readings of this Sunday. The question is: how does God create unity, so that humans may learn from him? Isaiah 66 reminds us of God’sRead More →

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 →

Unity: We are One because God is One! Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15 Ordinarily, I am not a stammerer, but tell me to explain the Holy Trinity to you, and I begin to stutter! Yet, one thing is sure: I believe it, and I profess it. Every Sunday and Solemnity, I profess anew: 1) that God is a Father and my Father, I say – “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.” 2) I also profess – “and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord.” 3) Still, I profess that “I believe in the Holy Spirit, theRead 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 →