Homilies (Page 15)

From Junk Food to Junk Life – Changing Course through the Holy Spirit Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21 In our world today, everything is up for sale and everything is up for grabs, including human lives, and it is fast grabbing the human soul too. The power that rules the world is money, not even religion is free from its shackles. To be on sale is to have a dollar sign attached to everything. In fact, everyone is a potential seller and buyer, it just depends on what commodity is in question. Better still, trade by barter is back – everything isRead More →

He Disappeared that I May Appear: The Era of Christianity Acts 6:1-7; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12 Quite often, the meaning of Christianity is misunderstood. The surest guide to the meaning of Christianity is to return to the origins and originator of Christianity. This simply means that the meaning of Christianity is indissociably tied to its past in such a way that the past must be made present by every generation. Put differently, there is no past, if there must be Christianity. In this connection, to have a past is to dislocate the present from the past. Christianity is not a theory but actions andRead More →

Killing the Terrorist Within! Luke 24:13-35 Our gospel reading today is multi-layered. We can read off hope in its narratives; deep fear is on its surface; joy and trust conclude the ordeals it narrates. It is, indeed, a gospel—good news—because of its happy ending. Its plot is very common place and routine. The admixture of fears, joys and laughters are human experiences that resonate with us all. But there is a difference in our gospel, it is a broken relationship, dashed hope, and dreams short-lived. It is not a déjà vu, it is a “jamais vu”—never seen before. Yet, not a fairytale, it is aRead More →

“Passion Sunday”: Why Suffering is Christian! Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Mt 26:14—27:66 Today, a name matters. Our Sunday is called “Passion Sunday” to teach us that suffering is Christian and normal/natural. In order to tell us the importance of “Passion,” we read a “Passion Narrative,” the story of the suffering, betrayal and agony of Jesus. In fact, all three readings of today qualify as “Passion Narratives”. In our first reading, we read the agony of Jesus in the prophecy of Isaiah, how the Messiah’s beard becomes an instrument of torture; his face, a toilet for spittle; and his back, a punching bag. Imagine when yourRead More →

Grace or Resurrection from Sin Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-42 Quite often, the knowledge of our faith does not help us to weather the storms of temptations and trials. For example, how often do we remember the meaning of “grace,” which we learnt in our Catechism classes – “Grace is the supernatural gift of God which makes us believe that God will do everything for our justification and salvation.” Today, all I hear is how “rapture” is fast approaching, how everybody is so bad that hell of fire is over crowded. Where is the power of God’s grace in all these pieces of badRead More →

Laetare/Happiness Sunday, because we’re God’s children! 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41 Few days ago, I received a video clip about a famous French fortune teller and seer. A French journalist went to interview him, and this is what transpired: Journalist: sir, is it true that you can predict the things that will happen in the future? Seer: Yes, sir, I can predict the future with 100% accuracy. Journalist: The journalist gave him a dirty slap and asked him: did you see this slap coming? Seer: writhing in pain, the seer did not respond. Quite often, it is difficult to understand God’s doingsRead More →

“Is the Lord among us?” Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-8; John 4:5-42. “Is the Lord among us?” remains a pertinent question for every authentic Christian, given the economic and financial drama unfolding globally; but particularly for those individual Christians who pray hard everyday for God to intervene in the moral decay of our times, and all those who long for a new lease of life to be infused into Christianity and Christian practices. In fact, a new Pentecost is what is longed for and needed. “Is the Lord among us?” is the cry of hungry Israelites on their way to the Promised Land. Physical and materialRead More →

Your Citizenship: Don’t Lose it! Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:28b-36 For those of us who travel often, international Passports are not equally respected. For once, black is powerful, perhaps Africans should be proud of this, because it shows that Caucasians are not a bunch of racists – their passports are largely black, and respected; how Africans and Asians end up with greenish and reddish international passports is a tale for another day. The power of black passports derive from human contrivances, and history shows that their powers have fluctuated with good and bad fortunes. The issue, though, is that earthly citizenships have setRead More →

Stop Tempting Temptation: Turning our Temptations into Strengths Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11 When I listen to homilies, these days, the emphasis on the damnation of sinners tromps that on the salvation of sinners; but then, Jesus didn’t come to condemn sinners, he came to save sinners. When “prosperity gospel” is not preached, on a Sunday, “end times prediction” is the next viable topic of interest among evangelists and prophets, but that topic didn’t preoccupy Jesus during his earthly ministry. All in all, one gets the urgency of repentance and the acute ascendancy of sin in the world, painted in the most apocalypticRead More →