Homilies (Page 2)

“Our citizenship is in Heaven”: Preserve 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 derives from human contrivances, and history shows that their powers have fluctuated with good and bad fortunes. The issue, though, is that earthly citizenshipsRead More →

Diet to Overcome Indifference Deuteronomy 26:4-10; Romans 10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13 The Lenten season calls us to fasting, almsgiving, and prayer—three perennial spiritual disciplines. However, in light of Pope Francis’ 2015 Lenten message, we are invited to expand our understanding of fasting as a means to overcome indifference. The Pope warns that “indifference to our neighbor and to God represents a real temptation for us Christians.” This indifference often stems from an attitude of exceptionalism, where individuals separate themselves from the struggles of others, believing that societal issues do not concern them directly. A Nigerian man, who had sent his two sons to the United StatesRead More →

A Journey to Acquire Immortality Joel 2:12-18; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 Life is a journey that starts in the maternal womb and ends in the womb of the earth, but with a guarantee of resurrection for the children of God. The journey of life takes two vehicles, the body and the soul. To keep the vehicle of the body going, we need to work and eat every day. To keep the wolf from the door, we study hard in school to obtain degrees, and our degrees obtain jobs that require hard work in order to be paid salaries and all forms of remunerations.Read More →

S-O-S Sunday! Sirach 27:4-7; 1 Corinthians 15:54-58; Luke 6:39-42 If ships in distress usually send out S-O-S (Save Our Ship) distress call, it is not a bad idea for Christians to send out Save-our-Souls distress call because the practice of Christianity is in distress and needs salvaging. The reality, though, is not the search for a rescue ship or a rescue holy Christian; on the contrary, sinful and weak Christians are the ones to redeem themselves alongside other bad Christians because no one is good but God alone! Three ironies go through each of the three readings of this Sunday and require close reading forRead More →

Walking out of the Cemetery to Live with God 1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-231 Corinthians 15:45-49; Luke 6:27-38 Driving by a cemetery with a friend, he said to me: “look over there, what do you see?” I replied, “that is a cemetery”; and he said to me, “they are dying to enter there”! The pun dawned on me that one needs to die to be an inmate of a cemetery – dying to get in, indeed! However, the challenge today, from our readings, is: how does one become a child of God? The answer is simple: dying to material life; that is, we needRead More →

Morality Sunday / Freedom-of-Choice Sunday (Between a Blessing and a Curse) Jeremiah 17:5-8; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20; Luke 6:17, 20-26 The prophet Jeremiah, in our first reading, presents a striking picture of human society—one that remains just as relevant today as it was 2,500 years ago. He categorizes people into two groups: those who bring blessings and those who manifest curses. In modern terms, we might say society is divided into good and bad citizens, faithful friends and traitors, the righteous and the unrighteous. This Sunday, God calls us to reflect on the ultimate consequences of our moral choices, the destinies of the unrighteous andRead More →

Sinners’ Sunday – The Vocation to Holiness of Life Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-22; Luke 5:1-11 Today is sinners’ Sunday because the Lord gives priority to the calling of sinners to become his prophets and messengers. Either in the Temple/Church or at one’s duty post, God calls us to become his prophets and messengers. God’s call of Isaiah and Peter does not exhaust locative examples God’s encounter. The New Testament provides others contexts where we meet God, like Jesus’ encounter with Matthew/Levi at the customs’ office, and Zaccheus’ sycamore climbing escapade. In a word, everybody is called by God wherever they are. The lessonRead More →

Not Loosers, but Consecrated: Celebrating who we are! Malachi 3:1-4; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40 Reflecting on my missionary experience in Cameroon, I recall a statement by late Archbishop André Wouking of Yaoundé. It was during his pastoral visit to St. Mark’s Parish, Biyem-Assi, Yaounde, and a woman asked him, in French: “Your Grace, why do you have bad priests?” Archbishop Wouking said, in reply: “it is what you, parents, sent to me that I returned to you; you sent me bad children to become priests, and now they are back to you as your priests”. He added, “the priests are the reflection of what theirRead More →

Happiness Sunday: Join to sustain it! Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-30; Luke 1:1-4; 14-21 This is good news at its peak, everywhere in the whole wide world – “Do not Weep! The Joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Many people are hurting religiously, spiritually, relationally, economically and politically. Religious fanatics have overrun the Middle East, Africa, Europe, North America and a vast swathes of Asia. Suicide boomers – god’s army – are readily available marauding human societies unleashing death sentences wherever they can. Spiritual exploitation of the rich and the poor alike continues on a daily basis in the nameRead More →