Homilies (Page 22)

Visitation Sunday: When God visits, there is salvation, there is Happiness Micah 5:2-5a; Hebrews 5:5-10; Luke 1:39-45 There is a family of five, mother, father, two sons and a daughter. This family does its best to remain a loving and caring family. Every Christmas, everybody returns home for a family celebration. As time went on, all three children went to college far away from home, but Christmas remains a home-coming event for them. One Christmas vacation, however, each of the children called their Dad to announce that they were not coming home for Christmas. You can imagine the sadness of their parents. So, a weekRead More →

Happiness Sunday or Gaudete Sunday Zephaniah 3:14-18a; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-11 No one knows how and when it will come to an end, but it started in Heaven, and it continues on earth — rebellion! The very first rebellion is that against God; Lucifer started it. He rejected God’s leadership, he separated himself from God in a secession. Michael stood up to Lucifer and got him expelled from Heaven to earth. On earth, human beings have invented all kinds of political systems for themselves except the one God designed for them — Theonarchy “leadership by God”. From all generations human beings have  rebelled against it,Read More →

Cooperation Sunday Baruch 5:1-9; Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6 On every side we look, all we see is cooperation. In our first reading, Baruch cooperates with Jeremiah as his secretary (Jeremiah 36:4, 32); in our gospel, Luke serves as the chronicler of Jesus’ life and John-the-Baptist prepares the way for the Savior; in the second reading, Paul cooperates with the Philippians in the work of salvation. The fact that there are many of us on earth, instead of one person, makes it clear that God wants all people to cooperate with one another; otherwise, God would have created just one person. What is clear aboutRead More →

God: A Promise Keeper  Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2; Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 What is certain about the prophecy of Jeremiah is the message of hope he preaches in an apparently hopeless situation – the perennial nature of Israel’s infidelity to God. Israel makes covenants with God only to break them. What was predictable of Israel was its fidelity to infidelity to God. This track record is all invasive and pervasive in Jewish history: from the disobedience of Adam and Eve to the deluge as corrective for sin and infidelity; from the worship of the golden calf in the very heart of liberation from Egypt through theRead More →

Our God Reigns: Let us Reign with Him in Truth! Daniel 7:13-14; Revelation 1:5-8; John 18:33b-37 On Christ the King Sunday, a priest preached a sermon on the need for every Christian to join the regular army of the Lord, so that the kingdom of the Lord may expand upon earth. At the end of Mass, the priest was greeting and shaking hands with parishioners, when he noticed a man whom he didn’t see regularly at Mass; so he said to him: you need to join the Lord’s regular army. The man responded, I am already in the Lord’s army, Father. The priest protested: I onlyRead More →

Daniel’s and Michael’s Sunday (Immortality Sunday)  Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-14, 18; Mark 13:24-32 Avoid that temptation! There is a better way to understand what is happening. Our God is a God of positive surprises and he does not allow doomsday sayers carry the day—not in the past, not now and never in the future! Take consolation in this statement of Jesus: “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”. Indeed, in the past year or so, deaths have marked the whole world in a remarkable way, no thanks to the Coronavirus. HumanRead More →

Christianity or Yahweh’s Sunday  1 Kings 17:10-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mk 12:35-45 We are all murderers, unless we become prophets and stop the murderers! Her statement says it all; it was true then, and still remains true today. Who can afford not to be outraged by it and still claim to be a Christian? The statement of the widow of Zarephath is quite depressing, yet very real for many in our societies today. She says to the prophet Elijah, “just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shallRead More →

I am Called to be a Saint Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12a In a kindergarten class, taught by a nun (reverend sister), the nun asks the kids to indicate, by a show of hands, how many among them would like to go to heaven. All, but one little girl raised up their hands. Curious, the nun asks the little girl whose hand was not raised up: my daughter, why do you not want to go to heaven? She replies: my Mom, on dropping me off at school this morning, asked me to stay put at the end of school, so she mightRead More →

Memorial or Anniversary Sunday Deuteronomy 6:2-6; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 12:28b-34 Just pause and ask yourself, why celebrate birthdays, wedding anniversaries, death remembrances, Thanksgiving Day, War memorials, Independence Day, name it? Although these memorial/anniversary celebrations have become so common place, two reasons, at least, motivate them: they celebrate our past and chart the way for our future. In each one of us is the junction or meeting point between the past and the future—to either savor the good past in the present or transform the bad past into good present and better future. More often than not, it is a good foundation laid in the pastRead More →