Homilies (Page 28)

You are What you Do: Jesus is Savior because He Saves! Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28 There is an area of our lives where lying or lies telling is almost impossible – it is the area of human behavior: you are what you do, you are how you behave; the society has got names for different things people do, and for the different ways people behave. If you cultivate the land, you are a farmer or a gardener, etc. If you have a child as a man, you’re a father, and if you are a woman, you are a mother. IfRead More →

Immaculate Conception is Possible, When Grace meets Gabriel! Genesis 3:9-15, 20; Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12; Luke 1:26-38 For those of us who have experienced failure, those threatened by the reality of sin and weaknesses of all sorts, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception turns the meaning of failure into second and third chances. Every failure becomes a hope for a better tomorrow, a catalyst to get up everyday, dust oneself off, and get going. When life is seen as a chain of opportunities that present themselves as multiple seconds, minutes and days, then, we just don’t celebrate Mary’s Immaculate Conception alone, we also celebrate our ownRead More →

A God who Plans: Plan as He Plans Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8 “He who fails to plan, plans to fail,” goes the popular saying. In our contemporary capitalistic economies, planning is essential. Countries and companies that plan normally have better results than others. One area of planning is budgeting. Two areas of budgeting are essential for success in all kinds of planning: expected income and expenditure. It is true that the money built into a budget could be from borrowed money, anticipated earnings or cash in hand. All the same, budgeting keeps one focused, resolute and pro-active, where budgeting is wellRead More →

Sunday of Hope: All is Grace because of God! Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:33-37 Every single day, with the vicissitudes of light and darkness, dusk and dawn, change makes itself inevitable. The change that seems most perceptible to us is the ubiquity of sin, the inadequacies we notice in ourselves and the world around us. We seek for the just and the ideal, we rather experience iniquity; we attempt to work for a better society, a better tomorrow, yet our actions contribute to the wrongs we see, and not the good we desire. In a nutshell, humanity is broken, and itsRead More →

Christ the King or Destiny Sunday  Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17; 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28; Matthew 25:31-46 With many hospices and caregiving centers under a lot of stress because of COVID-19, some of them have weathered the storm, thanks to quality and professional caregivers working in them; many others are either closed or have suffered multiple backlash for poor care-delivery to their inmates. Hospitals have recorded their fair share of quality life-saving care, but many doctors and nurses have quit for fear of safety for themselves and their loved ones. These scenarios help us to understand the quality care our first reading speaks of today—it is aboutRead More →

Relationship Sunday Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; Matthew 25:14-30 Besides crying foul because of the association of this first reading with the exploitation of women, could one see something there other than exploitation? Is there some good news there that comes through the agency of women? A comparative analysis of the binary vocabulary of our first reading makes it a text on wisdom, the correlation between the human person and earthly social existence: she and her husband, she and her heart, good and evil, she and her life, her hands and the distaff, her fingers and the spindle, she and the poor, sheRead More →

Communion Sunday Wisdom 6:12-16; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13 In the history of humanity, American election is the most expensive, most protracted and most watched. Events of these past days have kept most Americans on their toes, watching anxiously for accuracy and validity of votes, searching for possible areas of litigation,  with conscientious reporting by journalists, spirited debates on air, in the streets and at homes around the election. Many Americans went from door to door to campaign for their political parties; the candidates themselves canvassed for votes by selling their manifestos. One has the sense of active participation by most Americans and non-Americans alike.Read More →

Heaven is our Home Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1–12a The double decapitations in France, the bloody October 20 in Nigeria and October 24 in Cameroon, and the many human lives that are needlessly lost around the world challenge us to think of a better place other than this world. All Saints’ Day provides this alternative for us: Heaven is our Home! There will be an end to the imperfections of this world and the hatred of human beings; and, the human yearning for perfect peace will be assuaged, in our new home—Heaven. Our first reading provides Christians suffering from Roman imperial persecutionsRead More →

Justice Sunday! Exodus 22:20-26; 1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10; Matthew 22:34-40 Going by happenings around the world—the riots and protests—in Nigeria and United States, there is a clear proof of anthropological poverty. The human person is left behind through human greed and debasement. The needless deaths, hunger and impunity oppressors visit on the poor is crying out to heaven for redress. Church and mosque attendances have become camouflages for religious piety, without social justice and equality to back it up. All these scenarios make this Sunday “Justice Sunday”!  Our first reading puts social justice on the front burner of today’s readings. Exodus 22:20-26 situates the meaning ofRead More →