Homilies (Page 35)

Wisdom means Planning with God! Wisdom 9:13-18b; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33  In today’s gospel, Jesus could not possibility be praising the calculus of war, as if the death of anyone leaves him indifferent; neither is God happy when family conflicts ensue nor does he rejoice over those who lose their homes to foreclosure for lack of proper planning. The interest of Jesus is somewhere else, albeit, through the use of parables clothed in the vocabulary of family discord, warfare and architectural designs. The interest of Jesus is to address the reasons for the problems of warfare, industrial complexes and family disagreements. If human calculusRead More →

Be of Good Cheer: The Gate of Heaven is not Narrow Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30 Make no mistake about it, the gate to life, to the kingdom of God, is not narrow! Am I challenging the gospel reading of today? Not at all! I am simply saying that adages and idiomatic expressions have more connotations than the denotations of the words in which they are crafted. Jesus’ admonition, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate,” leaves open the question of what and who make the “gate narrow”. Our common life experiences show that “gates” are made in the dimension and to theRead More →

Beyond Forgiveness and Love of Enemies, to Create a Family of God Jeremiah 34:4-6, 8-10; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53 Hate and hatred send shock waves down the spine, but that is good because they make us sweat out our salvation – the role of enmity in salvation. After all, a lot of people spend time and money at the gymnasium just to sweat and burn up calories. Our enemies keep us on our toes, and we do our best to be, at least, one-step ahead of them. If there is division and enmity among us, as the gospel reading suggests, there must be a solutionRead More →

Investing in God, when Almsgiving is the daily Premium! Wisdom 18:6-9; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19; Lk 12:32-48 Our gospel reading talks about business acumen as a transferable skill for acquiring the kingdom of heaven. A direct connection is made between the dexterity for making earthly wealth and the strategy for possessing the kingdom of heaven: “Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys” (Luke 12:33). The survival skills we use on earth, through which we provide for the financial and material needs of our dependents and ourRead More →

Learning Something from Injustice, Less we Accuse God Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23; Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13-21. The cry against injustices can be heard all around us. The rich and poor alike complain about being recipients of injustices. Today’s readings interestingly do not spare God from the criticism of being unjust. When one goes to God, as the gospel parable of today puts it, and there was no justice according to the desire of the man asking for it, God finds himself in the dock, having to defend himself from human conception of justice. Even beyond the narrative of the gospel of today, many human beingsRead More →

Becoming God’s Friend in Order to become an Intercessor Genesis 18:20-32; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13 Characteristics of friendship include the ability to talk to each other frankly, support each other mutually and have a relatively good understanding of each other, at least, each other’s likes and dislikes. One is lucky to find a friend, these days, that satisfies these criteria because of the  overwhelming presence of mutually exclusive and antagonistic interests or conflict of interests in people. Most people prefer to act solo, so as to cover their tracks, and so pass themselves as holier-than-thou. In fact, the eleventh commandment – thou shall not beRead More →

Hospitality: The Risk of Loving  Genesis 18:1-10a; Colossians 1:24-28; Luke 10:38-42 The world in which Abraham and Martha lived must be very different from ours! Three strangers walking together and Abraham runs to them and invites them to come and eat in his house: who does that today? Instead, we teach our children to call the police! According to the gospel of today, Jesus enters a village and a woman, Martha, welcomes him to her home: really, a stranger in a village who gets free lunch – is Martha running a restaurant because restaurant owners are those who seek out customers? Besides the outmoded behaviorsRead More →

A Common Humanity, Less we Forget Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37 Come to think of it, Jesus who never had a track record of university or formal education teaches a lawyer, who should know better, “who is my neighbor?” It is good to know that today’s gospel opens with the caveat “to test him” (Luke 10:25). Clearly, the lawyer makes academic formation distinctive from life formation. As a lawyer, he was educated and placed on a social pedestal higher than others, and he fails to see what makes him the same with others, but comes to “test” Jesus’ level of education and intelligence. ItRead More →

Finding Happiness in Suffering, in Order to Create a New World! Isaiah 66:10-14c; Gal 6:14-18, Lk 10:1-12, 17-20 Happiness is in short supply these days, going by the rate of suicides, gun violence, wars and starvation. It seems that the cares of this world have eroded our happiness. Poor leadership compounds an already complex situation and the media spell doomsday for our times. In these situations, the readings of this Sunday provide us with an optimistic outlook on life, the purview of hope for a better tomorrow; a tomorrow to be shaped both by God and human beings. We need our happiness back! To situateRead More →