Homilies (Page 51)

Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23; John 14:23-29 Freedom, not Conflict, opens the Door of Faith: Freedom as Love and Love as Reconciliation I once worked in a village called Mayerthorpe, in the Canadian province of Alberta. It was summer, 2009, at St. Agnes parish. One Sunday, during my homily, I observed a spectacle. At Mass, there was this young mother (name withheld), with two young daughters. It seemed her daughters intentionally took turns to run to the back of the church; and, each time that happened, their mother goes after the one behind the church to negotiate with her on why she should returnRead More →

Where is God, if not in His Human Agents: God works In Tandem With Human Beings! It was St. Thomas Aquinas who summarized the two movements of the human person as a “coming out from God (exire),” and a “returning back to God (redire).” This first missionary journey of every soul, coming out from God, resembles the description of Paul’s and Barnabas’ mission dedication and voyage (Acts 13:1-3); the Holy Spirit set them apart for this mission, which they accepted whole heartedly, and to which they gave their best. In fact, the decision of non-Christians to call them Christians, for the very first time (ActsRead More →

Acts 13:26-33; John 14:1-6 Jesus as the High-Point of Every Evangelization and Preaching Commenting on John the Baptist’s claim to be a “voice,” St. Augustine, rhetorically asks: what is the usefulness of a voice without words? By this, St. Augustine argues that the “Word,” Christ, makes a voice meaningful and useful. The same message is being put across to us today. If missionaries preach and evangelize, Jesus Christ is the center of the Christian message: we preach Christ. The central message of Paul today is the fulfillment of Psalm 2: “You are my Son; this day I have begotten you” (Acts 13:33). We have aRead More →

Acts 13:13-25; John 13:16-20 The Christ I see is my Neighbour The gospel of Matthew bases judgment on good deeds: whatever you deed to the least of these, you did to me (Matt 25:31-46). John’s gospel today comes close to that same reality: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me” (John 13:20). This is to say that walking down the street is Christ; living and sitting next to me is Christ; do I recognize him and treat him well everyday? Some sense of history, as Paul recounts itRead More →

Acts 12:24-13:5a; John 12:44-50 Fidelity makes us the Good Shepherd’s Sheep, and he, our Good Shepherd The first instance of a Christian’s adoption is the presence of the Holy Spirit in such a person (Gal 3:1-5; 4:4-7). To confirm this, Paul says no one can say Jesus is Lord except through the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3). It follows that Paul and Barnabas not only possess the Holy Spirit, but have been found worthy to be made preachers of the good news to others; so the Holy Spirit set them apart for this specific mission – evangelization of Jews and Gentiles. Furthermore,Read More →

Acts 11:19-25; John 10:22-30 “It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians”: Are you a Christian in Non-Christians’ Estimation? Today’s first reading speaks to the possible tragedy of a missionary and the conception of mission – when missionaries are seen as those sent to others and mission is considered as something done for others and not for oneself. Mission has a double transformative power – the transformation of the missionary and those who encounter the missionary or the recipients of missionaries. The statement that best describes this reality, from our first reading today, is – “it was in Antioch that the disciplesRead More →

Acts 11:1-18; John 10:11-18 “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold”: Jesus Calls me to be a Missionary For Liturgical Year C, from Easter to Pentecost, the first readings are taken from the Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke. Hidden in Luke’s Acts of the Apostles is a method called “promise and fulfillment” – Acts was written to prove that what God promised in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament. So, how does this help us to understand the readings of this week, from 4th Sunday to Saturday of the 4th week of Easter? Before we answerRead More →

Acts 13:42-52; Revelation 7:9, 14b-17; John 10:27-30 Called to Fidelity, NOT Success: Christ our Shepherd and Model If the resurrection saga of Jesus has stirred so much controversy because the Jews wanted to discredit it, this Sunday’s readings have decided to shift gears and attention. Instead of dwelling on Jewish opposition to the resurrection story, the search light is turned on how those who preach the resurrection should do their job: we move from opposition to witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus Christ as individual Christians. The fundamental question is how does one respond to opposition to what one stands for? Better put, how doesRead More →

Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41; Revelation 5:11-14;  John 21:1-19 “Do you love me? . . . . Follow me!” How normal is it for anyone to say, “I am glad because I am suffering?” Yet, that is what the apostles said in our first reading – “So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name” (Acts 5:41). This courage, and similar acts of valor, turn our minds to the real meaning of Christianity – a religion of the cross, the cross of Jesus Christ, the cross of a follower of Christ. QuiteRead More →