Homilies (Page 55)

Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-18 Rise up and Proclaim Peace and Joy: You are God’s messenger, who counts his blessings! One day, a man was sitting between two ladies in a taxi. The lady to his right was very beautiful, the one to his left very ugly. Each time the taxi driver negotiates a bend and this man tilts towards the beautiful lady to his right, he yells out: oh Lord, do not lead us into temptation; but when the taxi tilts him towards the ugly lady, he cries: oh Lord, deliver us from evil! Christmas brings a good tiding – everybody is aRead More →

Isaiah 9:1-6; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14 “A Son is given to us . . . Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6) At last, the day has come; another Christmas is here! We who hoped and prepared for Christmas this Advent; the arrival of Christmas manifests the fulfilment of hope: “a Son is given.” For those who hoped for Christmas 2015, and who have gone to the Father’s house, their hope is fulfilled because they are in the Father’s house, where they see Immanuel face to face. “A Son is given to us” is unlike any other child: he is God among us – Immanuel! The distanceRead More →

Micah 5:2-5a; Hebrews 5:5-10; Luke 1:39-45 When God visits, there is salvation, there is Happiness There was 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 week before Christmas,Read More →

Zephaniah 3:14-18a; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18 Rejoice! Why? because there is a solution to human Unhappiness – Jesus Christ!   A young girl went to her mother to ask her about the origin of human beings. Her mother said to her, my daughter, we are all descended from Adam and Eve: they were our first parents. Not very satisfied with the response she got, she went over to her father to ask him the same question: Dad, where did human beings originate from, she said. Her father responded: we are a production of evolution, we evolved from apes and monkeys, they were out first parents. MoreRead More →

Baruch 5:1-9; Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6 Original Blessing: God’s Mission to Create the Hope of Salvation needs You and Me There was a Catholic couple who were married for ten years but could not have kids. They sought medical help, still their barrenness continued. One day, it was announced at Mass that their pastor was going to Rome for studies. So, they came to request of him to light a candle for them when he gets to Rome, so that they may have kids. The priest promised to do that, and true to his promise, he lighted a candle at the intention of theRead More →

Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2; Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 Creative Fidelity for a Season of Hope (Advent): Our God is Faithful to his Promises, What about Us? 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; the worshipRead More →

Daniel 7:13-14; Revelation 1:5-8; John 18:33b-37 Our God Reigns: Let us Reign with Him in Truth! One 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 shake hands with parishioners, when he noticed a man whom he doesn’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: IRead More →

Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-14, 18; Mark 13:24-32 The Lord is my Judge: He will take me to Heaven with Him Someday! There was a lovely couple, very pious, very dedicated to God. Unfortunately, the woman died before her husband and went to heaven. St. Peter welcomed her to heaven because she was a good lady upon the earth. As we know, Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter: it is his job to welcome souls to heaven. So, St. Peter made her his assistant in heaven: when he goes on coffee break, she takes over the work of welcoming souls to heaven, afterRead More →

1 Kings 17:10-17; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44 My God is Alive – I will give him my Widow’s Mite, my whole Life! Late Fr. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor said that each time one meets an Irish who needs to defend his Irish identity, such an Irish person must be living outside of Ireland. Analogously, to have a prophet whose name is Elijah: EL (God) – i (my) – Jah (Yahweh) – “my God is Yahweh,” there must be people or situations that contest the kind of God or the name of the God he worshipped. After his marriage to Jezebel (1 Kings 17:31-34), king Ahab became aRead More →