Homily: January 13, 2022, Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

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Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011322.cfm 

“…It was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly…”

In yesterday’s gospel reading, Jesus told His disciples, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” 

Jesus’s mission is to preach the good news to everyone. He needs to enter as many villages are possible but now we see in today’s gospel, this is being challenged. Why?

After Jesus healed the leper, He told him, “…see that you tell no one anything”. Instead, he “went away and began to publicize the whole matter”. He disobeyed Jesus.

It is normal that someone who is healed of a terrible disease like leprosy, would be so full of joy and excitement that he wants to tell the whole world about it. It is not a bad thing, it is logical, right? But clearly, when we act out of our own will instead of following what the Lord tells us to, we may be blocking the work of God for greater things.

My parents tried to teach me what was written in the book of Samuel which we are reading from, these two weeks, ‘obedience is better than sacrifice’. I was the most disobedient child among my siblings.

On the way to our family farm, there were many trees with aerial roots hanging from the branches. I liked those long aerial roots and used to grab them to swing about when I went to the farm with my parents and siblings. It was really fun. I was in grade 2 probably. 

Mummy warned me many times that the roots might break, that I should stop swinging on them. I did not listen. I continued my swinging fun.

One day, it broke. And I fell right into a grove of plants like poison ivy. I itched all over terribly. A traditional Indian remedy is to use hair to rub on the itchy areas and then apply coconut oil. Thankfully, I have five sisters who had nice long hair. They all used their hair to rub all over me and then coated me with coconut oil. Do you think it worked?

Yes, it worked. Nature truly contains many miraculous secrets. These are passed down through tradition and sometimes cannot be explained by science or logic.

And my lesson was, disobedience can lead to a lot of troubles. Our pride and stubbornness can lead to a lot of spiritual troubles if we do not listen to the Lord but act according to our own logic.

God has given us free will and He continues to invite us to follow His will, not by compelling us but by teaching us. When we learn to align our will to His, we will not be spiritually troubled or anxious.

Steven Furtick said, “Great moves of God are usually preceded by simple acts of obedience.

Man says, “Show me and I will trust you.”

God says, “Trust me and I will show you.”


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Homily: February 27, 2022, Eight Sunday in the Ordinary Time

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For readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022722.cfm There were two brothers who lived debauched lives engaging in terrible deeds. They were notorious yet not at all ashamed. Then one brother died. The surviving brother asked the local pastor to preach at his brother’s funeral. The pastor, aware of the brothers’ background, was reluctant to do it. The brother then promised to donate a big sum of money to the church and begged the pastor to preach with a special request. “Father, in your homily, you just have to say that my brother was a saint.” The pastor thought about it and agreed. The funeral day came. The pastor began his homily, “The man laid in the casket was a rotter; he led a horrible and debauched life. He was truly rotten to the bone. But compared to his brother, he was a saint.” Saintly life or shoddy living – Would the priest at our own funeral have to be paid to tell a lie? It all depends on what kind of fruit we produce from the way we live. Usually, we cannot
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Homily: September 28, 2022 Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time (For children)

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Homily: July 12, 2022, Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time.

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Homily: September 26, 2022, Monday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time.

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We heard in the Gospel today: "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me." We all have been to grocery stores. You see shelves and shelves of everything you need, rows and rows of vegetables and meat, packed, weighed and priced in advance, so you can just pick up what you want.  Back in my childhood, there were no grocery stores in the local village. So to buy vegetables, we go to the vegetable market on Sundays. For meat, we go to the butcher. Every Saturday, they would slaughter a buffalo and sell the meat. Once, my mummy sent my brother and I to buy some meat from her regular butcher. We didn’t know how to choose the best meat but we thought, the butcher would help since he knew my parents very well. Instead, he cheated on us, and packed bad quality meat for us to bring home. Mummy was very upset. The butcher knew we went to buy on behalf of our mummy, his regular customer, but he did not respect that. When he
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Homily: March 23, 2022, Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent.

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 “However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.” This morning I did reconciliation for the Holy family school. For the children’s penance, I would usually ask them to recite one or two Hail Mary or Our Father prayers. Easy right? Yes, and yet, some of the students told me they do not know how to say the prayers or where to find these prayers. I was surprised the very first time I did reconciliation for children in this country, but now I realized it is a common situation here. I remember in my time, before receiving first communion, we had to memorize thirty-three Catholic prayers and recitations like the angelus, Hail Mary, all mysteries of the Holy Rosary, the ten commandments and so on. Anyone who could not recite from heart all these thirty-three items, will be denied receiving first communion. Till toda
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Homily: June 30, 2023, Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time.

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Homily: July 11, 2023, Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Namesake)

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Homily April 29, Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

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