Homily: February 16, 2022, Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

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 Fro Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021622.cfm

St. James wrote, “Everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak”. Because many people are ‘quick to speak and slow to hear’.

People often ask me what are the challenges I face in my overseas ministry to USA. My first challenge is communicating. I have a strong Indian accent which made it hard for Americans to understand me. Because of this, I have always been the last one to laugh at American jokes. At times I don’t even know what I am laughing at.

Next, most people guessed that my other challenge is food, but no, it is not. Because I eat anything and everything, even when I do not know what I am eating, I will still enjoy.

The real second challenge for me is attending meetings. The meetings in USA are so dynamic! Many people have differing opinions and are eager to express themselves fully and quickly, but I wonder how many actually listened to others. Such meetings are a challenge for me because I prefer to listen slowly, take time to think then say what I thought.

Thankfully, our God is a patient, listening God. He never tires of hearing our long prayers, repeated over, and over. But do we also listen to Him?

In today’s gospel, it is the first time Jesus needed to work twice to complete a healing miracle, because this blind man lacked faith and confidence.

Jesus had to take him away from the crowd, away from the noise so that our Lord could connect with him personally in peace, because too much noise causes confusion for a blind person.

Jesus used spittle in this healing, to give the blind man a physical sensation, that was how he experienced the world. Yet he was only partially healed at first. He was slow to see, slow to trust.

But when he was finally fully healed, Jesus was the first person he saw, what a blessing!

God is always trying to reach out to us. When we are slow in hearing, He listens to us. When we are slow in seeing, He does not give up on us but continues to help us. Let us then try to better our hearing, seeing and trusting. Amen.




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

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“Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number.” This was the observation made by the author of today’s first reading, reporting about how St. Paul and companions went about preaching the good news, teaching the faith and building the church communities. If the same author were to be here today, looking at what is happening in the church communities now, how would he report? What would he say about the churches here? Churches are closing, religious vocations are decreasing, few people are sharing faith, young people in the families are not attending Mass, people are choosing churches that align with their ideologies not based on truth. It looks like the first 300 years in the history of the Church were the most glorious and productive. What happened thereafter? Why such a great difference? What is missing? What went wrong? Is this the same situation in churches around the world? Is there any hope that the church will grow again, in strength and spirit? Yes,
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