Homily: March 17, 2022, Thursday of the Second Week of Lent

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 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green.”

The biggest tree in our family farm is a tree growing just beside the creek. It should be more than 100 years old now. My siblings and I have a lot of memories around this tree. It is always green, even in the hot summer. And its huge crown provides much shade to needy plants and people. I have taken shelter under this tree on many occasions during heavy rain. It also protects the cardamom plants around it from the harsh heat of the sun. There was a rock in the creek on which my mummy used to wash our clothes under the shade of this big and strong tree. The river feeds this tree while it serves others.

The saints are like that, they stay close to God, feeding on His words. They are strong spiritually because they receive abundant graces from God through the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist. Their lives are not without struggles yet they are happy despite their challenging circumstances. They serve others with joy and make people around them happy too. Like the big tree beside the creek.

The purpose of our existence is not to live and die for ourselves. We draw strength from God to serve others, just as our Lord did. Let us not be like the rich man in today’s Gospel. Let us live close to Jesus and love like Him. Amen.


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Homily: February 12-2024, Monday of the sixth week in Ordinary time (Preserverenace)

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“Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” A good friend of mine battled with addiction to drugs and alcohol for many years. Finally, he was able to give up his destructive habits and began walking with the Lord. Was it all smooth and easy? No. He faced many other struggles in his new life. Often, he was tempted to go back to his old ways, with thoughts that his life with drugs and alcohol was more carefree. He knew it was a lie. He then began to involve himself in various ministries in his parish church to serve the Lord. Was it all smooth and easy then? No. He experienced many disagreements and arguments within the ministries. Why is it that serving God seemed to make life more difficult? Shouldn’t we be rewarded with a good and easy life? If we look at Abraham, we see that he had to go through many trials and challenges in obeying God’s call. He did not have it easy. The apostl...
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Homily: September 3, 2025, Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time (Healing Hands)

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Holy Family School Mass Homily.   “At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.” In today’s Gospel, we hear about Jesus healing many people with different diseases. The passage begins with the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, who was very sick in bed with a very high fever. She was not merely resting, in fact her fever was so bad that she was unable to get out of bed. I am guessing it could be 103 or 104 degrees! Normally, if we get such a high fever, it would take us days to recover with strong medication. But when Jesus visited Peter’s mother-in-law, He simply stood over her, rebuked the fever, that means He scolded the fever, and it left her!  Instantly, she was well again and was able to get up and serve Jesus and His disciples. Wow! Jesus is the King of the Universe, He has power over everything in the world, if you would only believe in Him and trust Him. Even today, Jesus continues ...
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Homily: September 8, 2025, Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Geneology)

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 “Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.” And so on. The list of Jesus’ ancestors goes on. When I looked at today’s Gospel, I initially thought of skipping the genealogy of Jesus and use the shorter option. But I thought again, and I decided on the long version, proclaiming fully the genealogy of Jesus. Why? Back in March, one of my nieces turned 15. As an uncle, I would always ask my nieces and nephews what they would like for their birthdays, so I asked her. She replied, “Uncle, pay $125 for me to do an ancestry test. My dad’s family says his ancestors came from Persia, and I want to know if it’s true.” I agreed. That’s an interesting birthday gift. When the results came back, it showed she was about 3% Persian. A few weeks later, she asked me for another favor. “Uncle, I need you to do the test too, so I can see the picture of my family from mom’s side.” She was so serious about it and kept reminding me every da...
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March 1, 2025: First Holy Communion Homily: St. Joseph's Catholic Church Seffner, Florida

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Did you listen attentively to the Gospel reading? Yes? Let me test you… What did Jesus say? Did He say, “Whoever eats my bread and drinks my wine?”  No! He said, “Whoever eats my FLESH and drinks my BLOOD remains in me and I in him.” Yes, when you receive Holy Communion, you are receiving the real flesh and blood of Jesus. I am sure Fr. Roy, your catechists, parents and the whole parish community have prepared you well for this day, so you know what you are receiving today. But what I want to focus on now is the last part where Jesus says, ‘remains in me and I in him’. 29 years ago in 1996, I received my First Holy Communion. I was eight years old, but I still remember that day vividly. I remember the preparations, my First Reconciliation, and the excitement I felt when I lined up to receive Jesus for the very first time. I remember seeing the priest dipping the Precious Body into the Precious Blood, and then that precious moment – Jesus’ body and blood rested on my tongue. So swee...
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Homily: March 3, 2024, Third sunday in Lent (Foolishness of God)

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 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” Could God ever be foolish? Is God ever weak? Recently, I've been listening to a podcast by a man who converted from Hinduism to Christianity. Interestingly, he became interested in the Christian faith after reading Hindu sacred scriptures. The Rig Veda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, and Atharvaveda, are Hindu sacred writings in Sanskrit from around 3500 years ago. What he found in these ancient writings were consistent references to a divine savior who would come into the world and die on a cross. Convinced that those prophecies were pointing to Jesus, he began fervently preaching about Jesus the Savior of the world, in the context of Hindu scriptures, until his passing. Growing up in a predominantly Hindu country, I always enjoyed narratives of Hindu deities, especially epic stories from the history of Hinduism. I admired their invincible power, repeated victories in battles, ...
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Homily: August 30, 2025, Saturday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Work Hard)

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 “Aspire to live a tranquil life, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.”  This is exactly what I desire for my own life, a tranquil, serene, peaceful life. And I believe many of us long for the same too. St. Paul repeatedly encourages the Christian community to live in peace, to engage in meaningful work, and to live in harmony with one another, respecting a healthy privacy and space for others. One common misunderstanding among the early Christians was about the Second Coming of Christ. Many believed that Christ’s return was imminent, so close that it would happen within their lifetime. Because of this anticipation, some thought that working to upkeep livelihood or planning for their children’s future were pointless. And in some sense, it is practical. If you knew that everything you are working for would soon be useless, that your life would be totally transformed and all your property would be valueless, would you still work? Work ...
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Homily: Thursday, February 10, 2022, Memorial of Saint Scholastica

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 Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021022.cfm Yesterday’s first reading, we heard about King Solomon’s profound wisdom and great riches. Today, we read about his foolishness in turning away from God. It makes us wonder, how could someone so wise become so foolish? Today’s gospel story is very interesting. A Syrophoenician woman, who was non-Jew, had enough faith to asked Jesus for help. And when our Lord tested her with a sarcastic reply, her response showed not just faith, but wisdom. “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” This reminds me of the former president of India, KR Narayanan. In India, among the Hindus there is a caste system. Everyone is born into a caste and stays in it forever. Narayanan’s family was from the lowest caste, considered the ‘untouchables’. So, others despised them. When he was young, his parents had no money to pay the school fees. As penalty, the teachers would send him out of the classroom. But he was very ...
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Homily: September 10,2025, Wednesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time (Thoughts)

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 “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” We might have heard of this phrase: “What you think, that you become.” This quote has often been attributed to Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, and I think there is a lot of truth in it. If you are constantly or regularly thinking about a certain thing, you will over time gravitate towards it, and bring it to reality, either in accomplishment or in imitation. There is a story about Napoleon Bonaparte. Once, he went to a palm reader and asked him to read the lines on his hand to foretell his life in the future. The palm reader told him the regular usual stuff, but Napoleon wanted to know something more important, he interrupted and asked: “Do you see any possibility that I could become a king?” The palm reader replied, “No. Every king has a special line on his palm, but you don’t have it.” Napoleon immediately took a knife, cut his palm, and drew out that special line in his palm for himself. The palm reader then said, “Yes, you wi...
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Homily: September 9, 2025, Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time (Pray)

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“Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.” What a perfect example for us to follow! Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, prayed. He who is God the Son, prayed to God the Father. He spent the whole night in prayer before choosing His disciples. In His divinity, Jesus already knew the Father’s will. Yet in His humanity, He is just like us. He needed to spend time with His Father, to pray and to discern to be aligned with God’s will. Jesus shows us a powerful example: we too must pray before making important decisions, to ask God what His will is for us. Sometimes, when we act without consulting Him, we may find ourselves going against His will or going a wrong long way before reaching which lead us through unnecessary suffering or other unbearable consequences. So bring your plans to Jesus, tell Him your hopes, your preferences, your wishes, and He will bless you with the wisdom to choose wise and right. But what if we prayed, heard, followed a...
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Homily: June7, 2023, Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Pray Hardest).

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 Grief-stricken in spirit, I, Tobit, groaned and wept aloud. Then with sobs I began to pray… We continue our reflections from the book of Tobit. In the first part of today’s first reading, we see how Tobit was ‘grief-stricken in spirit’ – he was devastated and desperate! His life saw misfortunes one after another, while he continued to keep faithful to God. But there is just so much a human person can withstand, so he took it to prayer, with groans and sobs, but if you read carefully his prayer, there was no complaints or anger against God. Only total surrender and giving up his life totally to the Lord. Then we read on to Sarah’s life. What a miserable life she had, losing one husband after another, seven times, all on the wedding nights. She was cursed indeed by the demon and ridiculed by others, she was helpless and depressed. What could she do? We see in the reading, “At that time, then, she spread out her hands, and facing the window, poured out her prayer…” She could take her...
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