Homily: March 2, 2022, Ash Wednesday

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 Today begins another holy season of Lent. A time to turn away from sinful ways. To turn back to God.

Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are from dust. Unto dust we shall return. God looked at dust and loved. He gave dust His breathe of life. God looks at us and loves. He gives us His body, blood and spirit.

What can we give Him?

“Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart”. God doesn’t want anything from us, He wants us.

Live in God. Live with God. Live for God. In God’s ways.

When I first came to this country, I saw crowds packing the mega churches. Non-Catholic Christian churches. I was really fascinated. Our Catholic churches are hardly ever filled. I asked an elderly priest, “why?”

He replied, “Ours is a worship and sacrifice. Theirs is a show.” People like shows, performances, excitement.

The world says, “be heard, be seen, be known, and be successful.”

The Gospel says, “pray but don’t be heard, fast but don’t be seen, give but don’t be known, and be faithful.”

That is how God is, unseen, hidden, working in secret. That is why the world doubts, “where is their God?” they question.

But God sees. He sees each of us. He sees in secret. He sees what’s real. Our hearts matter to Him, not our show.

What about us? What truly matters to us?

Be reconciled to God. Now is an acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation.


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Homily: March 4, 2025, Tuesday of the Eight week in Ordinary time (Empty Handed)

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 "Appear not before the LORD empty-handed, for all that you offer is in fulfillment of the precepts."  One of our parish volunteers who gives rides to refugee families to bring them for Sunday Mass shared an incident with me. One day, she arrived at a house to pick up a family as usual, but they were reluctant to go to church. When she asked them why, the children responded, “We have no money to put in the collection basket.” Oh, my heart ached to hear that. The church needs money, but God does not. Yet the refugee families in our parish, who have barely enough for themselves, would refuse to come before the Lord empty-handed. They are so eager to give. Our parish is special, our Sunday collections always receive hundreds of one-dollar bills. I presume these are small offerings given with great love. Just like the poor widow who gave two small coins, she won Jesus’ praise for giving her all. Our Lord does not count the dollars, He weighs the sincerity. The first reading tells...
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Homily: July 15, 2024, Monay of the fifteenth week in Ordinary time (Pleasing God).

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“In the blood of calves, lambs, and goats, I find no pleasure.” Why does God find no pleasure in such blood sacrifices? What would please God? In the past, one of the parishes in my home diocese in India used to practice animal sacrifices in church. I do not know how it all started but I know how it all ended. In 1924, exactly one hundred years ago, the bishop at that time banned all animal sacrifices in our parishes. It was a huge decision and he faced strong opposition. Why? The parish church was dedicated to St. Anthony attracted many visitors from other states. People would go and offer animal sacrifices, in the hope of getting their petitions granted. The church would sell chickens outside the church, and when a devotee wanted to offer a sacrifice, they would cut the necks of the chickens, and sell it to the devotees for their sacrificial offertory. The parishioners who sold the chickens to the church made a lot of money and the church profited from the offertory as well. You can ...
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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: February 14, 2023, Tuesday of the sixth week in Ordinary Time.

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 “…He regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved.” This sounds bad. Did God really regret bringing man to life? There is another place in the Bible which seems to express God’s regret. It was when the first king of the Israelites, Saul, disobeyed God and did evil. In the book of Samuel, the Lord God said, “I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me…” Did God regret this too and changed His mind? No, not at all. In the same book of 1 Samuel, it is clearly written: “He who is the strength of Israel does not lie not does he repent, for he is not a man that he should change his mind.” (1 Samuel 15:29 NCB) God is omnipotent, all-knowing, almighty. He knows everything, He does not change His mind, He is constant, consistent, steadfast, everlasting. So, why do these inspired books of the Bible express that God regretted? First, especially so in the Old Testament, we need to appreciate that the authors wrote the texts with a limi...
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Homily: April 17, 2024 Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter (Jesus does not Reject)

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Holy family School Mass  “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me”.  Isn’t this wonderful? Jesus says that He will not reject anyone who comes to Him. This means that whoever goes to Jesus, whether they are naughty or nice, good or bad, He will accept them all and love them all. So, every one of you here, no one excluded, as long as you go to Jesus, He will accept you. This is truly good news! And this is what we are celebrating for Easter, Jesus died to save not just some people, but the whole world. During this season of Easter, we take readings from the Acts of the Apostles. We see how the Apostles were fervent and fearless in the way they go around to preach this good news and how thousands and thousands of people believed and were baptised. But it was not smooth and easy, we see in the first reading, how the early church was being persecuted. The enemies have killed Jesus, and they continue to kill those who believ...
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Homily: February 11, 2025, Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time (Multiply)

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 God blessed them, saying: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it." What do you think? Does God’s command to multiple and fill the earth with humans and more humans logical? Is the world’s resources sufficient for all to consume and enjoy? Honestly, I take pride that I come from India, it is the most populous country in the world. Its current population is four times the USA. The Western world has, in the past, often ridiculed India for its massive and growing population, considering such population a burden and its continued growth a crisis. International organizations have invested heavily in promoting products and schemes to help reduce India’s population. Government clinics and hospitals have pressured women to exercise birth control. Among indigenous and poor communities, sterilizations were often performed without the women’s consent. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has even spent millions to promote such practices, primarily targeting poorer ...
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Homily: March 6, 2024, Wednesday of the Third week in Lent (Laws)

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 “Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, 'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’” In today’s first reading, Moses exhorts the people of Israel to be carefully obedient to God’s Law. It is emphasized that if they remain faithful to these statutes, they will be a great nation, ‘truly a wise and intelligent people’. We know how the story developed after this - they became arrogant, rebellious, and disobedient to God, their glory did not last, eventually they ended up in exile and slavery. By nature, humans have been gifted with free will, and thus we do not like to be controlled, restricted, or bound by rules and laws. Yet, without boundaries, society or community will be in chaos. Everyone will be doing as they wish, there will be no order. Thus, laws are everywhere – in the church, in school, in every country, even in the family. It seems like we have no ...
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Homily: Thursday, June 9, Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

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 Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of God.” How were the scribes and Pharisees righteous? For them, being righteous meant to be obedient to the law and the prophets, to the letter. They followed the law literally. In other words, they were legalistic. They were righteous, externally. How then can anyone surpass their righteousness? They were exact and accurate in everything the law prescribed. Can anyone do more than them, more than the law required and go the extra mile? What does Jesus mean? What is the purpose of the law? St. Paul had the answer. In his letter to the Ephesians, he wrote, “…to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…” Yes, we are to seek love above knowledge. St. Paul continued, “…so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” And this is the purpose of the law, that we may be full of God, that means full of love. So, the only way ...
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Homily: December 28, 2024 Feast of the Holy Innocents (Suffering).

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"Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you." Just three days ago, we celebrated Christmas - a joyful commemoration of the day God came to live among us in our world, it is a when divine light entered human darkness, it is a day for rejoicing. The Christmas season continues for the Church up until the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. However, if we read and reflect on the details of Christ’s birth and events surrounding this season of joy, we see poverty, simplicity and suffering. Just before our Lord was born into this world, His earthly parents went through hardship just to find a place to rest, He was then welcomed into physical and material poverty, the day after His birth, we celebrated the death of the first martyr, St. Stephen, followed by the feast of St. John the Evangelist who suffered persecution and isolation till a ripe old age. And now today, we observe the feast of the Holy Innocents — a sorrowful event when hundreds of...
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