Homily: March 3, 2022, Thursday after Ash Wednesday

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 “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me”.

First, do you wish to go after Jesus? Make a firm decision.

Second, deny yourself – your desires and ambitions for comfort, convenience, wealth, pleasures, fame, success.

Third, take up your cross – the difficulties, challenges, sufferings that come with the decision to go after Jesus.

Finally, follow Him – the way He fasts, prays, serves. The way he loves, sacrifices, forgives and obeys.

A few weeks ago, a friend with a medical condition was experiencing extreme, unbearable pain. She was sent to the ER at Unity Point. I visited her in the waiting room. While talking to her, she pointed to another suffering man in the room. She said, “He must be in a lot of pain.”

She was bearing a heavy cross. But at that moment she was not thinking about her own. She felt for the suffering of others. That their crosses were heavier than hers.

Do you feel you have the heaviest cross? Do you complain about your cross?

Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow Him. Where do you think we are going?

Yes, heaven. Our faith is the passport, our cross is the luggage, God’s grace is the flight.

So, let us not negotiate for a lighter cross. But ask for more grace. Take it up and follow. All the way.

We Adore You, O Christ, and We Bless You, Because by Your Holy Cross You Have Redeemed the World. 


Comments

  1. Lisa Schwarte4 March 2022 at 08:41

    Our faith is the passport, our cross is the luggage, God’s grace is the flight. Jeff and I love this sentence. So poetic! Well Done!

    ReplyDelete

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Homily: July 5, 2026 Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (I will give you rest)

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Homily: June 30, 2026, Tuesday of the Thirteenth week in Oridnary Time (God's Favorite)

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"You alone have I favored, more than all the families of the earth." Through Amos, God is reaffirming His covenantal relationship with Israel as His chosen nation, as promised to Abraham. It is an affectionate expression of God's faithful love. The rest of this reading is about Amos warning Israel the consequences of turning away from God, intending to bring them back to faithfulness. Despite all the disobedience and unfaithfulness, God loves Israel and continues to favor them specially. He has chosen them and will not back out of His choice. This is truly how God loves. Faithful, unwavering, unchanging. I heard that when someone spoke with Mother Teresa, she would ignore everything else around her and give her full attention to that one person. She remained fully present for as long as that person needed her. St. John Paul II was also well known for giving people that same kind of attention. They did that well because they were really giving God their undivided attention...
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 “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.” Once I walked into our youth Bible study, and they were discussing the Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish apocalyptic text traditionally connected to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. They asked me questions about it. I had read it myself when I was their age, mostly out of curiosity, but honestly, I do not remember much of its content. There are also several other apocryphal writings, like the Gospel of James, the Gospel of Thomas, and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. But the Church never considered them inspired Scripture, because many of them were written decades after the death of the last Apostle, St. John. Public Revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle. Sometimes I also wish the Bible had more details about Jesus’ infancy and His hidden life. But St. John reminds us today that the world its...
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Homily: May 19, 2023, Friday of the Sixth week of Easter (Shave Head)

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 At Cenchreae, he had shaved his head because he had taken a vow. At the end of the first reading, we heard that Paul shaved his head because of a vow he took. Scholars have suggested that very likely Paul had taken a Nazarite vow, and at the completion of the term and requirements, he would shave his head. Such a custom is common in Asia, especially in India. Catholic devotees would make vows to Mother Mary or some saints. Hindus also practice the same, taking vows to their deities, and they would shave their heads in response to the fulfilment of their petitions or requests. My mother was such a devotee, she took many vows. When my parents were childless for 7 years, my mother took many vows in return for the blessing of a child. One of which she promised to shave the head of her first child at the Velankanni Shrine. It is a major Marian shrine located in another state next to where my family lived. Finally, my mother gave birth to 7 children over 13 years, she could not travel t...
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Homily: May 18, 2026, Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter (Holy Spirit )

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 “And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.” I have always wished to experience similar impact and intensity of the Holy Spirit. But I wonder if I wish because I need the gift of tongues in my ministry? Or I wish because I am interested in being part of the excitement? Being inflamed by the Holy Spirit does not always end up with these dramatic outward results. Yet it seems to be happening rather often in the conversion experiences of the early Christians and hardly in these later times. Perhaps we do not have the same deep hunger the early Christians had for the sacraments. In the face of persecution and uncertainty, knowing their lives were always on the line, their desire for the grace of God was thus very intense and strong. They also lived in a world with possibly less distractions, so the Gospel of Jesus could enter more deeply into their hearts. In contrast, we live now in a society where life has become c...
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 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.” Jesus is one with the Father. Jesus is not just a teacher or a prophet. He is the eternal Son of God— fully divine and fully human. He took on our human nature to save us, to redeem us, to bring us back to the Father. Today, the Church celebrates Athanasius of Alexandria, one of the great defenders of this truth. He lived in the 4th century and served as the bishop of Alexandria. At that time, a serious error began to spread in the Church. A priest named Arius taught that Jesus was not truly God— that He was only a creature, that He was created, and not equal to the Father. This teaching was very popular. Many people followed it.  St. Athanasius stood firm. Even as a young deacon, he defended the true faith. In the year 325, the Church gathered at the Council of Nicaea. There, the bishops proclaimed clearly: I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only...
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