Homily: May 17, 2022, Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter.

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 “But when the disciples gathered around him, he got up and entered the city”.

In the first reading, St. Paul had just been stoned by a crowd and dragged out of the city as dead. Try to imagine the physical condition of St. Paul. His body must be badly bruised, probably swollen and bleeding. Some of his bones might even be broken.

Yet, he managed to get up from all his wounds and near-death condition, then walked straight back into the city where he just got stoned! He must be crazy.

St. Paul firmly declared in Romans 8:35-39, “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?... No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.”

Indeed. Nothing could stop Paul and the disciples from preaching the gospel. They were crazy for God. They looked forward to the reward of eternal life and couldn’t care less for the sufferings and death in this temporal life. They feared nothing in this world.

If we all preach the gospel fearlessly like the disciples, the world would all be converted to Christ. 

So, what is stopping us?

Are we afraid of rejection, persecution and losing friends?


There is more freedom in this country for us to profess and propagate our faith boldly, compared to many other countries in the world but there could be more social awkwardness here when it comes to talking about religion.

Are we afraid to preach because we ourselves are not living an authentic catholic life?

In this modern world, the devil does not have to work too hard to keep us away from God because there are so many interesting distractions and addictions to keep us busy. We know we fall short in many ways.

It seems we are not as fervent, focused and faith driven as the early disciples like St. Paul.

But Jesus says to us, as He said to His disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

We are assured of Christ’s peace, what else should we fear? We will never change the world by simply coming to church. We can only change the world by being the church. We are disciples of Christ. Our mission is to preach.

As we come closer to the feast of Pentecost, let us ask the Holy Spirit for the gifts which we need, so as to fearlessly proclaim the gospel of Christ, in words and in our own way of life. Amen.


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

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