Homily: May 22, 2022, Sixth sunday of Easter

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 “I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb”.

This vision of St. John is so powerful!

God Himself is the temple, His glory is the light for the world. So, there is no need for the sun or the moon. Probably there is no need for food and drink also, since Jesus’ body and blood is the real food and drink. God provides. There is a popular quote: “If God is all you have, you have all you need.”

This is true not just at the end of time, but in our lives today. Do you believe?

I have a good friend, Terry, who is the sole bread winner of her family. She works as a sales-person and her income fluctuates according to the sale she makes. During the year when Covid-19 first hit, everything slowed down. Her income suffered. But household expenses did not go down. She tried to find ways to make ends meet and dug into her savings.

Then in May that year, things got worse. She would not be able to pay all the bills at the end of the month. Although she was anxious, she knew there was no one else to trust but the Lord.

Just before the month ended, a distant friend called her, out of the blue. This was what she told Terry, “I just sold my car for a good sum, and I promised God I will give the profit to charity. I prayed for God to show me which charity to give to, but your name keeps popping up. So, I am going to do just that.”

With that, she wired the money to Terry, and the amount was exactly what Terry was short of for that month, not more, not less.

“If God is all you have, you have all you need.”

It is true. Believe it. I too have experienced the providence of the Lord in times when I needed it most. If God really provides for all our needs, is there anything else worth our worrying?

In the first reading today, we see problems and disputes arising within the first century Christians. They argued first about baptism of the Gentiles, then about clean and unclean food, about circumcision and so on. They were still very much concerned with the observances of the mosaic law.

Should these matters be the focus of our faith?

If we read through the Gospels carefully, is there any time when Jesus was troubled with circumcision, clean and unclean food or welcoming non-Jews? No.

Jesus composed all the mosaic laws and prophets into one basic commandment: love. Jesus’ teachings are always about love. Love God, love neighbour, love enemy, love one another. Without love, keeping the law is mere external piety. The heart is not changed.

In today’s gospel text, Jesus also teaches, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”

If we love Jesus as we professed, we will keep his word, His commandments. Love is the way, the truth, the life. God is love. Jesus is love. We too, made in the image and likeness of God, are love.

Yes, if we are faithful to his commandment to love, we will always live in His presence, He will dwell in us. Then we would have no need for anything else of this world, even the most wonderful source of energy, the sun and the most beautiful light, the moon are not needed.

Do you love Jesus?

Do you trust in Him?

Love one another, let Him make his dwelling in our hearts and let us live in the glory of the Lord. Amen.


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

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For readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022722.cfm There were two brothers who lived debauched lives engaging in terrible deeds. They were notorious yet not at all ashamed. Then one brother died. The surviving brother asked the local pastor to preach at his brother’s funeral. The pastor, aware of the brothers’ background, was reluctant to do it. The brother then promised to donate a big sum of money to the church and begged the pastor to preach with a special request. “Father, in your homily, you just have to say that my brother was a saint.” The pastor thought about it and agreed. The funeral day came. The pastor began his homily, “The man laid in the casket was a rotter; he led a horrible and debauched life. He was truly rotten to the bone. But compared to his brother, he was a saint.” Saintly life or shoddy living – Would the priest at our own funeral have to be paid to tell a lie? It all depends on what kind of fruit we produce from the way we live. Usually, we cannot
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Homily: March 13, 2022, Sunday of the second Week of Lent

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 The Lord God took Abram outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can. Just so,” he added, “shall your descendants be.”  “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession.” God made these two promises to Abram. For the people in ancient times, and for many even in modern times, having children as heir and owning land as property are two most important possessions in life. Abram had been leading a nomadic life for many years and his wife Sarai, already in her old age, was still childless at that time. So, Abram doubted and questioned, “how am I to know…?” Have you been praying for something important, bearing heavy burdens while waiting, trying to keep hopeful but still you received nothing? Would you also doubt and question God? In response to Abram’s doubt, God assured him by cutting a covenant with him, known as a covenant of the pieces. In ancient times, when people entered a treaty, a contractual agreement, they wo
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Homily: May 4, 2024 Saturday of the fifth week of easter (Align to the Holy Spirit).

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Homily: January 24, 2023, Tuesday of the Third week in Ordinary Time.

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“God is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has withstood him and remained unscathed?” How many of have visited another state in the USA? Have you visited another country out of the USA? Do you know how many countries are there in the world today?  The answer is: 195 countries! When we travel to different places, we would realize that the world is so big. If you were to visit my home country India, you may have to take three flights and travel about 30 hours to arrive. The world is so huge, isn’t it? And the whole world is far bigger and beyond this earth, the sun, the moon and the stars. Can you imagine it? I can’t. And who created all these? God. With His wisdom and mighty strength God created all these. Everything is so organized with their own characteristics and structures, it cannot happen by accident nor by chance.  Is there anything or anyone stronger than our God? No, definitely not. But I found that many children think Spiderman is stronger than God. Recently a 4-year-o
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Homily: July 12, 2022, Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time.

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 “Will you be exalted to heaven?” How many of us are sure that we will be exalted to heaven if we had died today? Yesterday while driving along road, I checked that the traffic was clear and was about to turn left into a small lane, when another car appeared from nowhere and sped past right in front of my car so fast. I didn’t have time to react but thank God, I was turning very slowly and managed to stop just in time with shock. When I realised what happened, I knew I would have been hit if I had just turned a bit faster. From the speed of that car, I am sure I would have died instantly. Fear ran through me. I am not afraid to die, but I am afraid to die now. I am not ready, not prepared to meet the Lord, not worthy to be exalted to heaven yet. And I would like to skip purgatory if possible. Are you also afraid to die unprepared? In the first reading, King David was afraid of the kings of Aram and Israel. But God had His plans. It was not time for David to die yet. So, through prophet
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Homily: September 26, 2022, Monday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time.

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We heard in the Gospel today: "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me." We all have been to grocery stores. You see shelves and shelves of everything you need, rows and rows of vegetables and meat, packed, weighed and priced in advance, so you can just pick up what you want.  Back in my childhood, there were no grocery stores in the local village. So to buy vegetables, we go to the vegetable market on Sundays. For meat, we go to the butcher. Every Saturday, they would slaughter a buffalo and sell the meat. Once, my mummy sent my brother and I to buy some meat from her regular butcher. We didn’t know how to choose the best meat but we thought, the butcher would help since he knew my parents very well. Instead, he cheated on us, and packed bad quality meat for us to bring home. Mummy was very upset. The butcher knew we went to buy on behalf of our mummy, his regular customer, but he did not respect that. When he
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Homily: June 30, 2023, Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time.

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Homily: July 11, 2023, Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Namesake)

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Homily: April 18, Monday in the Octave of Easter.

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