Homily, July 11, 2022, Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot

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 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.”

Did Jesus really say these words?

We know Jesus is the Prince of Peace, but here He says He is not bringing peace.

We know Jesus to be meek and mild like a lamb, willing to die for the world, but here He says He is bringing the sword.

What is Jesus telling us here?

In letter to the Hebrews, it is written that Jesus’ word is a two-edged sword, it cuts both ways. In attacking the false beliefs of the world, it cuts. And in presenting and defending the Truth of God, it cuts too.

Jesus is the Word incarnate. He is the Truth. He preached the word of God and defended the Truth, and He was persecuted by the world. God’s Word challenged the ways of the world by bringing light to its sins. Its false peace was shaken.

God’s Truth awakened the consciences of the people and brought about remorse and a sense of guilt in those who listened to the Truth. Their temporal peace was broken.

Some followed, believed and were saved. Some refused to follow, nor believe and were lost. Thus, Jesus’ sword, the Word, creates divisions.

When we follow God’s Word, we will also encounter disagreement, rejection or persecution from friends and family who do not believe.

But we will receive the reward of eternal life and true peace, what the world cannot give.


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Homily: February 22, 2025 Feast of the chair of St. Peter.

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 “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”  Our Lord founded the Church and handed over its growth and development into the future, to Peter. Note that the disciple is Simon, but the pope is Peter. Thus, this appointment to build the church, an appointment so solid like a rock, will be so strong and firm that not even hell could ever overcome it. Simon Peter was not perfect; he had his human weaknesses. It is written that he had cowardly denied Jesus three times, and at one point, Jesus even rebuked him, “Get behind me, Satan” (Matthew 16:23). Christian Tradition also tells that during the time of persecution in Rome, he had tried to escape and flee from Rome. The story continued that on his way along the road outside the city, he met our Lord Jesus where he asked, “Quo vadis, Domine?” - “Where are you going Lord?” To which our Lord replied, “Romam eo iterum crucifigī” – “I a...
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Homily: February 22-2026, First Sunday of Lent (Angles)

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 As I was preparing this homily, I first thought of preaching about the three temptations of Jesus. Then I changed my mind and thought of focusing on the first reading, and then perhaps the second reading. I couldn’t get the right inspiration, so I went through the readings several times over the past days. Finally, I noticed one phrase which stayed with me quietly but firmly: “The devil left Him, and angels came and ministered to Him.” It was a reassuring resolution to an intense build-up of temptations. Jesus had fasted forty days. He endured hunger, thirst, solitary living and silence. At the end of it when he was at his weakest, tempting offers to satisfy His possible needs and wants were presented to Him. He was at His weakest, physically, but he was also at His strongest, spiritually. As He overcame the temptations and defeated the devil, heaven responded - not with applause, but with accompaniment. Angels came to minister to Him. We see the same later in the Gospel of Luke. ...
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 “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” People fast for various reasons. Many people fast for health, fitness and vanity reasons by doing intermittent fasting, detox diets, or weight loss programs. Some prominent figures use fasting as a form of silent protest. Leaders like Gandhi used hunger strikes to fight injustice. And sadly, some people are simply not eating, they are starving not by choice but because of poverty. Christian fasting is different. It is spiritual fasting and is not primarily about the body. It is about the spiritual heart. Jesus’ disciples were not fasting like the disciples of other preachers, and He told them that when the bridegroom is taken away, they will fast. Because their fasting will be an sign of longing, a spiritual desire to be re-united with their master, it expresses the deep sorrow of separation. Later, when the disciples could not cast out a demon, Jesus reminded them: “This kind can only come ...
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Homily: February 24, 2026, Tuesday of the First Week of Lent (God's Word)

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 “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void.” Today Prophet Isaiah reminds us that God’s word is powerful. It is not empty. It goes forth and it returns. And it accomplishes God’s will on return. It does not fail. From the very beginning, creation itself was born from God’s word. He commanded, “Let there be light.” And there was light. And till today, light continues to do what God wills it to do. Everything we see and depend on - the vast universe, the galaxy, the earth, everything born of earth, and life itself - exists because God spoke. God speaks and it is fulfilled. And God breathes into our life; He speaks His life into ours. His life becomes ours; His promise is to be accomplished through our obedience; His will is to be fulfilled by our submission. Even as we struggle to cooperate with God, deep in our being, our souls want to be one with God. Because our very existence comes from Him. He has a plan for each of us. Long before we wer...
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Homily: June 21, 2025, Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time (Sufficient Grace)

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 “Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’” This sentence in today’s first reading is one of the most well-known and quoted lines in the New Testament. There are many interpretations about what could be the “thorn in the flesh” which St. Paul referred to and asked for the Lord to remove for him. No one knows for sure, and no one needs to know exactly. What we do know is that it was something Paul believed the “angel of Satan” was sent to torment him. It was so bad for him that he wished and prayed for the Lord to take away from him. But Jesus did no, and told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Jesus is telling us the same: “My grace is sufficient for you.” Are you struggling terribly? Do you feel greatly tormented? Are you facing huge troubles? Do you feel like there is no way out? If you are crying out to the Lord like St. Paul, know that you are not alone. God’s silence is not absence. He is with y...
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Homily: January 11, 2026, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (Beloved)

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 “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” These words were spoken by God was not meant to be a private revelation. It was heard by everyone present on that day, all who witnessed Jesus being baptized by John.  These words were blessings from God, springing forth from His heart. Before Jesus preached a single sermon, before He healed anyone, before He suffered persecution and death, His Father in heaven proclaimed the Truth over Him: This is my beloved Son. Jesus lived His entire life grounded in that truth. He never struggled with His identity. He never doubted His mission on Earth. He knows who He is and why He has come. His purpose is to do the will of the Father, to reveal to the whole world who God is, to show to all generations how God loves and thus save all of humanity. Let us look again at where Jesus was baptized, the River Jordan. Its waters flows from near Mount Hermon, in between Lebanon and Syria, runs through fertile land, carrying nourishment for t...
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 “The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.’” As a young man, Joseph must have had beautiful dreams about his future family. He could have imagined a helpful and capable wife, children playing around the house and growing up to be well respected people in the community, a vision of a stable and peaceful life. When he got engaged to Mary, it seemed like his dreams would become reality soon. Many of us, married or not, can identify with the dreams that Joseph could have had. Yet like Joseph, the realities of our lives would have unfolded quite differently from how we have dreamt it. Joseph’s family life turned out totally unlike his own dreams, yet he continued to dream, now with God’s will revealed and God’s plan unfolding in the reality of his life. The hardship he went through in Bethlehem, with the birth of Jesus, did not end there. Today’s Gospel shows another unexpected cha...
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Homily: September 7, 2024, Saturday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time (Suffering).

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 “To this very hour, we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless, and we toil, working with our own hands.” The Apostle Paul described the life of him and his companions as they do their mission of proclaiming Christ. It was quite a life of hardship and suffering. And it seemed that many, if not all, of the missionaries who went out to proclaim the Gospel suffered similarly – other than persecution from anti-Christianity haters, it was simply hardships in daily living conditions. Is it true that living for Christ and proclaiming the Gospel means living a harsh life of suffering? St. Ignatius Loyola said, “If God sends you many sufferings, it is a sign that He has great plans for you and certainly wants to make you a saint.” So, it is true that to be a saint does mean going through suffering. Doesn’t this sound irrational and sadistic? Why can’t we be faithful to Christ and not have to suffer? Does such suffering come with pain and angu...
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Homily: February 21, 2026, Saturday After Ash Wednesday (Graceful Souls)

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 “He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.” Some of us would have experienced the grace of God in a very real way at some point in our lives. Perhaps after a very sincere confession, or during a spiritual retreat, maybe during deep prayer, or some may have felt it at Mass. Different people would experience it differently. It could be a sense of lightness when the heaviness of a grave sin has been lifted, an indescribable feeling of deep peace, a sudden vision of clarity. Sometimes we would most undoubtedly know that God is close. There’s probably a certain quiet joy within. There are so many possible signs. If you have ever experienced that unusual but wonderful feeling, you would know what I mean. And if you have not, try to make a good confession, I mean seriously, do it as if today is your last day, and you desperately want to be free from all sin, what we often call ‘deathbed confession’. And you might just get ...
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