Homily: July 25, 2022, Feast of Saint James, Apostle

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 “The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.”

Wow, what a mother. Actively taking charge of and deciding her sons’ future.

I think Mrs. Zebedee was an Indian. Because typical Indian mothers tend to control their children’s life decisions, and typical Indians use social connections to get ahead.

In India, if you know someone who has power, authority or influence, you can get recommendations to jobs, schools, offices etc. If you only did well in your exams even with excellent results, you may not necessarily get admission into the college or university of your choice if you did not have someone prominent, like a politician, to recommend you. 

Similarly, if you want to start a business, you will need someone with great influence to recommend you, along with the basic official documentation and application. So, it is not what you know, but whom you know, that will help you achieve success in life.

That’s why I escaped to USA. Because one of the many things I like about the American culture is equal opportunity for everyone based on your own merit. You work hard, you are smart, you are honest, you are responsible, or you have done well in school, these personal qualities and qualifications are recognised and assessed fairly. Your own effort determines your future to a large extent.

So how does Jesus respond? In this gospel, Jesus sounds like an American. He is not pressured by the mother’s recommendation but questions the two sons’ abilities by laying down the demands of the job – “Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”

Our salvation is our responsibility. God has given us gifts and talents to walk the way. Our salvation is also God’s desire so He sends personal angels to help us. And those who have gone before us, the saints, are supporting us too.

And above all these, we have our blessed Mother Mary, who will not just help us become qualified and worthy, but she will ultimately recommend us to Jesus. She will prepare us well for the chalice of life.

Mary is our perpetual help in this life and on our journey to the Kingdom of Jesus. Mary, our Mother, pray for us. 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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“Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number.” This was the observation made by the author of today’s first reading, reporting about how St. Paul and companions went about preaching the good news, teaching the faith and building the church communities. If the same author were to be here today, looking at what is happening in the church communities now, how would he report? What would he say about the churches here? Churches are closing, religious vocations are decreasing, few people are sharing faith, young people in the families are not attending Mass, people are choosing churches that align with their ideologies not based on truth. It looks like the first 300 years in the history of the Church were the most glorious and productive. What happened thereafter? Why such a great difference? What is missing? What went wrong? Is this the same situation in churches around the world? Is there any hope that the church will grow again, in strength and spirit? Yes,
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Homily: January 24, 2023, Tuesday of the Third week in Ordinary Time.

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 Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." I have three older sisters, followed by my older brother, then me, the fifth child, after which I have two more sisters. All of us went to the same schools from kindergarten till High school. We even had the same teachers at each level. My older sisters were the best students in school, in their academics, conduct and other areas. So when my brother and I entered school, every teacher of each level expected us to produce the same standard of study and behaviour as our sisters. But we disappointed them. We were the opposite. Like what the teachers thought, I too sometimes wonder if we were from the same parents. 😉 Isn’t that what we all expect? That the people from the same family, with the same background, history, upbringing and lifestyle should have the same belief and behaviour, values and preferences, possibly even the same profession. It is logical and it is ideal. Jesus, t
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Homily: September 28, 2022 Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time (For children)

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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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 “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said…” This was how our first reading began today. God promised Abram when he was already 99 years old, that he would have a son with his 89 year-old wife, Sarah. I kept thinking to myself, “why did God wait till Abram was 99?” God could have appeared to him much earlier and given him a son when he was in his 20’s or 30’s. Why so late? Similarly with Moses. Why did God wait till Moses was 80 years old to call him into the mission of delivering the Israelites out of slavery? Moses could have done a much better job if he was younger in his 30s or even 40s. Another one is St. Paul. He was persecuting the Christians for so long before his conversion. If he had had that powerful encounter with Jesus earlier, many Christians would not have suffered so much, and Paul would have been less of a sinner. Why did God take so long to act? Honestly, I do not know the answer. I don’t think anybody knows. None of my seminary professo
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Homily: July 11, 2023, Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Namesake)

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 "You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob but as Israel."  Jacob was well known for giving new names to places where he had a memorable experience. In yesterday's first reading, we saw how he changed the name of the place where he had his beautiful dream of angels and stairs to heaven, from Luz to Bethel. Today, he wrestled with God’s angel, and he named the wrestling place Penuel. In the chapters that follow, we will see him name another place Manahaim and so on. The names of these places carry the memory of the event that happened to Jacob. Interestingly, in today’s reading, we see God's angel changing Jacob's name to Israel, because now, the person of Jacob was what carried the memory of the event. ‘Israel’ means ‘the one who wrestles with God’.  What is the significance of a name? Many roads and streets are named after people who contributed to the history of the land, this ensures that their names and the events of their time will not be forgotten. Jesus sa
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Homily: April 18, Monday in the Octave of Easter.

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