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 cheated us the children, he was in fact cheating mummy. We didn’t buy from him anymore after that.

In the same way, God sent Jesus to bring the good news to the world. One of the mysteries of our faith is that we have never seen God. Jesus told us “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God … he has made him known”.

Jesus came as a little child and from the very beginning of his earthly life, people have tried to eliminate Him. Then Jesus sent his disciples, and the same happened. Many did not listen to the good news preached by Jesus, His disciples, now His church.

Till today, we see people choosing to believe in bad news, fake news, media and political lies, instead of the real, good news. They choose to ignore and reject the teachings of church, the traditions of the disciples, the way of Jesus, thus they are rejecting God.

God’s ways are simple and straightforward, not packaged to tempt our vanity nor seduce our lust, like an innocent child, pure and authentic. 

If we have wisdom, we will see how God is reaching out to us. Let us be humble and seek Him, welcome Him, receive Him who comes to us through the small, simple moments of our daily lives. 

Amen 


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Homily: November 16, 2024 Saturday of the Thirty Second week in Ordinary time (Find Faith)

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Funeral Homily: William J. Baum, June 8, 2023

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 The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. The soul of Bill is in the hand of God, no torment shall touch him. We are here to bid our final farewell to Bill, our beloved brother, grandpa, dad, husband, friend. I feel privileged to have known Bill these last two years and honored to preside over this Mass for his sending off. Many of you would have known him much longer and much better than I. I wish I had more time with him. I was awed when I read his obituary, his life story is inspirational. I know from my encounter with him that he was a dedicated husband, a loving and caring father, the greatest fan to every one of his grandchildren, and an incredible friend to countless people here and around the world. His going would surely leave a void in our lives. It is only natural that we grieve this loss. Bill was a man of remarkable character. His love for life, his sense of humor, and his thoughtfulness for others were the hallmarks of his persona...
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 “Beloved: Clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for: God opposes the proud but bestows favor on the humble.” Humility – such a simple word but probably the most difficult to practice. It goes against our pride and ego. And the moment we think we are humble, we have lost it. As the river always flows towards the lower ground, so God's graces will also flow towards those who are humble of heart. The more we lower ourselves in humility, the more graces and blessings we receive. Mother Mary is the most humble woman, that is why she is full of grace. The logic is simple, the humble persons empty their hearts of ego and pride, thus having room for God’s graces to pour in. God wants to shower graces upon the arrogant ones too, but their hearts are so full of themselves, there is just no space for anything else. Thus they miss out on the precious graces of God. Those who are truly humble do not consider themselves higher nor lower than anyone, they do not have...
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 Ya en la primera lectura escuchamos: “Ponte alerta y reaviva lo que queda”. Cada palabra en la Biblia es inspirada por el Espíritu Santo, cada mensaje y enseñanza es tan relevante hoy, como lo fue en la antigüedad, y lo será hasta el final de los tiempos. Por eso el mensaje que nuestro Señor le dio a San Juan para la Iglesia en Sardes también está destinado a nosotros. La iglesia en Sardes tenía personas que dejaban la fe. Algunos incluso vivían en oposición al mensaje del evangelio que recibieron de los apóstoles. Miremos la iglesia en USA, ¿tenemos también la misma situación que Sardes? Vemos una gran decadencia de la fe en este país. El número de personas sin afiliación a ninguna religión va en aumento. Muchos creyentes tampoco son seguidores activos, son cristianos solo de nombre. En todas las parroquias de los EE. UU., el número promedio de católicos que asisten a misa con regularidad es de aproximadamente el 30-35 % del total de feligreses registrados, ¿dónde está el resto d...
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Homily:August 18, 2024, Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Wisdom)

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 “Let whoever is simple turn in here; To the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed!” This generous invitation in today’s first reading is from Lady Wisdom. This reading is taken from Chapter 9 of the Book of Proverbs which portrays two women: Lady Wisdom and Dame Folly. Our first reading presents only the invitation of Lady Wisdom. She invites us, ‘whoever is simple’, to her home to enjoy the real good life, one of understanding and food good for our body and soul, while Dame Folly attracts people to destruction. Many people seek wisdom, sometimes for unwise reasons, often in the wrong places, and in the wrong ways. Wisdom is unlike knowledge and intellect, it is not something we can gain through studying or hard work, it does not come automatically with age or experience; it is ultimately a gift from the Holy Spirit. In Proverbs 2:6, it says ‘For the Lord gives wisdom…” I am very blessed to have met many wise people who in ...
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Homily: March 14, 2023, Tuesday of the Third week in Ordinary time.

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 In the first reading we heard “But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received”. And our Gospel text today ends with these words “unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart”. It is very clear what God wants of us in our relationship with Him and in our relationship with one another. It is all about the heart. Worship God with a contrite heart, forgiving brother from our heart. So being a disciple of Christ is an inside job. From times of old, beginning with the Israelites, the tradition of pleasing God with burnt offerings, sacrifices, incense, first fruits and so on continues to our time. Our liturgy expresses our worship in similar rituals. And in this Lenten season, we are also encouraged to make sacrifices, fast, pray and give alms. All these are good and helpful in cultivating a spiritual discipline of self-denial and putting God in the focus, but if we do it without a sincere, contrite heart, would it really please God? Our God is a God who looks i...
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