Homily: December, 13, 2022, Tuesday of the third week in Advent (Memorial of St. Lucy)

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 “Thus says the LORD: Woe to the city, rebellious and polluted, to the tyrannical city! She hears no voice, accepts no correction.”

Our Lord is giving a stern warning to those who are against Him, those who are arrogant. Most of us would have at least been through a rebellious phase or have met or lived with someone who is arrogant.

 Arrogant people do not listen to others, think highly of themselves, and expect others to listen to them and agree with them. Some of us may still be in such a situation and we ourselves have our arrogant moments too.

No one can deny, such characters are difficult to deal with, work with or live together. Thus God warns us against being arrogant and rebellious especially towards His teachings and commands.

By being full of ourselves and living as if we do not need God, by being overly self-confident and thinking we are the master of our own life, we will one day fall deep into helplessness and loneliness. 

Arrogance is destructive to others and to self. Truly, we are nothing without God, denying this truth is simply self-deception.

So what should we do? How should we live?

Jesus teaches us in Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.”

Let us learn from our Lord, be meek and humble, realize that what we have is a gift from God, and what we do with it is our gift to God, we own nothing in us, on us and around us. There is nothing for us to be arrogant about, but we have everything to be thankful for.

Yes, let us not be arrogant, rather, let us be thankful.

“Blessed are the Meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Amen 


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Homily: October 18, 2025, Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist (Right - Companion)

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Homily: September 17, 2023, Twenty forth Sunday in Ordinary Time (die for the Lord).

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Homily: October 21, 2025, Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Sin-Grace)

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Did you listen attentively to the Gospel reading? Yes? Let me test you… What did Jesus say? Did He say, “Whoever eats my bread and drinks my wine?”  No! He said, “Whoever eats my FLESH and drinks my BLOOD remains in me and I in him.” Yes, when you receive Holy Communion, you are receiving the real flesh and blood of Jesus. I am sure Fr. Roy, your catechists, parents and the whole parish community have prepared you well for this day, so you know what you are receiving today. But what I want to focus on now is the last part where Jesus says, ‘remains in me and I in him’. 29 years ago in 1996, I received my First Holy Communion. I was eight years old, but I still remember that day vividly. I remember the preparations, my First Reconciliation, and the excitement I felt when I lined up to receive Jesus for the very first time. I remember seeing the priest dipping the Precious Body into the Precious Blood, and then that precious moment – Jesus’ body and blood rested on my tongue. So swee...
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Homily: February 18, 2024, First Sunday in Lent (Repent and belive)

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 "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." Jesus is crying out loud at the Jordan, the same place where John the Baptist was calling out to people before he was arrested. There is sense of urgency in the message, a kind of ‘do it now’ warning, a very clear call for action, “repent, and believe…” As we enter the first Sunday of Lent, this is the first call of Jesus to each of us. ‘Repent’ – have you? ‘Believe’ – do you? If not, what are you waiting for? This is usually the period when our catechumen and candidates go through their final stretch of preparation towards baptism, and this message of Jesus is also calling out to them to take action, to convert their hearts, to believe in Him, to wait no more. Today, during this Mass, we will have the rite of sending, to dispatch them to our bishop for the rite of election at St. Francis of Assisi Parish. They have spent many months learning about the teachings of the Cathol...
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Homily: October 20, 2025, Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Greed)

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Homily: March 7, 2022, Monday of the First Week of Lent.

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  “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am Holy”. Both the first and Gospel readings today presented a ‘to-do’ and ‘not-to-do’ list. Some are really tough tasks. Can we ever accomplish them? Is it possible for us to be holy? We all know that at the sacrament of reconciliation, it is Jesus Himself who is sitting at the confessional, listening to the confessions. And the sacred privilege for me as a priest, is that I get to see as God sees and hear as God hears. And what does God see and hear? He doesn’t see our failures. He sees our brokenness. He doesn’t hear our sins. He hears our desire to be good. And God wants to help us. He reaches out to us, pouring out His graces. We desire to be holy and God desires the same. In that moment of reconciliation, in that meeting of desires, we become holy. And I, the priest who witnesses that sacred moment, also become holy. The very first step to becoming holy is to desire holiness. To desire becoming what God wants us to be, to be like Him, to...
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Homily: December 26,2022, Feast of Saint Stephen, first martyr.

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From the first reading, we heard Stephen declare, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But his persecutors ‘cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together.’ If we could visualize the scene, we would imagine Stephen looking radiant with joy as he anticipated his death, while his persecutors looking tormented and fearful as they prepared to kill. We know why Stephen was joyful as he looked up to heaven, because he could see where his future would be. We also know why his persecutors were afraid as they closed their ears to Stephen’s words, because they did not want to hear the truth. It tormented their conscience and pierced through the darkness in their hearts. I am sure we ourselves may have experienced the same, when our wrong doings were being highlighted, when our shame were being revealed or when our hurts were being exposed, we might also cry out, “stop! I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want to know i...
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