Homily: December 21, 2022, Wednesday of the forth week in Advent

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 Today’s first reading is from Song of Songs. This book in the Bible is also known as the Song of Solomon, or the Canticle of Canticles. It is a romantic poetry expressing the intense and intimate love of a young couple entering marital union.

Why would the Bible include such a romantic book? There is not even a mention of ‘God’. Anyone who has fallen in love before would be able to appreciate the celebration of romance in this book. But it may feel odd to imagine God’s love for His people is as romantic as a couple’s love, yet it is true. God yearns to be with His people more intensely than a loving couple for each other.

God’s love for us is very special, emotional and romantic. God loves deep and intense. He yearns to be close to us, so much so that He literally came into our world to live among us and at His death, continue to give of Himself, His body and blood, to dwell in our hearts. Day and night He looks at us, reaches out to us and waits for us to invite Him into our lives.

This is what we celebrate at Christmas, God’s great love for us, His yearning to be with us, and His coming: Emmanuel, God is with us.

So how should we respond to this romantic, self-sacrificing, eternal love of God?

The same way as we would respond to our beloved - accept His Love with joy and love Him in return. Love Him, love His way, love His plans, love His words, love everything about Him.

This Christmas, let us look at the baby in the manger and see God yearning for us, as a helpless baby yearns for constant attention, love and affection.

Jesus, Emmanuel, loves us. Let us love Him back.


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Homily: August 10, 2026, Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Cheerful giver)

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 “God Loves a Cheerful Giver” St. Paul tells us today: “Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” When I was just a small boy, I would enjoy being out of the house and on our farm to play with my friends. However, very often and almost always right in the middle of an exciting game with them, I would suddenly hear my mother calling out to me. She would shout for me from the house, “Nivin, come here! Cut some firewood”, “Dehusk two coconuts”, “Go feed the chickens” or “Go take care of the cows”. There would always be something she wanted me to do, there would always be a chore that needed to be done. And it had to always happen at the best part of the game. I didn’t have much choice, I would do what she asked but I always with a grumpy face, unwillingly, unhappily and with lots of complaining in my heart. I was never a cheerful giver. Thankfully I have grown and changed over the years. Yet unfortunately, the change is not com...
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Homily: August 15, 2026, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Sin-death)

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 “For since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead came also through man.” Sin and death are connected, but Christ has come to break that connection and give us life. In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul says, “The wages of sin is death.” Sin separates us from God, and God is the source of life.  God created Adam and Eve for life and friendship with him. But through their disobedience, sin entered the world, and with sin came death.  But when God prepared the world for the coming of his Son, he gave Mary a unique grace. From the first moment of her conception, she was preserved from original sin.  We can see Mary as the new Eve. Eve was created without sin, but she disobeyed God. Mary, by God's grace, responded differently. When the angel came to her, she said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Eve's disobedience was connected with humanity's fall. Mary's obedience opened the door for Christ, the Savi...
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Homily: August 11, 2026, Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Sweet as Honey)

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 “Feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you.” Ezekiel tells us, “I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.” Sweet as honey! Is that really how we experience the Word of God? For many of us, the Word of God can actually be very challenging. It corrects us, directs our conduct, and forms us in Christian discipline. Beginning with the Ten Commandments, we hear many “You shall nots.” Do not do this. Do not do that. Forgive your enemies. Love those who hurt you. Be faithful. Be honest. Carry your cross. Deny yourself. Sometimes God's Word may feel less like honey and more like medicine—something good for us, but not always pleasant to take. So was Ezekiel simply using beautiful symbolic language when he said that God's Word was sweet as honey? Our responsorial psalm today tells us the same thing: “In the way of your decrees I rejoice.” “How sweet to my taste is your promise!” And again, “The law of your mouth is to me more precious than thousan...
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Homily: August 14, 2026, Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe

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Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a saint whose life teaches us what it means to say a complete and generous “yes” to God. Most of us know the final and heroic chapter of his life. At Auschwitz concentration camp, a prisoner escaped, and as punishment, ten men were chosen to die by starvation. One of them cried out in anguish for his wife and children. Fr. Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward and said, “I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place.” His offer was accepted. He entered the starvation bunker with the other prisoners. But even there, he continued to be a priest. Instead of allowing that terrible place to be filled only with despair, he prayed with the prisoners, encouraged them, and helped prepare them to meet God. One by one they died. Maximilian survived longer than the others, and finally the guards killed him with a lethal injection. We know that St. Maximilian Kolbe is in heaven because the Church has canonized him. But I like to think that those p...
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Homily: November 7, 2025, Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Knowledge)

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 “You yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another.” ‘Full of goodness and filled with knowledge’. What powerfully positive words from St. Paul. One of my greatest blessings is being born into a traditional Catholic family and raised by God-fearing parents. From an early age I learned about Jesus, memorized prayers, and was familiar with church matters and traditions. But do I fully know God? No, not even at this stage of my faith life. My soul knows Him intimately, but my human knowledge and intellect still have a lot to learn. My knowledge of Christ and Christianity remains incomplete. Some who join the Catholic Church later may know more about God, more about the faith, than many of us who have been in the Church all our lives. That is why we must continue to grow in our knowledge of God, understanding of Church, and deepen our practice of faith. Jesus said, “For the children of this world are more prudent in their generation than ...
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Homily: August 8, 2026, Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Small Faith)

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 “The rash man has no integrity; but the just man, because of his faith, shall live.” That is a beautiful statement from the prophet Habakkuk: the just man, because of his faith, shall live. In other words, to truly live, we need faith. And the good news is that we do not need an extraordinary amount of faith to begin. Jesus tells us that if we have faith even the size of a mustard seed, amazing things can happen. A mustard seed is very small, but when it is planted, it grows. Faith is the same way. God does not ask us to begin with perfect faith. He asks us to trust Him with the little faith we have and allow Him to make it grow. Jesus wanted His disciples to grow in faith, faith in Him, faith in the gifts God had given them, and faith in His promises. At the beginning, the disciples were often afraid and uncertain. They doubted. They misunderstood Jesus. Sometimes they even failed Him. But Jesus never gave up on them. He continued to strengthen their faith. Eventually, He could t...
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Homily: May 1, 2026: Memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker

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 “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son?” In today’s Gospel, Jesus is identified by His work. He was known as the ‘carpenter’s son’. St. Joseph was a carpenter. Most likely, he was well known in Nazareth. His work defined him in the eyes of the people. And Jesus, in His hidden life, shared that identity. We do not know much about Jesus’ life in the years of His infancy till His public ministry. But we can imagine it could be very simple and humble. Jesus would have spent those years close to Joseph, watching him work, learning from him, assisting him and finally, possibly taking over the trade when Joseph passed on. In His humanity, Jesus learned how to work, to be an industrious member of society, following the example of His earthly father, Joseph. In the beginning, the first Adam was placed in a garden of the world to labor and care for it. Now, the new Adam, Jesus, was also placed in the carpentry of the world to labor and build for ...
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Homily: July 24, 2026, Friday of the Sixteenth Weeek in Ordinary Time (Our purpose-Saints)

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 In today's Gospel, Jesus says, "But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold." Every human life is created by God with great love, and He has given each of us a purpose to accomplish in this life. The fruits we produce through our lives are not accidental; they are part of God's loving plan for us. We fulfill our purpose when we are aligned to God's will. His plan for us may not seem significant in the eyes of the world, but every life is precious for God. Since each of us is unique, the purpose God has entrusted to each of us is also unique. The saints are those who listened to God, lived according to His will, and bore beautiful fruits through their faithfulness. Today, the Church celebrates the feast of a wonderful saint who is still relatively unknown in the West—St. Charbel Makhlouf. St. Charbel lived in nineteenth-century Lebanon during a difficult time un...
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Homily: August 7, 2026, Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Forgiveness/Punishement)

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 "Till everyone who sees you runs from you, saying, 'Nineveh is destroyed; who can pity her? Where can one find any to console her?'" These are striking words from the Book of the Prophet Nahum we read today. Most of us are familiar with the story of Nineveh as told in the Book of Jonah. When Jonah finally went to preach at Nineveh, the people repented sincerely. From the king down to the common people, they fasted, prayed, and turned away from their sins. Seeing their repentance, God, who is rich in mercy, withheld the punishment He had announced. Fast forward a hundred years later, that’s when the Book of Nahum was written. The same Nineveh by then had forgotten the mercy it had received a few generations earlier. It had over the century, became the capital of the Assyrian Empire, a nation known for its cruelty. The Assyrians attacked and conquered many nations, including the Israelites, and treated them with brutality. History tells us of their violence, especially...
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Homily: June 9, 2026, Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time (Shine-Light)

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“Lord, let your face shine on us.” Isn’t this a beautiful prayer in today’s Responsorial Psalm. We are asking not simply for blessings, but for God Himself, for Him to look at us lovingly from above, for His glory to shine on us, not away from us. It is a prayer asking for God to be present to us, to love us, to desire us despite our sinfulness. And truly, God is always present, totally loves and forever desires us. In the Gospel, Jesus tells us: “You are the light of the world.”  We know we are not the source of light, but we can reflect light. God is light, when God’s face shine on us, we become His beacon of light too. In the Book of Exodus, after Moses spoke with God on the mountain, his face shone so brightly that people could hardly look at him. Similarly, when we live constantly in the presence of God, we too will begin to radiate peace, joy, love and holiness. How do we live in the presence of God? Very simply, spend time before the Holy Eucharist, read the Bible, receive t...
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