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, the Son of God, is the perfect image of God, the Father. And we, baptised sons and daughters of God, are also expected to be like Him, to think what He thinks, to do what He does, to love what He loves. We are expected to do His will, just as Jesus did.

In the first reading, we heard, “Behold, I come to do your will.” In the responsorial psalm, we repeated “Here am I lord; I come to do your will.”

What is God’s will for us in our lives?

St. Francis de Sales wrote a book titled: ‘Finding God’s Will for You’. If you have difficulty discerning what is God’s will for you, ask St. Francis de Sales to intercede for you and help you find God’s will for you. Seek and you shall find.

Discover God’s will and pray for the grace to live it fully, for whoever does the will of God is Jesus’ brother and sister and mother. Amen.


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Homily: November 18, 2025, Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time (Courage)

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 “Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.” It is very easy to get discouraged in our spiritual life. Many of us become discouraged by our repeated sins and weaknesses. Another area where discouragement often enters is in our prayer life. Sometimes, after praying for a long time without seeing results, we grow weary or lose hope. That is why Jesus gives us today’s parable the story of the unjust judge. The judge was not a good man. He had no fear of God and no compassion for people. And the person who came to him for help was a poor widow. She had no power, no social standing, and no one to defend her. In that time and culture, widows were among the most forgotten and neglected people. Yet this widow received justice. Why? Because she refused to give up. Her persistence and perseverance won the judge’s attention. If a heartless judge can respond to persistence, how much more will our loving Father in heaven respond to th...
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Homily: November 16, 2025, Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (End Times )

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 “All that you see here the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” We have reached the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, the last Sunday before we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King, which concludes the liturgical year. Naturally, the readings at this time of year turn our attention toward the end times, to the final things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell.  When Jesus foretold the destruction of the Temple, His listeners were shocked. For the Jewish people, the Temple in Jerusalem was the anchor of their faith and center of their life. It was the dwelling place of God, the heart of their worship. And the whole community had poured in their possessions to build this temple. So to be told that the temple would be destroyed must have felt terrible. How could life continue without the Temple? And yet, what Jesus foretold did happen, but only forty years later. The Roman army destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D. What h...
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Homily: September 22,2025, Monday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time (Temple)

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 “The LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” Somehow, priests in general have a special sub-vocation for building projects. Ezra was a priest, and he too was rebuilding the temple which was destroyed by the Babylonians; thus, this book of Ezra paid much attention to this concern. Back in my home diocese, there was a parish priest who decided to build a new church for his parish which was in a very poor area. He knew his parishioners couldn’t give much money, so he gave each family some banana seedlings according to the size of their farms. Some got only two, some got up to fifty. And he told them: “Grow them, harvest them, sell them, and bring the money back to build the church.” That was indeed “seed money”. When the people saw the results and how they could further contribute to building their new church, they became more involved and creative. The mothers started making mango pickles and other v...
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Homily: November 14, 2025, Friday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time (End-time)

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 “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking.” As we near the end of the liturgical year, the readings also begin to focus on end times. Jesus reminds us that the end times will be unannounced, there will be no advanced notice, it could happen anytime, when people could still be “eating and drinking” making a reference to people who are oblivious to the presence of God, ignorant to the truth and who reject Jesus. They are the ones who will be caught off-guard and in shock. Whereas for people who have faith, who believe and are following Jesus through the teachings of the church, will know that while no one knows when, the warning signs have been given in the Bible. Jesus has described the signs that will precede the end times: wars, divisions among families, and cosmic changes in the sun, moon, and stars.  Taken together, these remind us that the world will not last forever and that we must always be prepared. Look...
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 "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."  Happy Feast of Pentecost! Today, we conclude the joyful fifty days of the Easter season and enter again into Ordinary Time after  Pentecost, the feast of fire, power, divine breath,  and popularly celebrated as the birthday of the Church through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Fifty days after rising from the dead, Jesus fulfills His promise that God the Father will send the advocate, the Holy Spirit to be His disciples. The Holy Spirit is poured out onto the Church, showering her with powerful spiritual gifts.  And what is the first fruit of this Spirit? Forgiveness. The power to forgive, to remove sin, in Jesus’ name, is given to the church. On the cross, Jesus exercised this power by forgiving His murderers and implored His Father’s mercy on the same. Forgiveness is the foundation of the Christian life. Without forgiveness, the burden of sin will ...
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