Homily: Monday, January 9, 2023, The Baptism of the Lord

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 “He saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”. 

Before this baptism event, Jesus’ life is known as the ‘hidden life’. The Bible has no record of what happened after ‘the finding Jesus in the temple’ when He was twelve.

When I finally come face to face with Jesus, I would really want to ask Jesus, “What did you do during your hidden life?”

After this baptism, Jesus began what we know as his public ministry. From His short dialogue with John the Baptist, it seems that His baptism at River Jordan is significant and crucial to launch Him into His mission. He must go through it, even though we all know He does not need it for repentance, He has no sin.

So, why is it important for Jesus to go through it?

Because this is when the Heavenly Father anoints Jesus for His ministry and publicly reveals His divine identity as the Son of God to the Israelites. It is announcing to the chosen people that Jesus is His beloved Son.

The same thing happens when we are baptised. The church announces publicly that we are beloved sons and daughters of God, through Jesus. And the Holy Spirit anoints us for our life mission, to know, love and serve God. At that moment, our souls are marked with an indelible sign of our identity. 

Then what happens after our baptism?

It is meant to launch us into our ministry too, to proclaim the good news to all, to live a life of grace from the Holy Spirit, like how the early community gathered at Cornelius’ house we heard in the first reading.

Baptism is a powerful sacrament. Jesus went through it for us and goes through it with us at every baptism. Through it we receive the gifts, graces and charisms to do what Jesus did – heal, cleanse, prophesy, miracles, preach, save souls. Yes, that is our baptismal call – to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, to do what He did.

Have we started our public ministry?

Today on this feast of the Baptism of the Lord, let us reflect on Jesus’ baptism and recall our own baptism, that moment when the heavens open and God anoints us. May we live fully our identity as God’s beloved children, full of the spirit, full of joy, full of love. 

Amen.


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Homily: March 24, 2022, Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

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Homily, March 22, 2022, Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent.

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Homily: October 31, 2022, Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Vain Glory).

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In St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he instructed them, “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vain glory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves.” Is it possible to regard others more important than ourselves? Is it possible to be selfless? Yes, highly possible, but highly difficult too. With God’s grace, we can. When I was serving at one parish in India, parishioners would give donations on the parish feast day. We would publish the names of donors in the parish bulletin board to acknowledge their generosity. One day, a lady came, gave her donation and said she prefer to be anonymous. Then she thought about it and gave her first name. After a short pause, she said again, “Father, then you must put my last name as well because there is another lady with the same first name.” For a moment before that, I thought she was a humble and modest donor, not seeking any glory for herself. But the final twist revealed that she did want to be acknowledged and made s
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Homily: March 25, 2024, Monday of the Holy week (Servant songs).

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“A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching.” There are four passages in the book of the prophet Isaiah known as ‘Servant Songs’, or ‘Songs of the Suffering Servant’.  Today’s first reading is taken from the first song. The next two days we will read from another two songs. These are prophecies about Jesus, written 700 years before His birth, and they reveal the mission and disposition of the Messiah. This first song describes the most important disposition of Jesus and His very purpose on earth. A bruised weed is a stalk of grain which is crushed and broken in such a way that it will never produce any grain again. It is a dying stalk. This refers to the poor and oppressed, so miserable is their life such that they can never on their own, rise above their poverty and neediness. Their only hope is having someone to lift them out of their situation. A smoldering wick mi
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Homily: March 13, 2022, Sunday of the second Week of Lent

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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: April 11, 2023, Tuesday in the Octave of Easter (Ignorance)

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"Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." We heard this from the first reading today, St. Peter made this declaration in his first preaching, on the day of Pentecost. Many of the Jews who demanded that Jesus be crucified were ignorant that Jesus was truly the Christ, and now Peter is declaring, so they will ‘know for certain’. Because they were unaware of scriptural prophecies about the Messiah which Jesus fulfilled, they blindly believed the false accusations made against Him by the Jewish leaders. Their ignorance led them to become co-conspirators of murder. St. Paul rightly said, "None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." (1 Cor. 2:8) Yes, if they had known for certain, they would not have killed Jesus. Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. Ignorance of Christ is ignorance of salvation. This ignorance is
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Homily: March 10, 2022, Thursday of the First Week in Lent

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 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” When I was much younger, I wanted to become very rich, to have lots of money, a nice car, a big house etc.… It was a common village boy’s dream. I don’t think I actually prayed for it, but I surely dreamt about it often. What happened thereafter? Well, I am still dreaming about it. And I even pray for it now! Not for myself but for the parish. When I first moved to this parish, I was shocked by the financial situation, so I did wish and pray for this parish to be rich.  Money is indeed helpful in life but not the most important. Money solves a lot of problems only when it is used wisely. Being poor helps me learn to depend on God’s providence. So, my dream for the parish now is to be rich in God’s word, in community life, in prayerful spirit, in loving and caring for one another. I dream of hearing our prayers and singing rise-up strong and joyful to the heavens when we gather to prais
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Homily: May 10, 2023, Wednesday of the Fifth week of Easter (Holy family School Mass)

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We heard in the Gospel today, Jesus is telling His disciples, "Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine." How many of you enjoy gardening? Have you ever noticed what happens when you cut off a branch from a plant? What will happen to that branch? It will dry up, wither and die after a short time, right? Some of you don’t do gardening so you may not be familiar and may not understand. What about this - how many of you use a mobile phone or tablet? What happens when the battery is used up and you don't charge it? Yes, it shuts down and stops working. You can’t play on it, can’t send messages, can’t make calls, you can’t even switch it on. The mobile phone or tablet is dead! So what should you do to revive it? Yes, you connect it to the power source to charge it, either plug in to the electrical outlet or to a power bank to power up the battery. Only then does the phone become useful again, right? Our spiri
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Homily: March 6, 2022, First Sunday of Lent

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F or forty days and nights, satan was waiting, to strike when Jesus was most hungry, at His weakest. First temptation: “Command this stone to become bread.” Jesus needed food indeed. Satan did not give food, but suggested Jesus to abuse His divine power to create food for Himself. He makes us think our needs and wants are most important. And suggests shortcuts to satisfy ourselves. Selfish desires turn us away from God. Second temptation: “I shall give to you all this power and glory…worship me.” Jesus’ mission is to preach the good news to all nations. Satan tries to persuade Jesus to take the easy way, to receive power and glory from him. satan is the father of lies. Nothing belongs to him. satan tries to make us believe that money will give us power and earthly possessions will give us glory. He tempts us with quick and convenient ways to achieve our ambitions. Greed and vanity block us from holy virtues. Third temptation: “If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here…”
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