Homily: February 13, 2023, Monday of the sixth week in Ordinary Time.

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 In Genesis 1, we saw how “God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.”

Then in Genesis 2, “The Lord God called to Adam and asked him, "Where are you?"”

Now in Genesis 4, “The Lord then said: “What have you done!”

As we continue our journey through the book of Genesis, we see how darkness again fell on the earth through the disobedience and growing sins of man.

There is violence, murder, cheating and many other evil doings of man. These are big contrasts from the first chapters where we see the love, generosity and intimacy of God the Father, a world so beautiful.

But God said His creation is very good, what went wrong?

He created man in the image and likeness of Himself, how then could man turn evil?

Did the crown of His creation become a curse?

As we read on, we might have many more questions. We see man disregarding God, doubting and disagreeing with Him, we ourselves might also wonder why God seems unfair and has favourites. We see His own people complaining and arguing against His ways.

It is hard to accept that God could have made a mistake in creating humans, that the world went wrong at the beginning, that everything was out of control since then. Because if this is so, is there any hope for a better tomorrow?

Yes, of course there is hope because there is love and there will be mercy. Everything will be made right again.

Despite Cain’s murderous and unrepentant ways, God protected him. He punished him to help set him right in life yet protected him from condemnation.

Because we are made in God’s image and likeness, beneath our evil ways, planted deep into our being, is the seed of love, the breath of God’s spirit. This is hope.

The book of Genesis shows us how evil man can be but tells us more firmly and consistently how loving and merciful God is. Despite all the disobedience and sins of humans, our God did not stop loving us. And because He is love, He will never stop forgiving us. Our sins can never exhaust His mercies. Jesus is God’s mercy for us.

So, no matter what wrongs we have done in our life, let us turn around now and embrace God’s love. Let us give thanks for His mercy and let His grace flow through us. God is love and love never changes. This is hope.

In the God who loves us, we place our trust.

Amen.



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Homily: December 25, 2025, The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

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 “So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Infant lying in the manger.” Today we hear the beautiful story of the shepherds visiting the newborn Christ. They found not only a Child, but a family. God sent His Son into the world not as a warrior or a king, but into the care of a mother and a father. Into a home. Into love. And what kind of family did God choose? Not a wealthy family. Not a powerful family. Not a comfortable family. Mary and Joseph had no room in the inn. Mary gave birth in poverty. Joseph struggled to provide safety and shelter. Their situation was not easy there was fear, uncertainty, and hardship. Yet God entrusted His Son to them. Even if they lacked material comfort, Jesus never lacked what mattered most: a loving mother and a caring father. As God wanted His Son to have a holy family, so too God wants every child to experience a holy, loving, safe family. Today we look around and see many broken families, many homes burdened with pain, absence, d...
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"Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you." Just three days ago, we celebrated Christmas - a joyful commemoration of the day God came to live among us in our world, it is a when divine light entered human darkness, it is a day for rejoicing. The Christmas season continues for the Church up until the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. However, if we read and reflect on the details of Christ’s birth and events surrounding this season of joy, we see poverty, simplicity and suffering. Just before our Lord was born into this world, His earthly parents went through hardship just to find a place to rest, He was then welcomed into physical and material poverty, the day after His birth, we celebrated the death of the first martyr, St. Stephen, followed by the feast of St. John the Evangelist who suffered persecution and isolation till a ripe old age. And now today, we observe the feast of the Holy Innocents — a sorrowful event when hundreds of...
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 “The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.’” As a young man, Joseph must have had beautiful dreams about his future family. He could have imagined a helpful and capable wife, children playing around the house and growing up to be well respected people in the community, a vision of a stable and peaceful life. When he got engaged to Mary, it seemed like his dreams would become reality soon. Many of us, married or not, can identify with the dreams that Joseph could have had. Yet like Joseph, the realities of our lives would have unfolded quite differently from how we have dreamt it. Joseph’s family life turned out totally unlike his own dreams, yet he continued to dream, now with God’s will revealed and God’s plan unfolding in the reality of his life. The hardship he went through in Bethlehem, with the birth of Jesus, did not end there. Today’s Gospel shows another unexpected cha...
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“Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you.” This sounds fine to me because I am not fussy with food and am happy to eat anything offered. I can’t think of any food that I will not eat. And it helps a lot in my ministry, especially in this parish since I get invited to homes of various cultures and different cuisine. So far, I do enjoy Eritrean, Burmese, Laotian, Sudanese, Mexican and of course, American food. Yes, it is easy to feed me but very difficult to slim me down. But why did Jesus give such a specific instruction to His disciples regarding eating and drinking? It may look simple for us, but it was challenging to His disciples. They were Jews and the Jewish law laid out very strict food practices and prohibitions. And now they were being sent out to Gentile villages to preach to them. They were to live in Gentile homes and eat as they eat, drink as they drink. The disciples probably had never done anything like that before. Can you imagine the cultural sho...
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Homily: December 24, 2024, Christmas Mass (Swaddling clothes )

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"She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger..." This Gospel scene brings me back to one special day when I was in grade eight. My eldest sister was back at home from college for summer vacation. The rest of my family were out of the house for a parish event, and so it was just the two of us at home. Before leaving the house, my mother had pre-empted us that one of our she-goats on the farm was ready to give birth, although she did think it might happen in a few more days. However, shortly after my parents and other siblings left the house, the she-goat or doe went into labor and gave birth to three babies: two males, one female. The baby doeling was very weak and looked unhealthy, my sister and I did not know what to do. So we called our grandmother on the phone, and she explained to us how to take care of the newborn kids. Following her instructions, we used iodine to treat the navel cords to prevent infection, cleaned up the birth site, made a nice bed of...
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 Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones.” Our true and permanent home is heaven. We are destined to be citizens of heaven. For now, we are just sojourners on earth, pilgrims making our way towards home. I enjoy reading and hearing stories of people who have had near-death experiences. One common thing they report is that heaven is beautiful, and it is familiar. They usually describe it as the feeling of returning home, surrounded by people they know, being totally at ease and at peace. This image of heaven is pure joy. Those who live a virtuous life on earth, who keep their hearts united with God, are already preparing to live in that home. Heaven is not a foreign place for the faithful; it’s the fulfillment of what we yearn for deep inside of us. If we follow Jesus closely, we are already learning to live the heavenly life, experiencing and sharing the love and mercy of God and being in communion with God al...
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Holy Family School Mass Homily.   “At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.” In today’s Gospel, we hear about Jesus healing many people with different diseases. The passage begins with the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, who was very sick in bed with a very high fever. She was not merely resting, in fact her fever was so bad that she was unable to get out of bed. I am guessing it could be 103 or 104 degrees! Normally, if we get such a high fever, it would take us days to recover with strong medication. But when Jesus visited Peter’s mother-in-law, He simply stood over her, rebuked the fever, that means He scolded the fever, and it left her!  Instantly, she was well again and was able to get up and serve Jesus and His disciples. Wow! Jesus is the King of the Universe, He has power over everything in the world, if you would only believe in Him and trust Him. Even today, Jesus continues ...
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Homily: October 5, 2025, Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Wait-God's Time)

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 “For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.” These powerful words from the prophet Habakkuk point towards hope. Hope in the fulfillment of God’s promises, despite the people’s failures. Habakkuk is one of the twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament, a small book of just three chapters, but every line is theologically deep. Habakkuk lived in the 7th century before the Babylonian exile. He saw the kingdom of Judah sinking in moral decay, corruption, and spiritual emptiness. The kings were weak, the people disobedient, and the once glorious nation of Israel was on the brink of collapse. Meanwhile, nearby nation Babylon was rising in power and strength, and ruthlessness. Habakkuk could see what was coming, and it terrified him. He wrestled with God in prayer. “Lord, how long?” he cried. Why do the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer? And God’s answer was simple yet...
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Homily: October 21,2024, Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Greed).

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 He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ The rich man in Jesus’ parable had a wonderful problem. His harvest is so abundant that his existing storehouse was not big enough for it. It was time for expansion! He will get wealthier! Thus, he thought to himself, “…you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ Isn’t that what most of us plan for ourselves? To earn as much as possible as soon as possible, so that we can retire early and enjoy the rest of our lives. Many people believe that having enough wealth will bring them happiness, so they focus on accumulating and protecting their possessions and wealth. The problem with this rich man is not his wealth, nor about the abundant harvest he was having, but about what was dominating his life. The problem was not what he possessed, but what was possessing him. Greed possessed him, and determined his decisions, plans and actions. There was no room for thanksg...
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