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 widespread, in today’s world, even within the church.

Some people in church have asked me, "Why do so many people go for reconciliation? Have they committed serious sins? Are they terrible sinners?"

Because they themselves have not gone for reconciliation since a long time, believing they do not need to because they did not steal, or cheat or commit murder etc. 

They did not realise that the sacrament of reconciliation is not just about confessing sins, mortal or venial, it is also about receiving graces from God to better resist future temptations and to simply walk closer with Jesus. It is Jesus Himself, not the priest, who absolves sins in the sacrament.

And there are parishioners somehow believe that the Holy Eucharist has special power, but they don’t believe it is the real body of Christ. It seems they are ignorant of the many Eucharistic miracles that have taken place over the centuries, which Science cannot explain, which reveals that the Holy Eucharist is no longer bread, but real flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.

I am sure we all are ignorant of some things in our faith, because God is just so big, therefore we cannot stop growing in faith, we cannot stop learning more about Jesus, we cannot be complacent. We cannot risk making serious mistakes in faith because of our ignorance, like the Jews in Jesus’ time. And we should not pass on our ignorance to the next generation.

We have a duty and responsibility to know our faith and to live it. Start with the Bible, read it and where there is doubt, ask. There are many resources now easily available on the internet, just make sure they are from Catholic and credible sources.

Let us pray for a renewal in our church, in our families, and in our society. As we prepare for Pentecost, let us ask for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, to fill us with knowledge, understanding, and wisdom for greater faith. Amen.


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Homily: April 5, 2025, Saturday of the Fourth week in Lent (The crowd and Pharisees)

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 “But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.”  Poor Pharisees. They held onto an unrealistic dream that all Israelites would know the law as well as they did. But the reality was that most people were living in poverty, under oppression, and with fear. They didn’t have the same access to education or religious instruction. Sometimes, I feel something similar in my own life. People often talk to me about TV shows, baseball, or football, assuming I’m familiar with what they enjoy. But the truth is, I don’t even know the basics of those games, I don’t follow any American TV shows except The Chosen.  I live in America, and many assume I share the same interests. But just like the Pharisees in Jesus’ time, it’s easy to forget that not everyone fits into the same mold. In today’s Gospel, the people including the guards were amazed by Jesus’ words. They praised Him for His miracles. But the Pharisees? They weren’t interested. They were so focused on studying the L...
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“He shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street.”  Throughout Holy Week, we will be reading from the Book of Prophet Isaiah. 700 years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah had prophesied about the coming of the Messiah, not in a grand arrival, neither would He leave earth in a dignified departure. The image of Christ described by Isaiah is that of a humble suffering servant of God. His mission is to ‘bring forth justice to the nations’, by taking on injustice on Himself. He will carry the sins of the world through pain, yet He will not cry out, nor shout, He will bear all these in a meek, mild and humble way. Isaiah’s prophecies were all fulfilled by Jesus, particularly in the days of Holy Week. This week’s readings invite us to look to Jesus, no to pity and pain for Him, but to learn from Him, to straighten up our spirit to imitate Him, and to follow His example. All through Jesus’ trial, His great sufferings on the...
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Homily: July 18, Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time.

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“She came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.” Queen Sheba went from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to see and hear for herself the famous King Solomon. Do you know how long did it take Queen Sheba to travel to Jerusalem in those times? She probably took three months to get there, and with a large group of servants, guards and advisors, taking with them not just the essentials for their daily needs but also loads of valuable gifts to present to the King. Would you be so well prepared and travel with so much conviction far away to see and hear someone great? We do see many people putting aside school, work and spend lots of money, even travelling far, to attend concerts, watch ball games and see their idols. Some of these events are often marketed as the ‘event of your life’ and not to be missed. Do we see the same interest and excitement for faith events?  Oh yes! Many people attended the Christ Our Life Conferences. They were all eager to hear the gifted speakers and ...
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Homily: October 20, 2023 Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Secrets).

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 "There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known." Do you have secrets? Are you worried about your secrets being revealed? Do you keep secrets for someone else? Have you been tempted to leak out the secret to another person? Something I realized growing up in a large family, is that in big families, there are no secrets, there is no way to hide any secret, not for long. Someone will somehow find out something. When I was in school, the period after exams is the secretive time. The teachers would enter our examination results in our school journal, to be shown to our parents for their signature, then return to the teachers next day. My brother and I would always get poor grades, and we would hide our school journals, with a plan to only show to our parents the next day just before leaving for school, so that there would not be much time for them to scold us, they could just sign and we would run off quickly to school. The plan never wor...
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Homily: July,14, 2023 Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Final resting place)

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 "Not only will I go down to Egypt with you; I will also bring you back here, after Joseph has closed your eyes." With this promise of God, Jacob was greatly comforted and confident to follow God’s direction to leave the land of Canaan and move to Egypt. Why so? In Oriental cultures, it is a tradition for people to be buried on their family property, within their home ground. You can imagine there could be generations of forefathers buried in the backyard of every house, resting in peace.  Thus, people would never sell their property nor move out of it because their forefathers were buried there, and it would also be their final resting place. Many people who went overseas to work would insist on being sent back to their home countries and be buried in their home ground when they die. Jacob had that same concern. He wanted to be buried in the same cave at Machpelah where Abraham and Sarah, and Isaac and Rebecca were buried. Otherwise, he believed he would not rest in peace....
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Homily: November 27, 2023, Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Fear of the Lord)

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 “In any question of wisdom or prudence that the king posed to them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his kingdom.” One of my favorite books in the Old Testament is the book of Daniel. The stories of Daniel and his friends inspire me a lot. I enjoy reading how God was always with them and blessed them with great wisdom and a unique gift in interpreting visions and dreams. In today’s first reading, we see how King Nebuchadnezzar tested and then invited these three young men, Daniel and his two friends, to serve him. It was an honor and seen as a great fortune to be trusted by the King, to eat and converse with him while all other Israelites were living as slaves. But Daniel and his friends did not once forget the God of their ancestors. Even though they had privileges from the King, they did not disobey God’s laws. They feared the Lord in all their days, they loved God in all their ways. And for that, they had great wisdom and understanding. An...
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Homily: March 4, 2022: Friday after Ash Wednesday

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  “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much but your disciples do not fast?” The disciples of John did not understand the real purpose of fasting. They were blindly following the law. We also fast. Do we know why? Fasting was practised even before Christianity. The Hindu and Buddhist teachers fasted. Not by law but for spiritual meditation. Depriving body cleared their mind and purified their spirit. They received enlightenment. They received wisdom. Our daily living is cluttered with too much social noise, mental distractions, physical sensualities, and spiritual sin. We cannot see clearly the presence of Christ - the bridegroom. When we fast, we deprive, we detach, we free ourselves. We become more aware of the real need within us. We become more conscious of the real needs around us. We see truth, we understand eternity, we encounter divinity. We become enlightened. We become peace. My papa fasted regularly throughout his life. He was calm, compassionate and patient, even when in p...
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Homilía: Julio 17, 2022, XVI Domingo Ordinario

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 "Marta, Marta, muchas cosas te preocupan y te inquietan, siendo así que una sola es necesaria. María escogió la mejor parte". ¿Qué es esa única cosa que se necesita? Este consejo de Jesús es muy importante para cada uno de nosotros. Reflexionemos sobre las lecturas de hoy para entenderlo mejor. En la primera lectura, Abraham vio a tres hombres que estaban cerca de su tienda; inmediatamente se ofreció a servirles y les dio una buena cena, antes de que siguieran su camino. En la lectura del Evangelio, cuando Jesús entró en el pueblo, Marta y María lo recibieron. Marta se ocupó de preparar una buena cena para Jesús. Mientras que María, se sentó a sus pies a escucharle hablar. Marta se sentía agobiada y ansiosa. Necesitaba la ayuda de María para dar una buena comida a su invitado. Entonces Jesús dijo: "una sola es necesaria. María escogió la mejor parte...". Efectivamente, María eligió algo maravilloso. Sentarse con Jesús y escucharle hablar. Eso es lo que nos gustaría...
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Homily: October 7, 2024, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary (Weapon)

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"And coming to her, he said, 'Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.'" I have seen this many times – one of our catechists holding up a rosary in her hand and asking the kids, “What is this?” When they respond, “It’s a rosary,” she would add, “This is a weapon to fight against the evil one.” How true! But have you ever wondered how does a rosary become a weapon against Satan? When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He used the Word of God to counter the temptations presented by the evil one. Satan is afraid of the Word of God. And when we pray the rosary, we are repeating the Word of God, bead after bead, don’t we? Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you. The “Hail Mary” is a prayer woven beautifully with the words of Scripture, and the “Our Father” is the prayer that Jesus Himself taught us, straight from the Bible. These are prayers recited repeatedly in the rosary. The rosary is thus a deeply biblical prayer which anyone can pray, and anytime we can recall ...
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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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