Homily: May 30, 2023, Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Give to the Most High)

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 "Give to the Most High as He has given to you, generously, according to your means."

When I read this, my first thoughts were about tithing and almsgiving. But when I read again and thought deeper, "Give to the Most High as He has given you"…

What has He given me?

He has given me my life, my family, an intellect and free will. Everything else is derived from these, so all that I have is from Him, my God, the Most High.

Is that all? Is it just about what He gave me for my life on earth? 

No. There is more, and it is the most important. He gave me His own life, His beloved Son, His wisdom, His will.

He wills that His beloved Son come into my world, teach me wisdom and die for me that I may have a share in His divine, eternal life.

What He has given me is a sacrifice of Himself, every day, in the Holy Eucharist. And so, the same I should give to Him, generously, according to my means.

There is a powerful quote from C.S. Lewis, “God doesn’t want something from us. He simply wants us.”

The Eucharist is God’s greatest gift of Himself. Because He wants to dwell in us. How should we respond?

Yes, receive Him generously, give Him a dwelling place in our heart so that He can live in us. He gives daily, let us too receive daily. He wants us, and He wants us to want Him.

So, let us give ourselves totally to God the Most High, just as He has given Himself totally to us.

Give Him our whole heart, not just a small corner, an occasional remembrance nor only in times of urgent need, but daily, every minute, every moment, just as He gives us His every moment.

Let us want Him in us, as much as He wants us in Him.

Amen.


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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 10, 2025, Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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 “You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Do you like surprise visits? Some of us do. Recently, I went again to visit my sister and her family. Since the last visit, my 4-year-old nephew had been calling me almost daily and asking me to visit him again. So, this time, I told my sister to keep my trip a secret, I wanted to surprise the little boy. When he saw me finally, his eyes were wide open with disbelief, and his mouth too was wide open in surprise! I will never forget that look on his face, and the exuberant joy of the moment when I hugged and carried him. But not all of us like surprise visits, especially when the visitors come at the wrong time, and we are caught unprepared. When I was in high school, our principal, Fr. George, was very strict. He didn’t talk much, but he knew every student. Occasionally, he would walk along the school corridors, surveying every corner and if he caught any student misbehaving, he would carry ou...
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Homily: December 2, 2025, Tuesday of the First Week of Advent (Knowledge)

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“There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;  for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,  as water covers the sea.” How beautiful this promise is, the entire earth filled with the knowledge of the Lord as water covers the sea. Imagine a world where every heart, every home, every nation is filled with the knowledge of God. What a different world that would be. Knowledge is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. But this knowledge does not simply mean information it means truly knowing God: knowing His heart, His will, His love, His commandments. This is the very purpose of human life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1721 teaches: God placed us in the world to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him, and so to come to Paradise. And notice the order: Know> Love> Serve. We cannot love someone we do not know, and we cannot serve someone we do not love. So how do we know God? The Psalm tells us:  “Be still and know that I am God” (Psal...
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Homily: November 30,2025 First Sunday of Advent (Peace)

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 “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” Recently, I read a book titled “Breaking Ground” by Heidi Kühn, the 2023 World Food Prize laureate. This Californian woman transformed thousands of acres of land buried with landmines, in Croatia, Laos, Afghanistan, and other war-torn regions, and converted them into vineyards, fruit tree plantations, playgrounds, schools, and farmland. Millions of landmines were removed, and peace was established through agriculture. Throughout her book, she repeatedly mentioned the verse from Prophet Isaiah. Heidi is a mother of four children. When her youngest son was just a toddler in 1997, she felt called to begin this mission. Today, she has already raised and used over 2 billion dollars to bring flourishing life to where it was once a desolate and dangerous zone. As I was finishing the book, I thought to myself: If there were just a few more people like her, many more million mines could be removed, and mill...
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Homily: November 22, 2025, Saturday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time (The end).

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 “I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land.” These are the final words of Antiochus Epiphanes, the successor of Alexander the Great. If you have been following our daily readings, we first heard about him on Monday described as a “sinful offshoot.” He defiled the Temple of Jerusalem, persecuted the faithful Jews, and opposed the worship of the true God. Now, at the end of his life, Antiochus realizes his mistakes. He is filled with regret, bitterness, and sorrow. It’s a tragic end a man who once had so much power, wealth, and glory, yet dies far from home, spiritually empty and tormented by guilt. We’ve seen similar examples in the Bible and history people who made poor choices, turned away from God, and spent their last moments in deep regret. How different is this from the death of the saints, who met their final moments in peace and joy, having lived their lives faithfully. Life is short. When compared to the v...
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Homily: November 3, Monday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time (Poor)

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 “Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.” This Gospel reminds us of one of Jesus’ most powerful teachings of love and service, that is to love and serve those who are not able to give us anything in return. That is true giving, true serving. About a month ago, on October 4th, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Leo released an apostolic exhortation titled ‘Dilexi Te’, which means “I Have Loved You”. It is a beautiful exhortation on Jesus’ love for the poor. Jesus gave His love to the very poor, indeed those who could never even pay Him back a fraction of what He gave. And if we are true Christians, we too must give like Christ gives, we must have a heart for the poor, like Christ does, because Jesus Christ identifies Himself with them. So when we give to the poor, we are giving to Christ. The document states: “There are many forms of poverty: the poverty of those w...
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Homily: November 1, 2025-All Saints Day (Children of God)

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 “See what love the Father has bestowed on us, that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.” Today, the church celebrates All Saints Day. Who are the saints? We may be thinking of the many canonized saints we know of, like St. Therese, St. Ambrose, St. Benedict, St. John Paul II and so on. These were people who lived a life of holiness and faithfulness to the Lord. Their holiness was very visible such that when they died, the church began their canonization process. But seriously, who is a saint? In a simple description, a saint is someone who is in heaven with God. There are many of these who are unknown to us, only known to God. They are not canonized by the church, but they are in full union with Jesus after they died. Now, do you want to be in heaven with God when you die?  If your answer is yes, then you need to seriously think about holiness. Because if not heaven, it will be hell. Our late Pope Francis said, “To be saints is not a privilege for a few, but a...
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Homily: January 18, 2025, Saturday of the first week in Ordinary Time (High-Priest)

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"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin." When someone is diagnosed with a major illness, they often turn to others who have gone through a similar experience. They seek advice about doctors, treatments, and coping strategies. Why? Because those who have been through the same struggles can empathize and possibly share insights about the situation, better than someone who has not been through it. They know the pain, the challenges, and the fears, the journey. Of course, not everyone’s experience will be the same, but the reference can be useful. I remember when my mummy was diagnosed with cancer, we asked many people who had cancer before which helped us understand some things about the condition.  In today’s first reading, we hear about Jesus, our High Priest, who sympathizes with our weaknesses and knows what we go through in life, because He has gone through it all...
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Homily: February 10, 2025 Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary time (Good)

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 "God Saw How Good It Was." I love to read the story of creation, to visualize how it all started, the see our origin, the source of our being. God, in His infinite love, created the world to express His goodness, and made humanity the crown of His creation, to reflect His perfection. His expression was good. His reflection was good. Everything He created was good because each of His creation had a purpose for existence, a place in the world, a special relationship with Him. There was unique beauty in each, and harmony as a whole. His grace was in everything. He could see it. It was truly good. We know that as the story continued, the beauty and perfection were shattered soon after, by the sin of man, God’s masterpiece of all His created beings. Superficially, we see that God’s creation was destroyed. However, if we look around the world today, we can still see glimpses of the original goodness. A newborn baby. A full bloom flower. A bright rising sun. We can see how good it ...
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Homily: November 2, 2025, The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

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 “As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.” Today we commemorate All Souls’ Day, remembering all the faithful departed, our deceased loved ones, and especially for those souls with no one to pray for them. This feast makes sense only if we truly believe what the Church teaches about life, death, and eternity. In the Apostles’ Creed, we profess twelve articles of faith, closing with this part, “I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints.” What does “communion of saints” mean? It is the full and complete unity of the three parts of the one Church of God: 1. The Church Triumphant - made up of the saints in heaven; 2. The Church Militant - we, who make up the church still on our earthly pilgrimage; 3. The Church Suffering - all the souls in purgatory, awaiting time to enter heaven. Today’s feast therefore, is a dedicated remembrance, and united in prayer for and with the Church Suffering, praying for all the...
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