Homily: June 14, 2023, Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time (Smallest Letter)

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 Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law.

What is the smallest letter of the law?

In my home diocese in India, the church belongs to the Syro-Malabar tradition and our liturgy is celebrated differently from the Roman rite we celebrate here.

The liturgical language used is East Syriac. Syriac is very similar to Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus and His disciples. Both languages share the same alphabet, and within it, the smallest letter is the Yod (^), which resembles a small upside-down "V". One of our seminarian friends was nicknamed "Yod" because of his small physical stature. 

Despite its size, this letter holds great significance in the language. Yod is used to form all the other letters, and since the Jewish tradition holds that God uses all the letters as the building blocks of creation, Yod points to God's omnipresence. And creation is natural law.

So when Jesus says ‘the smallest letter’ of the law, He could be referring to the foundation of natural law, pointing to God’s intention for the creation of the world, love.

Until heaven and earth pass away, love will never pass.

Today, one of the biggest challenges of the Church's mission is relativism. To many people especially the young ones, everything is subjective. To them, morality is subjective, everything is relative, nothing is absolute, truth is personal. God’s law is thus disregarded.

For a nation, the supreme law of the state is its constitution. For the church, her constitution is the Gospel. A faithful citizen of the state will give utmost respect to its constitution. As faithful Catholics, do we also give utmost respect to God’s law?

Do we truly understand God’s law in matters like Euthanasia, abortion, same-sex union?

Do we live in obedience to the Gospel?

Or do we question its truth and expect it to follow the ways of the world, to keep up with modern times as some people like to say?

Which do you follow?

Everything in the Gospel is founded on love, agape self-giving, self-emptying love. Until heaven and earth pass away, love will never pass. Amen


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Homily: November 16, 2024 Saturday of the Thirty Second week in Ordinary time (Find Faith)

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Homily:August 18, 2024, Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Wisdom)

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 “Let whoever is simple turn in here; To the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed!” This generous invitation in today’s first reading is from Lady Wisdom. This reading is taken from Chapter 9 of the Book of Proverbs which portrays two women: Lady Wisdom and Dame Folly. Our first reading presents only the invitation of Lady Wisdom. She invites us, ‘whoever is simple’, to her home to enjoy the real good life, one of understanding and food good for our body and soul, while Dame Folly attracts people to destruction. Many people seek wisdom, sometimes for unwise reasons, often in the wrong places, and in the wrong ways. Wisdom is unlike knowledge and intellect, it is not something we can gain through studying or hard work, it does not come automatically with age or experience; it is ultimately a gift from the Holy Spirit. In Proverbs 2:6, it says ‘For the Lord gives wisdom…” I am very blessed to have met many wise people who in ...
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