Homily: June 19, 2023, Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time (parish Treasure)

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"As unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things."

In today’s first reading, we see St. Paul’s wisdom as he writes to the faith community in Corinth. He is teaching them to see positivity in every hardship, every problem, every suffering. To him, every situation, seemingly good or bad, is a blessing, if we have eyes of faith to see it.

A good example is our St. Ambrose parish. In the diocese, we are one of the poorest parishes, despite being the Cathedral. Seventy percent of our parishioners are refugees, living every day in survival mode, working hard to build a basic home, to educate their children, simply to live in peace. They left their war-torn country to find a new home, starting from zero. They brought nothing with them, only faith and hope.

Materially, they have next to nothing, so they are not able to give much financially. Yet, they participate so actively in the life of the church and contribute in so many other ways.

The youth and some of us supporting the CYC have been going to principle park to clean and collect drink cans to earn some extra cash to raise funds.

This past Saturday morning, I requested extra help from our communities and many families turned up at the principal park that night to help. We cleared rubbish and picked up drink cans thrown everywhere, even in the trash bins. It was a dirty job.

At around 9.30 PM, heavy rain poured down mercilessly, but no one stopped working, not even the children. We were more than an hour  in the rain working till the job was done. Those who came already had it tough in their life, but instead of resting at home, they came to do more hard work for the parish, for the youth.

No one complained about the rain or the dirty tasks. But the children, the youth, and their parents, all 67 of them that night, shared that they were so happy and full of joy for having done something for the church.

That night’s effort raised a few hundred dollars for the CYC funds, but the solidarity, the community spirit, the joy of giving to church, with our own hands and with a joyful heart, was worth more than gold or silver. That was priceless.

As I was walking in the rain back to my car that night, I was convinced that this parish is one of the richest in the diocese, because we have the most valuable treasure – the loving dedication of these families and everyone in the parish.

These families at St. Ambrose, are indeed “as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things”. We are very blessed and very rich. Amen. 








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Homily, Wednesday,January 5, 2022, Memorial of Saint John Neumann, Bishop

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Readings:  https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010522.cfm In the first reading, St. John writes, “Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God”.  Do you truly and fully believe that Jesus is God? Do you know someone who does not believe so? Many, I am sure. Similarly in St. John’s time, there were many early Christian communities who questioned the divinity of Jesus. They followed Jesus’ teachings but regarded Him as simply a human person with the special power to perform miracles. They did not believe He is God. The disbelief stemmed from the humanity of Jesus. He was born from a woman like any other human, he grew from infancy to adulthood in the same way as the rest of humanity. He experienced hunger, pain, emotions and temptations like anyone. But He did not sin. Jesus was indeed fully human, so how could He also be fully divine? Human logic cannot explain it. Science cannot prove it. Thus, many could not accept it. God came to sav...
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Homily:August 18, 2024, Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Wisdom)

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Homilía: 3 Julio, 2022, XIV Domingo Ordinario

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Homily April 29, Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

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 “And all day long, both at the temple and in their homes, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Christ, Jesus”. Even after being flogged, all day long, the disciples continued teaching and preaching everywhere… Amazing, isn’t it?  These past few days, we have been reading from Acts of the Apostles. We see how the Jewish leaders and high priest tried to stop the apostles from preaching in the name of Jesus. But they failed. The Pharisee Gamaliel rightly said, “if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.” How true. The church is from God. The disciples did not stop teaching and proclaiming. They even rejoiced at being flogged for what they were doing. They were on fire for Jesus. They were so eager and excited to tell everyone about Jesus. What about us? If there is a new restaurant serving delicious food or a store is having a great end-of-summer sale, we would hear many people talking about it. Some w...
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Homily: August 20, 2022, Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

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Christmas Homily 2021,

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Homily: December 10, 2024, Tuesday of the second week In Advent (Word of God)

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Homily: November 2, 2024, The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls); Pleanary Indulgnce.

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