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: February 27, 2022, Eight Sunday in the Ordinary Time

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