Homily: July 11, 2023, Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Namesake)

-

 "You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob but as Israel." 

Jacob was well known for giving new names to places where he had a memorable experience. In yesterday's first reading, we saw how he changed the name of the place where he had his beautiful dream of angels and stairs to heaven, from Luz to Bethel. Today, he wrestled with God’s angel, and he named the wrestling place Penuel. In the chapters that follow, we will see him name another place Manahaim and so on. The names of these places carry the memory of the event that happened to Jacob.

Interestingly, in today’s reading, we see God's angel changing Jacob's name to Israel, because now, the person of Jacob was what carried the memory of the event. ‘Israel’ means ‘the one who wrestles with God’. 

What is the significance of a name?

Many roads and streets are named after people who contributed to the history of the land, this ensures that their names and the events of their time will not be forgotten. Jesus says, “The good shepherd calls his sheep by name”, they are not just ‘sheep’, each of them is different and the good shepherd knows each of them specially.

God calls each of us by our names too, because we are not nobody, we are not a thing, we are somebody. God knows each of us specially and uniquely.

God told Abraham, “I will make your name great.” And He did. Through His angel, Jacob became Israel, and the whole Jewish people became known as Israelites, bearing the identity of being Jacob’s lineage and Abraham’s descendents.

Saint Benedict, the abbot, is still remembered today, even after 1500 years. Not just his name, but also his way of life. Thousands of monks have been and still are following his footsteps. Even our popes, 16 of them, had chosen ‘Benedict’ as their papal names because Benedict was faithful to God and his earthly life was inspirational.

Let us also be faithful to God in every situation. He knows our names and calls out to us daily. Let us hear and recognize His voice and follow Him every day. Amen.


Comments

Post a Comment

Read

Homily: November 7, 2025, Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Knowledge)

-
 “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 ...
Read more

Homily: August 21, 2024, Wednesday of the twentieth week in Ordinary time (Holy family school Mass )

-
“For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep.” At the end of the first reading, in which the prophet Ezekiel spoke to the people on behalf of God, saying that God will look after and tend His sheep Himself, that means He will never leave His precious sheep to anybody else. How many of you have pets at home? Do you love them and care for them? If you were going away for a long, long vacation, would you leave your pets with me to care for them? I used to have a pet cow when I was a little boy in India. Her name was Mannikutti. She was a newly born calf when she was first given to me. Every day after school, I would go to her, talk to her, feed her, clean her and just spend time with her. I love her very much! I would know if she was sick, just by the way she ate her food. And she would respond to me happily whenever I talked to her. And I was always very happy spending time with her. I know her very well because I am always with her, observing her and taking ca...
Read more

Homily: October 8, 2023, Twentyseventh sunday in ordinary time (wild grapes and bad tenants)

-
“The kingdom of God will be taken away from you  and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” We are now in harvesting season. Many months before this, we were planting and pruning, now we see the results, the fruits, the produce. Our two readings today are also about producing and harvesting fruits. In the first reading the vineyard produced wild grapes instead of good grapes. What went wrong? If the vineyard owner had done everything right, and yet the vineyard brought forth wild grapes, then the problem must have been the soil? Yet it was a land set on the fertile hillside. There is nothing the vineyard owner could do than to let it waste and be cursed. In the Gospel, the story is not about the soil which could not produce, but the tenants who refused to give the produce back to the vineyard owner. What went wrong? The produce must have been good, and the tenants might have become greedy, and wanted to keep all the harvest to themselves and even planned to kill to take ov...
Read more

Homily: August 25, 2024, Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

-
“This saying is hard; who can accept it?” “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” This weekend is the last of the five Sundays during which the Gospel readings were taken from chapter 6 of St. John, the Bread of Life discourse, exploring fully Jesus’ teachings on the Eucharist, beginning with the multiplication of loaves. Next week we will continue with the Gospel of Mark. So, what saying is hard to accept for the disciples? It is Jesus’ saying that His body is true bread, His blood is true drink and only those who eat and drink His body and blood will have eternal life with Him. Is it also hard for you to accept? There are many teachings in the Catholic Church which are hard to accept. And like many of the disciples who left Jesus and returned to their former way of life, even after seeing all His works and miracles, many present-day Catholics also leave the church because they could not accept the teachings. Sho...
Read more

Homily: July 25, 2025, Feast of St. James the Apostle (Dying to give life)

-
 “So death is at work in us, but life in you.” Profound words from St. Paul. Death was at work in his life, in other words, he was dying. Whatever he was doing at that time, it was causing his death sooner than later. But his dying was giving life to others. I grew up witnessing real models who died to themselves to give life to others. They were my parents. My papa worked hard from very early in the morning till late in the evening on our farm every day. There are no rest days for farmers because the crops need attention daily. My mother cooked all our daily meals, prepared from scratch, used firewood for cooking, there was no running water from taps, water had to be fetched from the river. You can imagine she would be cooking and washing non-stop from the moment she woke till she rested at night. Life wasn’t easy. They worked hard to provide for their seven children; they gave their life for us. They were dying a little each day while we were growing steadily. We, their children,...
Read more

Homily: December 9, 2024, Solemnity of immaculate conception of Blessed Virgin Mary (Holy Family School Mass)

-
 “As he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him." We heard this phrase in today’s second reading. It is such a wonderful affirmation for us! God planned for us to belong to Him even before the world began. Imagine that! Billions of years before today, God already had you in mind, your existence was in His plan. You did not exist by chance, you were not an accident and definitely not a mistake. You are God’s dream, God’s desire, God’s wish, God’s plan. Isn’t that amazing? Today, we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Just as God knew us before the foundation of the world, He also knew the Blessed Virgin Mary before she was born. He chose her for a special mission, to be the mother of His Son from the very beginning. This is truly wonderful! But what does "Immaculate Conception" mean? ‘Conception’ refers to the moment when a new life is conceived in the womb, the moment a human ...
Read more

Funeral Homily: Maria Dolores Tovar. January 21, 2022

-
 We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of our beloved sister, Maria Dolores and to celebrate her passage from this world into the next. She suffered in her health for some time and is now released from those troubles. She is on her way to the heavenly kingdom. Within the same day of her death, her grandson Edgar Alonso was also called back to the Lord suddenly. This is a tough time for the Tovar family. No words can soothe your sorrows, no consolation can comfort your pain. Only God knows what you are going through and only He can grace you with the strength to embrace this time of sadness and help you go through it with faith. In the first reading taken from the book of Wisdom, we look at human suffering. In many cultures, suffering is seen as a punishment or curse, a lack of blessings. But for all of us who have faith in Jesus Christ, we know that suffering can be a saving grace. God did not cause the suffering, He allows it to happen. Therefore, it must have some good for...
Read more

Homily: May 10. 2025, fourth Sunday of Easter (Good Shepherd)

-
 “The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.”  This line always impacts me greatly. Imagine being filled with both joy and the Holy Spirit, especially while facing intense rejection and persecution. That’s not something ordinary. That’s something supernatural - something that comes only from God. I have five sisters. One of my sisters will start singing without a care in the world and won’t stop – when she drinks just a glass of wine! Another sister becomes the queen of jokes, jokes one after another, creating a funny scene – simply after having a glass or two. What about me? I just have a good sleep when I get more drinks. The point is, they’re not normally like that. Normally they are too shy to sing or too dull to say anything funny. But wine or alcohol seem to melt away their mental or social blocks making them mentally high and socially carefree. In the Acts of the Apostles, we see Peter and the other apostles giving their first big preaching, and people thou...
Read more

Homily: June 15, 2025 Soemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

-
Today’s second reading ends with this powerful phrase: “Because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Today we celebrate two beautiful events: the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity and Father’s Day. So, happy Father’s Day to all our fathers, grandfathers, fathers-to-be and godfathers! My siblings and I are incredibly blessed to have had a good Christian father who fulfilled his duties both as a father and as a Catholic. My papa was a very quiet, resilient, yet very gentle person. He loved and protected all his seven children, physically, emotionally, mentally and especially spiritually. He taught us the faith and was a great model of the traditions. He made sure we never missed Sunday Mass and took us regularly to Confession. I was very much a “dad’s boy”, working with him daily on the farm, taking care of the animals together with him. He didn’t worry much about school grades, but he was very firm and strict with us re...
Read more

Homily: August 30, 2025, Saturday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Work Hard)

-
 “Aspire to live a tranquil life, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.”  This is exactly what I desire for my own life, a tranquil, serene, peaceful life. And I believe many of us long for the same too. St. Paul repeatedly encourages the Christian community to live in peace, to engage in meaningful work, and to live in harmony with one another, respecting a healthy privacy and space for others. One common misunderstanding among the early Christians was about the Second Coming of Christ. Many believed that Christ’s return was imminent, so close that it would happen within their lifetime. Because of this anticipation, some thought that working to upkeep livelihood or planning for their children’s future were pointless. And in some sense, it is practical. If you knew that everything you are working for would soon be useless, that your life would be totally transformed and all your property would be valueless, would you still work? Work ...
Read more