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

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 "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.


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Homily: May 18, 2022, Wednesday of the fifth week of Easter.

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Homily: April 7, 2022, Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent

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Homily: March 27, 2024, Wednesday of teh Holy Week

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Preached During  Holy Family School Mass.  This week is a special week, do you know what it is known as? Yes, Holy Week! It is the holiest week in the whole year of the church. This is the week when the church follows everything that happened to Jesus, and studies seriously everything that Jesus did and taught, every day, up to Easter Sunday. Christians all over the world remember and celebrate the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus during this week. How many of you went to church last Sunday? Did you take back some palms? Great! So last Sunday was Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday. It remembers the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem sitting on a donkey and many people welcomed him with palms shouting, “Hosanna to the King of kings!” It is the beginning of Holy Week. Then we have Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday. And what is today? You are right, today is Holy Wednesday. But there is also another name to this day…anyone knows? Today is also known as Spy Wednesday. A s
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Homily: February 15, 2023, Wednesday of the Sixth week in Ordinary time

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(Holy Family School Mass)  First, I have some questions for you. 1. Do you know how old was Noah when he started building the Ark? a) 30 years old b) 100 years old c) 500 years old Yes, the correct answer is c) 500 years old. 2. Who knows how old was Noah when he finished the Ark? Any guesses? Yes, he was 600 years old. 3. Now the math question, so how many years did he take to build that huge ark? Yes, 100 years! Today’s first reading says when Noah came out of Ark after the floods went down, he was 6 hundred and 1 years old. That means he, his family and the animals lived in the Ark for one year! Imagine that, no sun, no moon, no beach, no biking, no trees, no outdoors and no other human beings for one whole year. Only rain and rain. How would you feel? I experienced that for one week last year when I had the covid infection. I had to be isolated from the rest of the world. But thankfully, I had social media, my phone and the internet, so that helped me pass the time easier. Imagine
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Homily: December 26,2022, Feast of Saint Stephen, first martyr.

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From the first reading, we heard Stephen declare, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But his persecutors ‘cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together.’ If we could visualize the scene, we would imagine Stephen looking radiant with joy as he anticipated his death, while his persecutors looking tormented and fearful as they prepared to kill. We know why Stephen was joyful as he looked up to heaven, because he could see where his future would be. We also know why his persecutors were afraid as they closed their ears to Stephen’s words, because they did not want to hear the truth. It tormented their conscience and pierced through the darkness in their hearts. I am sure we ourselves may have experienced the same, when our wrong doings were being highlighted, when our shame were being revealed or when our hurts were being exposed, we might also cry out, “stop! I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want to know i
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Homily: July 26, 2022, Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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 Grandma warned little John, “Be a good boy. At the end of the world, all disobedient and bad people will be cast into fiery hell where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” John listened intently and asked with a worried look, “Grandma, you always quarrel with others, and you don’t have any teeth, how will you grind your teeth when you go to hell?” Grandma was annoyed and said “Teeth will be provided in hell!” In today’s Gospel, we heard that “(Jesus’) disciples approached him and said; explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field”. His disciples asked and so He explained. It is so clearly explained that I don’t have to preach about it. What I want to focus on is the inquisitive and learning attitude of the disciples. This is what we should do daily. To read the word of God and whenever we fail to understand, we should approach Jesus and ask Him to explain it to us. He will not just give us answers but He will show us how to understand the world and its problems. He wil
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Homily: March 6, 2022, First Sunday of Lent

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F or forty days and nights, satan was waiting, to strike when Jesus was most hungry, at His weakest. First temptation: “Command this stone to become bread.” Jesus needed food indeed. Satan did not give food, but suggested Jesus to abuse His divine power to create food for Himself. He makes us think our needs and wants are most important. And suggests shortcuts to satisfy ourselves. Selfish desires turn us away from God. Second temptation: “I shall give to you all this power and glory…worship me.” Jesus’ mission is to preach the good news to all nations. Satan tries to persuade Jesus to take the easy way, to receive power and glory from him. satan is the father of lies. Nothing belongs to him. satan tries to make us believe that money will give us power and earthly possessions will give us glory. He tempts us with quick and convenient ways to achieve our ambitions. Greed and vanity block us from holy virtues. Third temptation: “If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here…”
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