Homily: July 18, 2023, Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Be real )

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 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will repay you." The woman, therefore, took the child and nursed him. When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter.

Pharaoh’s daughter took the child to be her son but unknowingly, asked the real mother to nurse him. To save the boy’s life, the real mother nursed her own son to be given to Pharoah’s daughter.

For more than thirty years thereafter, Moses lived in the palace. Did Pharaoh’s daughter know the real Moses?

Do we know our real self?

I think our parents and siblings, the people whom we grew up with, would know us better than anyone, maybe better than ourselves. Especially our siblings, we cannot hide much from them. They know all our tricks in the dark, the things which we hide so well from our parents.

Even now, when I visit and stay with my sisters, they often comment that I am still the same naughty Nivin from our childhood days, despite my efforts to act cool and behave like a grown-up man. To them, I have not changed at all.

They know me so well, and I know them too. We are so familiar with one another that we can be free to be our real selves.

Moses was nursed by his own mother in the first years of his life, his worldview and values would have been shaped by her. He would have enjoyed the love and affection from his siblings in those critical years, those bonds were strong. 

His years in the palace of Pharaoh after that could not replace nor reverse the reality of his identity, his heart was with his own people.

Thus in Hebrews 11:24-25, it is written, "By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin."

He knew who he really was, he could not deny the truth and he chose to be authentic, to be real.

God knows the truth about us. He knows the real us, there is no way to hide from Him, there is no need to. He accepts us for who we are, we are lovingly created by Him.

He brought us to being and molded us through all the events of our life, to one day, become, fully and truly, the image and likeness of Him.

So, in our prayers and quiet time with God, let us come to Him without pretense, without fear. Be comfortable with Him, be confident in His love, be real. Amen.


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Homily: July 19, 2026 Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Holy Spirit -Praying for us.)

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 “He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” These powerful words from St. Paul to the Ephesians remind us of a truth that should fill our hearts with great joy: we are chosen. We choose or nominate someone because we see great value in the person. It is an honor to be chosen, especially for something great. But today, St. Paul tells us something far greater: You and I have been chosen by God Himself the Creator of the vast universe, the Lord of galaxies and stars, the One who holds everything in existence. And God chose us, long before the world began, long before our birth, before we could do anything to earn His love. Why? Because God has a divine purpose for all of us. The blessed virgin Mary was chosen too, in an extraordinary way. God chose her and granted her a unique grace: conception without original sin. Mary’s soul was untouched by any stain of sin from the very first moment of her existence. God has a plan of salv...
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“Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” What do you ask God for? When I was little, I asked God for many small things. One of them was the snacks from a tea shop on the way to school. Once in a while, my parents  would buy them for me, and I loved them. I even wished sometimes that I had been born as the tea shop owner’s son, so I could eat those snacks every day. Years later, one of my friends whose father owned a tea shop told me that he was tired of those snacks because he had them every day. He wished he had grown up on a farm like me, with fresh food and fruits. Very often, we ask for small and temporary things, thinking they will make us happy. Even now, as adults, many of our prayers are like that. We ask for things that are passing, things that do not truly satisfy the heart. But Jesus says: “Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” Not temporary happiness—but complete joy. So maybe today we should ask for something greater: A joyfu...
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Homily: July 29, 2024, Feast of Martha, Mary and Lazarus.

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 “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.” Have you been brokenhearted before? Did you know that the Lord was close to you? You might not have felt it nor realize it, but today’s responsorial psalm affirms it. Psalm 34, reminds that God is not distant from our pain. He is close to it. This is a beautiful and comforting truth. Always remember it in your heart. Brokenness is part of the human experience. When Jesus took on our human nature, he experienced this also. When we look at the crucified Christ, what do we see? We see Jesus who was broken for us. We see His wounded body. We see His pierced side. We see His suffering, His sadness, His loneliness. He has experienced it all, and so, there is no pain in our lives which He does not understand. He knows what it is to suffer. He knows what it is to be rejected. He knows what it is to be abandoned. So when we feel these pains, we are not alone. In a mysterious way, our Lord is very close to us, and we are very close to Him. St. Mothe...
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 “So from that day on they planned to kill him.” These are very strong and shocking words from today’s Gospel. During this season of Lent, we have been praying often in the responsorial psalm: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Every morning, priests and religious pray this line in the Divine Office. It is like a daily reminder, a warning—to keep our hearts open to God. But in today’s Gospel, we see the opposite. The Pharisees and the chief priests witnessed so many miracles of Jesus. And the final one—the raising of Lazarus after four days in the tomb—is something truly extraordinary. That one miracle alone should have led anyone to faith. But instead of believing, they decide to kill Him. Why? Because their hearts had become hard. They chose not to see. They chose not to listen. They chose not to believe. They closed their eyes to the truth and shut their ears to God’s voice. And this is where today’s Gospel speaks to us. Hardness of heart does not happen in o...
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