Homily: November 20, 2023, Monday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time (Hope).

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"But many in Israel were determined and resolved in their hearts not to eat anything unclean; they preferred to die rather than be defiled with unclean food or profane the holy covenant, and they did die.”

At the beginning of the first reading, the situation of the Israelites was disappointing. There were many ‘breakers of the law’ who ‘seduced’ their fellow Jews to discard their covenant with God. Many chose to disobey and disown God, and accepted the gods and deities of the Gentiles, believing that would protect their lives. They were quick to give up their faith in the generous God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses because of some difficulties and discomfort in life. That led to the persecution of the Jews during the time of the Maccabees.

But when we come to the end of the reading, the determination of some of the Jews ‘not to eat anything unclean’ shows that there were many who kept the covenant with God and were faithful even in the face of death. There is hope.

Looking at the church today, we see similar disappointing signs and situations. Many people are challenging and demanding the church to discard the teachings of sacred scripture and practices of traditions in favor of worldly trends and ideology. Many churches in the Western part of the world have closed because people are leaving the church because it does not stand with their selfish ideologies. History is repeating itself. Is there hope?

Last Thursday through Sunday, I attended the National Catholic Youth Conference with 23 of our youths. It was my first NCYC. There were probably 13 thousand youths at the conference, from all over the USA. I saw those teenagers praising and worshiping God together, they prostrated before the Blessed Sacrament, waited in long lines for reconciliation, and made time to be with Jesus in silent adoration. They seem to know how to combine faith and fun; they know how to find God in a world where God is almost forgotten.

Yes, there is hope.

Those young people at NCYC showed me that there is great hope for the future of our church. For even if there is only one faithful person left, there is seed for growth. At NCYC, there were thousands of young people. 

The church will never fall, because it is built by human hearts in harmony with the heart of God, by martyrs’ blood infused with the blood of Christ.

God will not leave His people abandoned; Christ will not let His Church die. Let us pray for our Church today, for our young people, that  may we follow God more closely, more fervently, more joyfully. This is our hope.

Amen.


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Homily: May 6, 2024, Monday of the sixth week of Easter (Lydia)

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 “One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.” The Easter readings are truly remarkable. We witness how the Holy Spirit did amazing works through the acts of the apostles. The apostles simply went about sharing about the life of Jesus and spreading the good news. They were unperturbed by rejections or persecutions, and their persistence and bold proclamations won more hearts than objections. And we also see how the Holy Spirit converts not always in the same way but through many ways according to the charisms of the preachers as well as the unique situations of the listeners.  On Pentecost day, we saw a massive conversion of three thousand people all in one day through one event. Today we encounter the story of a single conversion: that of Lydia, a woman from Thyatira. We are told she was a dealer in purple cloth, that meant she had dealings w
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Homily: February 17, 2023, Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time.

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“Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says." If that did not happen at Babel, we would all be speaking the same language, I would not need to learn Spanish and you would understand me perfectly, right? Did you wonder, what was so wrong with building a high tower in Babel which would reach up to the sky? If we look around the cities in the world, we will see many huge and tall buildings. And many are so iconic, making the city they are located at famous and well known. Like the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy, Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, Petronas Twin Tower in Malaysia, Burg Khalifa in Dubai, Taj Mahal in India, just to name a few. Possibly, the question should be, why do people need to build such mammoth buildings? In the first reading, we are told that the people in Shinar wanted to make a name for themselves. So, it was pride. Their plan would need to use up lots of time and resources to build something which would
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Homily:" May 7, 2024. Tuesday of the Sixth week of Easter (praise and worship in Prison)

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 "About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God…” I cannot even imagine this scene. How could they still pray and sing in such a situation? Whenever I have a slight headache, ear infection, or a little upset stomach, I would already be very disturbed. I would not even want to talk to anyone during those moments. If I had something worse, I might not even be able to pray. If you look carefully at my left eyebrow, you will notice a scar. During my seminary days in Rome, there was once when I was late for class, and I ran so fast into the classroom that I crashed into the glass door without realizing it was closed. I shattered the glass and a piece of it cut deep across my eyebrow. Thankfully it missed my eye. I was so in pain, shock and bleeding that I could not talk to anyone for a while, and I definitely was not in the mood to sing or pray. But look at Paul and Silas. They had just been attacked by a crowd, were then stripped, and beaten with rods. Aft
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Homily: February 3, 2023, Friday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

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 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” Amen! I remember very vividly seeing this Bible verse written across the outer wall of a Pentecostal church in the neighbouring town of my village. I was a child then and did not fully understand it. Now I am an adult. This verse is now firmly written in my heart and mind, I can’t claim to understand its full effects, but I know this is the truth about Jesus. He is the same then, now, and forever. He has not changed and never will. In contrast, we are the ones who have changed, and will continue to change, in our thoughts, views, values, beliefs and behaviour. Our emotions also change. And that affects many relationships. Think about your relationships with your parents, children, spouses, friends – have they changed in the way they treat you, love you, connect with you? Have you changed? For better or for worse? We change because we are not consistent. We change because we grow. We change because we are not yet the full version
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Homily: January 30, 2023, Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

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“Then they began to beg him to leave their district.” Why?? Jesus just did an amazing miracle, he cast out a multitude of demons in possession of a man and sent them all into nearby pigs. Jesus released the man from his horrible bondage so that he can live a free and fulfilling life. Isn’t that a wonderful thing Jesus did? Wouldn’t they feel secure and safe with Jesus around, so no one will be afraid of demons again? Why would they want to beg Jesus to leave them? Once I was biking with a friend towards Minburn. As we got near, we can already smell a pork refinery. My friend asked me, “Father, do you know what smell is this?” I said, “Yes, it is the smell of pork.” He replied, “Yes, this is the smell of money.” If you reared pigs, you would know what that smell is like. It is a very bad smell. To people from Middle Eastern cultures, including Jews, pigs are considered contaminated and unclean.  But to the rest of the world, it is a popular meat to eat. People may not like real pigs, bu
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Homily: Thursday, June 9, Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

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 Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of God.” How were the scribes and Pharisees righteous? For them, being righteous meant to be obedient to the law and the prophets, to the letter. They followed the law literally. In other words, they were legalistic. They were righteous, externally. How then can anyone surpass their righteousness? They were exact and accurate in everything the law prescribed. Can anyone do more than them, more than the law required and go the extra mile? What does Jesus mean? What is the purpose of the law? St. Paul had the answer. In his letter to the Ephesians, he wrote, “…to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…” Yes, we are to seek love above knowledge. St. Paul continued, “…so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” And this is the purpose of the law, that we may be full of God, that means full of love. So, the only way to s
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Funeral Homily: William J. Baum, June 8, 2023

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 The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. The soul of Bill is in the hand of God, no torment shall touch him. We are here to bid our final farewell to Bill, our beloved brother, grandpa, dad, husband, friend. I feel privileged to have known Bill these last two years and honored to preside over this Mass for his sending off. Many of you would have known him much longer and much better than I. I wish I had more time with him. I was awed when I read his obituary, his life story is inspirational. I know from my encounter with him that he was a dedicated husband, a loving and caring father, the greatest fan to every one of his grandchildren, and an incredible friend to countless people here and around the world. His going would surely leave a void in our lives. It is only natural that we grieve this loss. Bill was a man of remarkable character. His love for life, his sense of humor, and his thoughtfulness for others were the hallmarks of his personality
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Homily: May 4, 2024 Saturday of the fifth week of easter (Align to the Holy Spirit).

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“Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number.” This was the observation made by the author of today’s first reading, reporting about how St. Paul and companions went about preaching the good news, teaching the faith and building the church communities. If the same author were to be here today, looking at what is happening in the church communities now, how would he report? What would he say about the churches here? Churches are closing, religious vocations are decreasing, few people are sharing faith, young people in the families are not attending Mass, people are choosing churches that align with their ideologies not based on truth. It looks like the first 300 years in the history of the Church were the most glorious and productive. What happened thereafter? Why such a great difference? What is missing? What went wrong? Is this the same situation in churches around the world? Is there any hope that the church will grow again, in strength and spirit? Yes,
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Homily: June 4, 2023, The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Trinity-Love-Power)

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 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." When I was a child, I wished to be tall, strong and muscular; I dreamed of winning every fight and imagined myself being feared by others. But the truth is I was always thin and small in stature compared to my peers and was bullied by others. To compensate for my lack, I decided that my God is powerful and mighty and will defeat all my enemies.  Growing up in a predominantly Hindu country, I was fascinated by the stories of Hindu deities who were victorious in every battle, they were superheroes. In school, my Hindu friends and I would argue whose god would win in a wrestling competition: Jesus or Krishna and Shiva the Hindu gods. But Jesus does not even possess any weapon, has never been in fights and would never kill, how could He win? I secretly wished that Jesus and His angels were powerful, invincible  warriors.   So, what is our God? Our God is unlike any
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Homily: October 12, 2022, Wednesday of the twenty-eighth week in the ordinary time.

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 “If you are guided by the spirit, you are not under the law”.  From my kindergarten years to grade 4, I used to walk two miles to school and the same distance back home. I would always get really hungry on the way home. My friends and I would pick and eat whatever that was edible along the road. One of our neighbours grew a special cherry plant in his garden. We used to pick the juicy cherries to eat as we walked past. One day, he put up a handwritten sign on the tree which read, “Don’t pick the cherries”. One naughty kid continued to pick the cherries and even tore up that sign. Thereafter, the owner began to guard his cherry fiercely.  If we behaved right and showed respect for his property, there would not need the sign board nor the guarding, right? Similarly, if everyone in society knew how to behave and treat one another, we would not need to have laws. Those who are guided by the spirit of right behaviour will not need laws, because they are above the law.  Is it any wonder why
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