Homily: November 3, 2023, Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time (Compassion)

-

 "Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?"

Have you ever fallen into a cistern before? I doubt many, or any of us have. But I am sure many of us may have fallen into desperate and depressing situations before, we know how agonizing every moment is and how badly we need someone to just pull us out of that situation, immediately, urgently, as soon as possible.

Jesus knows. He understands. He feels for us. Thus, He is compassionate, He wants to save everyone out of the dumps as soon as He can. He does not wait for a better day, nor a better moment. To Him, ‘now’ is the best time, and Sabbath is ideal, because it is a Holy day, a day to give glory to God, a day to do what God does, to save, to heal, to restore, to give life.

The Pharisees did not understand. They could not empathize; they had no compassion. They were very legalistic and applied the laws to others, but not to their own family or their own animals. There was no mercy for anyone else, even if the people were in desperate situations.

That is why Jesus called them ‘hypocrites’.

Do we understand God’s mercy and Jesus’ compassion to all? Or do we think it should be selective only to those whom we consider worthy?

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Martin de Porres. During his lifetime, he showed the same unconditional love and compassion to everyone, like Jesus did. He himself suffered insults, discrimination and humiliation for being an illegitimate child of a Spanish noble and a Native American freed slave. Some of his fellow brothers in the religious order of the Dominican convent of the Rosary despised him and laughed at him.

Throughout most of his life in the community, he did simple chores in the infirmary, cared for the sick and helped the poor. Many miraculous healings were attributed to him. He was known for his selfless love and dedication to serve the needs of everyone, regardless of their wealth and status. He treated wealthy Spanish nobles and African slaves equally.

Let us follow Jesus, in the same way his beloved Saint Martin de Porres did, imitating Him in loving everyone unconditionally and being compassionate to others in need, any time, any day, in whatever circumstances they are in. Amen.


Comments

Post a Comment

Read

Homily: September 27, 2025, Saturday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary time (SVDP)

-
 “But I will be for her an encircling wall of fire, says the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst.” This is such an assuring powerful message from God, from today’s first reading. Our God is fiercely protective of us, His beloved creation. I am sure some of us may have personally experienced God’s protective love, His wall of fire encircling us, defending, guarding, sheltering us from harm and hurt that may destroy our souls. His goal is to save humanity, and in response, in line with His love for us, we are called to be His hands and feet, to extend His protective love towards others. Today we celebrate the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, a saint who made God’s love visible in concrete ways. He fed, clothed and sheltered the very deprived and forgotten people, especially the imprisoned slaves with generous charity, providing for their very basic needs of a human person. His mission continues, through Vincentian priests, sisters, brothers, and lay members who serve the in nearl...
Read more

Homily: October 22, 2024, Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Lost).

-
 “Brothers and sisters: You were at that time without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.” What does it mean to be ‘without Christ’? St. Paul says it means to be ‘alienated’, a ‘stranger’, ‘without hope and without God’. To me, that means being lost, no goal, no direction, no purpose, no reason to exist. Have you ever experienced being lost? When I was in third grade, my family went on a Marian pilgrimage to Tamil Nadu, which is quite far away from our home. Some families from our neighborhood went also. There were thousands of other pilgrims at the site, all of us on the same path were moving along, packed against one another, like a giant river of people. My parents gave strict orders to hold on to each other’s hands tight and not to let go nor stray away from each other.  I was holding on to my papa’s hand, but the crowd was pushing so much that at one point, I lost my grip and ...
Read more

Homilía: Julio 17, 2022, XVI Domingo Ordinario

-
 "Marta, Marta, muchas cosas te preocupan y te inquietan, siendo así que una sola es necesaria. María escogió la mejor parte". ¿Qué es esa única cosa que se necesita? Este consejo de Jesús es muy importante para cada uno de nosotros. Reflexionemos sobre las lecturas de hoy para entenderlo mejor. En la primera lectura, Abraham vio a tres hombres que estaban cerca de su tienda; inmediatamente se ofreció a servirles y les dio una buena cena, antes de que siguieran su camino. En la lectura del Evangelio, cuando Jesús entró en el pueblo, Marta y María lo recibieron. Marta se ocupó de preparar una buena cena para Jesús. Mientras que María, se sentó a sus pies a escucharle hablar. Marta se sentía agobiada y ansiosa. Necesitaba la ayuda de María para dar una buena comida a su invitado. Entonces Jesús dijo: "una sola es necesaria. María escogió la mejor parte...". Efectivamente, María eligió algo maravilloso. Sentarse con Jesús y escucharle hablar. Eso es lo que nos gustaría...
Read more

Homily: August 21, 2023, Monday of the twentieth week in Ordinary Time.

-
 “The children of Israel offended the LORD by serving the Baals.” We often say that "experience is the best teacher." However, this holds true only for those who are open to learning. It seems that humanity has never learnt from experience and so history repeats itself. If we had learned the lessons from World War 1, there would never have been World War 2, and the world thereafter would have been free from all wars as well. The Israelites were foolishly guilty of the same. While in the desert, they worshipped other gods and suffered the consequence of being bitten by snakes, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of people. That was not the only experience they had for being unfaithful to God. Did they learn their lesson? No. What are the baals? They were names given to deities, commonly referred to the Canaanite-phoenician god of fertility and rain. Rain was necessary to bring about a bountiful harvest in a fertile land, it was a symbol of fertility. Fertility was a sym...
Read more

Homily: April 26, 2023, Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter. (Conversion)

-
 We see the violent persecution of the early Christian communities in today’s first reading. We heard, “Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment.” Cruel, inhumane, unjustified persecution. Do you know anyone who is against the church, always criticizing the church and disagreeing with people who are associated with church? I suppose it is not too difficult to think of a few names. Here we see Saul, the champion persecutor of the early Christians, totally against the Christian church, but who later was also converted and became the champion evangelizer for Christ, totally dedicated. He wrote 25% of the New Testament and founded many churches in Asia. Saul, who once tried his best to destroy the Church later became Paul who tried better than his best to build the church. He was very successful in both missions but his powerful encounter with Jesus stopped him from his persecution...
Read more

Homily: September 24, 2025, Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time (Prayer)

-
 “At the time of the evening sacrifice, I, Ezra, rose in my wretchedness, and with cloak and mantle torn I fell on my knees, stretching out my hands to the LORD, my God.” How do you pray? Today’s first reading gives us a beautiful description of how priest Ezra prayed. He considered himself ‘wretched’, totally unworthy of God and His mercy. This expressed his deep reverence for the vast greatness and graciousness of God. He fell on his knees with outstretched arms. This expressed his total surrender, obedience and submission to the ultimate good and perfect will of God. Ezra’s humble prayer disposition is beautiful. He prayed with a deep, sincere, and remorseful heart, laid bare before God, bearing the guilt of his people, yet completely appreciative and grateful for God’s forgiveness. He offered this prayer after the completion and dedication of the rebuilt Temple. The broken temple now rebuilt signified a reconciled relationship with God. Now the Israelites can worship in God’s h...
Read more

Homily: March 7, 2022, Monday of the First Week of Lent.

-
  “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am Holy”. Both the first and Gospel readings today presented a ‘to-do’ and ‘not-to-do’ list. Some are really tough tasks. Can we ever accomplish them? Is it possible for us to be holy? We all know that at the sacrament of reconciliation, it is Jesus Himself who is sitting at the confessional, listening to the confessions. And the sacred privilege for me as a priest, is that I get to see as God sees and hear as God hears. And what does God see and hear? He doesn’t see our failures. He sees our brokenness. He doesn’t hear our sins. He hears our desire to be good. And God wants to help us. He reaches out to us, pouring out His graces. We desire to be holy and God desires the same. In that moment of reconciliation, in that meeting of desires, we become holy. And I, the priest who witnesses that sacred moment, also become holy. The very first step to becoming holy is to desire holiness. To desire becoming what God wants us to be, to be like Him, to...
Read more

Homily : January 10, 2022, Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time,

-
 “Why do you grieve? Am I not more to you than ten sons?” Hannah was barren. Everyone probably thought she was a cursed woman. Except her husband. Elkanha was a good man and a loving, supportive husband. I think many women dream to have an appreciative husband like him.  Hannah was sad because she wanted to have children, nothing else could satisfy that desire, not even her wonderful husband, not even if there were ten of her husband, could count for having just one son. Some things in life just cannot be replaced, there is no equal substitution. Just like my mommy’s fish curry. She prepared every ingredient from base, slow cooked in a clay pot over firewood. It was not quick cooking with electricity in a steel pot. Believe me, the result is very different. I can still remember the wonderful smell and taste. Sadly, no one else could cook fish curry like mommy, not even my sisters who knew the recipe. There is simply no substitution. (ha ha now I feel hungry…) In recent years, ...
Read more

Homily: February 23, 2025 Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Love enemies)

-
 “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28) Love and hate are two very powerful human emotions that can heal or kill. Love can heal deep wounds and great divisions, while hatred can drive one to destroy lives and shatter peace. With love we can forgive, through hate we create fear. In the first reading, we see David and Abishai entering the camp of Saul’s 3,000 strong army, crept into where the king was sleeping soundly. David had good reason to hate Saul and the perfect opportunity to kill him, but he chose not to. David chose to love and honor God who anointed Saul.  26 years ago, Graham Staines, an Australian Christian missionary who took care of lepers in North India, was burnt alive by extremists, along with his two young sons. The attackers were fueled by hatred. Yet, just days after the deadly attack, Graham’s widow, Gladys Staines, publicly forgave the murderers, ...
Read more

Homily: September 26,2025, Friday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time Grand Temple)

-
 “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now?” This passage from the prophet Haggai was written after the dedication of the second Temple. The exile in Babylon lasted about 70 years. Many Israelites who returned and were in their 80s or 90s, had seen the original temple built by Solomon in their youth. They could still remember its former glory. In our own parish, there are also people who remember the “former glory” of our Cathedral. Msgr. Beeson is one such person. He saw St. Ambrose Cathedral in its original beauty. Our Cathedral is still beautiful today, but it does look different now, some features and designs have faded or are worn out. If we have the resources, perhaps we would try to restore some of these to preserve the legacy left behind by our forefathers. But when Jesus spoke of the Temple, He was referring to His own body. And later, St. Paul would teach that our bodies too are temples of the Holy Spirit. That brings us to ...
Read more