Homily: February 11,2023, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Leprosy Touch).

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 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.”

Leprosy is a terrible disease. Physically, it does not just affect the skin, but also the nerves, the respiratory tract and the eyes. When full blown, lepers look frightening to others.

It is also infectious; thus people avoid any contact with lepers. In Jesus’ time, there was little knowledge about leprosy, so it was considered a curse and lepers were considered unclean and untouchable. Socially, lepers become displaced from family, community and normal life.

In today’s first reading, Moses prescribes the rule for managing someone with leprosy. It keeps the leper away from others so that the condition can be contained and not spread to everyone in the community. The cry of the leper, “unclean, unclean” is a socially responsible action on the part of the leper, but is there mercy and compassion for the leper?

Yes, there is. In today’s Gospel, Jesus does something unthinkable and impossible in those times.

Jesus touched the leper.

The leper might not have been touched by another human in a long time and might have even lost his sensation due to leprosy. This touch is more than a human touch, it is God’s touch of love.

This touch restored both the leper’s physical condition as well as his social condition. This healing not only demonstrates Jesus’ power to heal physical infirmities but also his ability to heal spiritual infirmities caused by sin. Jesus is more than a super physician; He is spiritual physician.

Sin is spiritual leprosy. Sin is a condition more horrible than leprosy. It is contagious, addictive, distorts a person’s soul and disconnects the person from God. Ultimately, it will take the life of the person. Just as lepers feel numbness in their bodies, sin makes us numb to reality. Over time, we become so comfortable with sin that we don’t even feel guilty anymore.

‘Moved with pity’, Jesus wants to heal us from our sins and mend us from your brokenness. He desires to touch every one of us to cleanse us.

A classmate of mine, practicing as a doctor in India, shared that sometimes a comforting pat on a patient's shoulder is more effective than any medicine.

At every Mass, Jesus is present for healing. This evening after Mass, we will also have a dedicated healing service, to invoke again, the presence of Jesus to touch everyone through the hands of the prayer team.

The same Jesus who healed the leper is present here with us now - spiritually, physically and sacramentally, to be one with us, to touch us, to cleanse us. Let say to Jesus, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean, you can make me whole, you can heal me, you can restore me.” Amen.


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Homily: December 25, 2025, The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

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 “So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Infant lying in the manger.” Today we hear the beautiful story of the shepherds visiting the newborn Christ. They found not only a Child, but a family. God sent His Son into the world not as a warrior or a king, but into the care of a mother and a father. Into a home. Into love. And what kind of family did God choose? Not a wealthy family. Not a powerful family. Not a comfortable family. Mary and Joseph had no room in the inn. Mary gave birth in poverty. Joseph struggled to provide safety and shelter. Their situation was not easy there was fear, uncertainty, and hardship. Yet God entrusted His Son to them. Even if they lacked material comfort, Jesus never lacked what mattered most: a loving mother and a caring father. As God wanted His Son to have a holy family, so too God wants every child to experience a holy, loving, safe family. Today we look around and see many broken families, many homes burdened with pain, absence, d...
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 “All these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea.” I know how this works. I grew up in a hill country very much like Judea, long before the time of internet, wi-fi and cell phones. Only one house in our village had a telephone, yet somehow everyone knew what was happening in every family. News traveled fast and no one was ever left out of the details. Communication was efficient and effective, without technology. And everyone shared quite freely about their joys and sorrows, ups and downs, happy stories, sad stories, all real, nothing fake. I wonder if the youth of today can imagine that. I am glad we still have these ways of personal communication in practice, especially with those who do not depend on cell phones. I love the little children of St. Ambrose whenever they come to me in excitement. Because they tell me everything that happened in their homes, even things I probably didn’t need to know! They are fast, and detailed. And often they return very soo...
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Homily: December 28, 2024 Feast of the Holy Innocents (Suffering).

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"Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you." Just three days ago, we celebrated Christmas - a joyful commemoration of the day God came to live among us in our world, it is a when divine light entered human darkness, it is a day for rejoicing. The Christmas season continues for the Church up until the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. However, if we read and reflect on the details of Christ’s birth and events surrounding this season of joy, we see poverty, simplicity and suffering. Just before our Lord was born into this world, His earthly parents went through hardship just to find a place to rest, He was then welcomed into physical and material poverty, the day after His birth, we celebrated the death of the first martyr, St. Stephen, followed by the feast of St. John the Evangelist who suffered persecution and isolation till a ripe old age. And now today, we observe the feast of the Holy Innocents — a sorrowful event when hundreds of...
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Homily: June 15, 2025 Soemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

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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...
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Homily: November 22, 2025, Saturday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time (The end).

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 “I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land.” These are the final words of Antiochus Epiphanes, the successor of Alexander the Great. If you have been following our daily readings, we first heard about him on Monday described as a “sinful offshoot.” He defiled the Temple of Jerusalem, persecuted the faithful Jews, and opposed the worship of the true God. Now, at the end of his life, Antiochus realizes his mistakes. He is filled with regret, bitterness, and sorrow. It’s a tragic end a man who once had so much power, wealth, and glory, yet dies far from home, spiritually empty and tormented by guilt. We’ve seen similar examples in the Bible and history people who made poor choices, turned away from God, and spent their last moments in deep regret. How different is this from the death of the saints, who met their final moments in peace and joy, having lived their lives faithfully. Life is short. When compared to the v...
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Homily: August 10, 2025, Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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 “You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Do you like surprise visits? Some of us do. Recently, I went again to visit my sister and her family. Since the last visit, my 4-year-old nephew had been calling me almost daily and asking me to visit him again. So, this time, I told my sister to keep my trip a secret, I wanted to surprise the little boy. When he saw me finally, his eyes were wide open with disbelief, and his mouth too was wide open in surprise! I will never forget that look on his face, and the exuberant joy of the moment when I hugged and carried him. But not all of us like surprise visits, especially when the visitors come at the wrong time, and we are caught unprepared. When I was in high school, our principal, Fr. George, was very strict. He didn’t talk much, but he knew every student. Occasionally, he would walk along the school corridors, surveying every corner and if he caught any student misbehaving, he would carry ou...
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Homily: December 28, 2025, Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (Dreams)

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 “The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.’” As a young man, Joseph must have had beautiful dreams about his future family. He could have imagined a helpful and capable wife, children playing around the house and growing up to be well respected people in the community, a vision of a stable and peaceful life. When he got engaged to Mary, it seemed like his dreams would become reality soon. Many of us, married or not, can identify with the dreams that Joseph could have had. Yet like Joseph, the realities of our lives would have unfolded quite differently from how we have dreamt it. Joseph’s family life turned out totally unlike his own dreams, yet he continued to dream, now with God’s will revealed and God’s plan unfolding in the reality of his life. The hardship he went through in Bethlehem, with the birth of Jesus, did not end there. Today’s Gospel shows another unexpected cha...
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Homily: October 28-2025, Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles (Heaven our Home)

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 Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones.” Our true and permanent home is heaven. We are destined to be citizens of heaven. For now, we are just sojourners on earth, pilgrims making our way towards home. I enjoy reading and hearing stories of people who have had near-death experiences. One common thing they report is that heaven is beautiful, and it is familiar. They usually describe it as the feeling of returning home, surrounded by people they know, being totally at ease and at peace. This image of heaven is pure joy. Those who live a virtuous life on earth, who keep their hearts united with God, are already preparing to live in that home. Heaven is not a foreign place for the faithful; it’s the fulfillment of what we yearn for deep inside of us. If we follow Jesus closely, we are already learning to live the heavenly life, experiencing and sharing the love and mercy of God and being in communion with God al...
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Homily: December 22, 2025 Monday of the Fourth week of Advent (Surrender)

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“Now I, in turn, give him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the LORD. She left Samuel there.” How long did Hannah pray and wait for a child? Jewish tradition suggests that Hannah possibly waited about nineteen years. Throughout scripture, we understand that being childless in those days meant living like being cursed. There was no sympathy from others, only gossip and scorn. Despite carrying deep sorrow in her heart, Hannah did not give up, she kept praying and asking for God’s compassion and mercy. Finally, God answered her prayer, and the child was named ‘Samuel’ which means ‘because I asked God for it’. What would you do if you received a gift you have been longing for and waiting for years? You would hold on tightly to it and not want to lose it, right? Well Hannah was different. She was totally grateful that God has removed her shame and restored her dignity with the gift of a son, Samuel. But Hannah did not cling on to her gift, she readily dedicated her ...
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Homily: June 21, 2025, Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time (Sufficient Grace)

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 “Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’” This sentence in today’s first reading is one of the most well-known and quoted lines in the New Testament. There are many interpretations about what could be the “thorn in the flesh” which St. Paul referred to and asked for the Lord to remove for him. No one knows for sure, and no one needs to know exactly. What we do know is that it was something Paul believed the “angel of Satan” was sent to torment him. It was so bad for him that he wished and prayed for the Lord to take away from him. But Jesus did no, and told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Jesus is telling us the same: “My grace is sufficient for you.” Are you struggling terribly? Do you feel greatly tormented? Are you facing huge troubles? Do you feel like there is no way out? If you are crying out to the Lord like St. Paul, know that you are not alone. God’s silence is not absence. He is with y...
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