Homily: March 18, 2024, Monday of the Fifth week in Lent.

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“They suppressed their consciences; they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and did not keep in mind just judgments”. 

Do you remember hearing these verses in today’s first reading? It is a very long reading so you might have missed it.

These words made me recall something a very devout woman once said to me. She said, “Father, it is not easy to go to hell.”

That got my attention because I have always thought that it is easy to go to hell but difficult to go to heaven, don’t you think so?

She then continued and explained, “God has given us everything we need to help us get to heaven easily: a conscience, the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, many opportunities to perform good deeds, help, guidance, gifts and charisms from the Holy Spirit, and the list goes on. But to go to hell, we have to choose to go against all these intentionally.”

What an interesting perspective! And she is not wrong.

In today’s story about Susanna, the judges who were plotting evil, had to go against their own consciences. They knew what they were planning to do was wrong, but they suppressed their consciences and intentionally chose evil.

“They would not allow their eyes to look to heaven” because they were aware that God looks down on earth and sees everything, knows everything.

They were appointed judges to promote justice among the Israelites. In all circumstances, they were called to pronounce what is right before God, the Almighty. Instead, here in the story they did not keep in mind their job to be just, but are the ones who did evil and injustice.

An act becomes a sin when the do-er has full knowledge of the action and its consequences, and intentionally chooses to commit it. This act becomes a mortal sin. It leads to hell.

Let us be mindful. Stay away from grave sins. Use our free will to choose good. Use our consciences to do right. Receive grace from the sacraments. To always look up to heaven and remember that God sees us and knows everything. Let us call on the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us in our daily walk.

Blessed Carlo Acutis said that the Eucharist is the highway to heaven so let us also take this highway and never turn out from it till we arrive safely. Amen.


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Homily: April 23, 2024, Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter (Exciting news).

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Homily, March 22, 2022, Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent.

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Homily March 20, 2022, Third Sunday of Lent Year A Readings (For RCIA)

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Homily: August 20, 2022, Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

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“The angel led me to the gate which faces the east, and there I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east”.  These words in the first reading remind of the Orthodox and Oriental Churches. When they construct their churches, they would set their church altars to face the east, so that, when the priests celebrate Mass, they will be looking towards that direction. In India, especially in Kerala where I came from, all our church altars face the east. The concept is based on the expectation that Christ would come again, arriving from the east, and the priest is leading the community to the heavenly Jerusalem.  Interestingly, the Hindu temples also face eastwards.  And do you know, the houses in my village are built with the kitchens facing the east also. Why? It has nothing related to the coming of Christ. It has to do with the sunrise. The mothers of the households start cooking when they wake up, and the kitchens are open concept, so the rising sun will provide the much need
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Homily: February 27, 2022, Eight Sunday in the Ordinary Time

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For readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022722.cfm There were two brothers who lived debauched lives engaging in terrible deeds. They were notorious yet not at all ashamed. Then one brother died. The surviving brother asked the local pastor to preach at his brother’s funeral. The pastor, aware of the brothers’ background, was reluctant to do it. The brother then promised to donate a big sum of money to the church and begged the pastor to preach with a special request. “Father, in your homily, you just have to say that my brother was a saint.” The pastor thought about it and agreed. The funeral day came. The pastor began his homily, “The man laid in the casket was a rotter; he led a horrible and debauched life. He was truly rotten to the bone. But compared to his brother, he was a saint.” Saintly life or shoddy living – Would the priest at our own funeral have to be paid to tell a lie? It all depends on what kind of fruit we produce from the way we live. Usually, we cannot
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Homily: November 7, 2023, Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Invitation).

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“Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame." Today’s gospel story really struck me deep. The poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame: who are they? At the time of Jesus, these were the people who were despised, considered imperfect and looked upon by society as people abandoned by God, cursed and thus without the blessing of wealth nor health. And because of their imperfections, being rejected by society, they can't do many things on their own, opportunities are blocked, doors are closed to them. They only have one hope - God. They have no one else to depend on. Conversely, those who were better off, those blessed with wealth and health, who were the first guests invited to the grand dinner, were so busy with their own affairs, and engrossed in their own world that they had little or no regard for the invitation.  They were independent, they did not think they needed to deepen their relationship w
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Homily: April 22, 2024 Monday of the fourth week of Easter (Uncircumcized).

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So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers confronted him, saying, “You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.” This incident happened soon after the Pentecost event. Peter was going around Jerusalem and its neighboring towns thus most of the newly converted were Jews, Orthodox Jews who were strictly faithful to the Mosaic laws and Jewish traditions and practices like circumcision, separating from the Gentiles, and even religious dietary restrictions. They wanted to follow Christ but were not ready to let go of their old way of life. They were not ready to live alongside the Gentiles who also accepted Christ and so could not include them into their community. They embraced Jesus’ resurrection but could not discard their deep rejection of the Gentile people. If the apostles and their successors had also maintained the same disposition, the church would not have grown. It was only when the good news spread to the Gentiles and non-Jews that the chu
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