Homily: March 26, 2024, Monday of the Holy Week (Light to the nations)

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 "I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth."

We can see light from the sun, we know what happens when we turn on the light switch in a room, we understand how it is like to walk in the night without any streetlight. But how does a person become a light to others and to the world?

Yesterday we read from one servant song from Isaiah, meditating on the compassion, mercy, and love of the Messiah, who came as a suffering servant of God.

Today we read a second servant song, which further iterates the mission of the Messiah to shine for the world and bring the salvation of God to everyone. God is light, in Him there is no darkness, and Jesus is the light of the world.

How does His light shine in the world?

During middle school, I read a short story titled ‘The Little Girl Who Spread Light’. It was based on a true story.

It told of a businessman whose business failed terribly, he had no way out of the situation and decided to end his own life. He planned for a quick and sure death, to be hit by a passing train.

He went to a stretch of the railroad and waited for the train to pass but found out that the scheduled train would be delayed for a few hours. That was very common in India. 

So, he decided to watch his last movie while waiting and went to the cinema. There he saw a little girl who, for no reason, kept looking and smiling at him. She was so innocent and sweet, yet her smile brought much joy to his depressed heart. 

Her smile also made him think about his family and his own young children. At that moment, he decided he should go on living for the sake of his children, he found hope and went back home.

The little girl’s smile brought light into the man’s dark and hopeless world. From that, he saw clearly that his life had purpose and meaning.

The Israelites were living in darkness under the rule of the Romans and the oppression of the Jewish leaders. Worse for those who were sick and suffered other life conditions. When Jesus came, He showed compassion and mercy to people, he cured their sickness and gave them hope from His teachings. Jesus brought light into their lives. His words, His healing shone through their darkness. He was the source of light.

God wants his salvation to reach to the ends of the earth. At baptism, we have received the light of Christ and given the mission to spread this light to others. How?

With the same compassion, mercy and love for others who are in need, poor and suffering. A bright smile, a joyful word, an uplifting message, a forgiving hug, an assuring handshake, a friendly visit, a meal shared; we will never know how a little action of love could be a big candle that brightens someone’s life.

Let us be the light that brightens this corner of the world which God has placed us. Amen.


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Homily: March 24, 2022, Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

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 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters.” Jesus’ message is so clear. We cannot follow Jesus partially. If we are not following him whole heartedly, we are not his followers. Today is the 20th day of Lent, not counting Sundays. We are halfway through. Do you remember what you decided you will do specially for these 40 days of Lent? Are you keeping up to it? While we are trying hard to grow stronger spiritually, the devils are working harder to keep us down. I wonder who is in the lead at this halfway mark? In my childhood years, only rich children in my village could afford to own bikes. When I was in the 5th grade, my older brother and I decided to collect wild nutmeg flowers from the nearby forest to sell, so that we can afford to buy a bike.  We would wake up very early in the morning and run to the forest to search and collect as many as possible. Many children from other villages were doing the same so whoever got there first would get
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Homily, March 22, 2022, Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent.

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 “Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy.” This is the prayer by prophet Azaria, pleading to God on behalf of the people. How do you discipline your children when they do something wrong? In India, caning is the norm. My parents did the same. Whenever we did something wrong, my mommy would grab the cane to give us a good beating. Of course, we knew what was coming and would run away fast. Mommy would then chase us around the house, trying to get us. Where could we go? The best trick was to run to grandpa. If we reached him before mommy got us, we will be safe! He would always protect us and plead on our behalf, “don’t cane them, just forgive this time”. How many times have we been saved by grandpa? I don’t know, maybe more than seventy-seven times. Peter asks in the Gospel, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him?” He is referring to offences between two persons. If seventy-seven times is how often we should forgive o
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Homily: March 6, 2022, First Sunday of Lent

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F or forty days and nights, satan was waiting, to strike when Jesus was most hungry, at His weakest. First temptation: “Command this stone to become bread.” Jesus needed food indeed. Satan did not give food, but suggested Jesus to abuse His divine power to create food for Himself. He makes us think our needs and wants are most important. And suggests shortcuts to satisfy ourselves. Selfish desires turn us away from God. Second temptation: “I shall give to you all this power and glory…worship me.” Jesus’ mission is to preach the good news to all nations. Satan tries to persuade Jesus to take the easy way, to receive power and glory from him. satan is the father of lies. Nothing belongs to him. satan tries to make us believe that money will give us power and earthly possessions will give us glory. He tempts us with quick and convenient ways to achieve our ambitions. Greed and vanity block us from holy virtues. Third temptation: “If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here…”
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Homily: March 13, 2022, Sunday of the second Week of Lent

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 The Lord God took Abram outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can. Just so,” he added, “shall your descendants be.”  “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession.” God made these two promises to Abram. For the people in ancient times, and for many even in modern times, having children as heir and owning land as property are two most important possessions in life. Abram had been leading a nomadic life for many years and his wife Sarai, already in her old age, was still childless at that time. So, Abram doubted and questioned, “how am I to know…?” Have you been praying for something important, bearing heavy burdens while waiting, trying to keep hopeful but still you received nothing? Would you also doubt and question God? In response to Abram’s doubt, God assured him by cutting a covenant with him, known as a covenant of the pieces. In ancient times, when people entered a treaty, a contractual agreement, they wo
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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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Homily: March 10, 2022, Thursday of the First Week in Lent

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 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” When I was much younger, I wanted to become very rich, to have lots of money, a nice car, a big house etc.… It was a common village boy’s dream. I don’t think I actually prayed for it, but I surely dreamt about it often. What happened thereafter? Well, I am still dreaming about it. And I even pray for it now! Not for myself but for the parish. When I first moved to this parish, I was shocked by the financial situation, so I did wish and pray for this parish to be rich.  Money is indeed helpful in life but not the most important. Money solves a lot of problems only when it is used wisely. Being poor helps me learn to depend on God’s providence. So, my dream for the parish now is to be rich in God’s word, in community life, in prayerful spirit, in loving and caring for one another. I dream of hearing our prayers and singing rise-up strong and joyful to the heavens when we gather to prais
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Homily: May 10, 2023, Wednesday of the Fifth week of Easter (Holy family School Mass)

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We heard in the Gospel today, Jesus is telling His disciples, "Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine." How many of you enjoy gardening? Have you ever noticed what happens when you cut off a branch from a plant? What will happen to that branch? It will dry up, wither and die after a short time, right? Some of you don’t do gardening so you may not be familiar and may not understand. What about this - how many of you use a mobile phone or tablet? What happens when the battery is used up and you don't charge it? Yes, it shuts down and stops working. You can’t play on it, can’t send messages, can’t make calls, you can’t even switch it on. The mobile phone or tablet is dead! So what should you do to revive it? Yes, you connect it to the power source to charge it, either plug in to the electrical outlet or to a power bank to power up the battery. Only then does the phone become useful again, right? Our spiri
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Homily: October 31, 2022, Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Vain Glory).

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In St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he instructed them, “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vain glory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves.” Is it possible to regard others more important than ourselves? Is it possible to be selfless? Yes, highly possible, but highly difficult too. With God’s grace, we can. When I was serving at one parish in India, parishioners would give donations on the parish feast day. We would publish the names of donors in the parish bulletin board to acknowledge their generosity. One day, a lady came, gave her donation and said she prefer to be anonymous. Then she thought about it and gave her first name. After a short pause, she said again, “Father, then you must put my last name as well because there is another lady with the same first name.” For a moment before that, I thought she was a humble and modest donor, not seeking any glory for herself. But the final twist revealed that she did want to be acknowledged and made s
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Homily: March 25, 2024, Monday of the Holy week (Servant songs).

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“A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching.” There are four passages in the book of the prophet Isaiah known as ‘Servant Songs’, or ‘Songs of the Suffering Servant’.  Today’s first reading is taken from the first song. The next two days we will read from another two songs. These are prophecies about Jesus, written 700 years before His birth, and they reveal the mission and disposition of the Messiah. This first song describes the most important disposition of Jesus and His very purpose on earth. A bruised weed is a stalk of grain which is crushed and broken in such a way that it will never produce any grain again. It is a dying stalk. This refers to the poor and oppressed, so miserable is their life such that they can never on their own, rise above their poverty and neediness. Their only hope is having someone to lift them out of their situation. A smoldering wick mi
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sermon: April 7, 2023, Good Friday.

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 “Whom are you looking for?” Jesus knew the Jewish guards and Roman soldiers were coming to get him, yet he asked them this question. Why? If the police set out to arrest someone, they would have in mind the name of the person and the crime. Jay the murderer. Joe the thief. Jake the robber. So, whom were they looking for when they went to arrest Jesus? Jesus the Nazorean. There was no crime to His name. They went to arrest Jesus like a criminal, but He is not. They arrested Jesus because He is the Son of God. The Jews expected Jesus to be a political hero, but He is not. They rejected Jesus because He is the lamb of God. Jesus was not who they were all expecting. They could not see who He really is, they could not accept Him because He was not what they wanted. What about you? You come to church, you pray, you worship, you even sacrifice your time and money – what are you expecting? Whom are you looking for? Is He Jesus, the slave who will answer all your requests? Or the servant who w
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