Homily: April 16, 2024, Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter (Stephen Martyr)

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"But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”

Can you visualize this scene? His enemies were ready to stone him to death, but he was not at all afraid. He even seemed joyful to be dying, he was fearless as he continued to preach and give witness to Jesus with his dying breath. Such unwavering faith, such unshakable courage!

I too wish to have faith and courage like that. I wonder if all the martyrs who died for Jesus could have seen with their own eyes the glory of God, like Stephen did, just before their death. That would have given them the strength because at that moment, nothing else mattered, they knew without a doubt who was there waiting for them and what they would gain from their dying - the glory of heaven.

To become a martyr like Stephen, would imply living a life not compromising to the ways of the world. In fact, it would mean living a life in conflict with the world. Jesus’ teachings contradict the world, that is why many could not accept His way.

Within the church too, there are many compromising Catholics, who do not agree with the Gospel and the teachings of the church but also openly oppose the church on certain issues like dignity of the human person, marriage etc. 

They hold on to their identity as baptised Catholics yet speak against the authority and teaching of the Church.

If we are to be martyrs for Christ, we need to open our mouths to speak the Truth, the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus, the Gospel of life, the Gospel of love, not the fake gospels of success, prosperity or even happiness written by the world.

Martyrs are fearless and courageous not only when faced with death, but they defend the Truth every moment of their lives, knowing the dangers they might encounter. They are witnesses to the Truth in every aspect of living, there is no compromise, no off days, no exceptions. And thus, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of faith which built up the Church till today.

If they did not compromise the Truth to escape death, then we should not let them die in vain, we should continue to uphold the Truth, carry on the torch of our faith, keep the fire burning.

Let us keep spreading the Gospel of Christ to the world. May we too on the day of our dying, be able to see a vision of the glory of God, see Jesus waiting to welcome us and be fearless before death.

St. Stephen, pray for us!


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

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Those who had been scattered by the persecution that arose because of Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. Antioch is approximately 300 miles from Jerusalem. So it seems that the good news of Christ had spread out far and wide very fast since the death of Stephen. Look at these early converted believers, how excited they are to receive and share the good news. When was the last time you were super excited about something and had to share it with everyone you know? A few days ago, a young friend of mine got enlisted into the US military, he called eagerly to tell me, "Father, I am a soldier." And in a few hours, he came to my office and told me again the same news. He was so excited, it was the best news he had been waiting for, and he went around telling all his friends about it within that morning. Little children are not good at containing their excitement. Often when my young nephews and nieces got new toys, they would immediately FaceTime with me to show
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Homily: April 6, 2024, Saturday in the octave of Easter (First five saturday devotion.)

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Thank you all for continuing to come for Saturday morning Mass. When I was little, my family used to attend Saturday morning Mass together and will always end with the Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. To me, that is a beautiful devotion for the whole family. I have wanted to start Saturday morning Mass when I first came to SAC but didn’t know if it will catch on with the parishioners. Last year, I attended an evening talk about Our Lady of Fatima at St. Augustine Parish and came to know about the First Five Saturday devotion, and I was again motivated. Finally, today being the first Saturday of the month, we can begin. Let me share a bit more about this devotion. Sr. Lucia was one of the three shepherd children visionaries to whom our Blessed Mother appeared for six months in 1917 in Fatima. Later when Lucia grew up and joined the convent in Spain, our Blessed Mother appeared to her again on December 10, 1925, with this message, “Behold, my daughter, my Heart encircled with thorns
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Homily: June 19, 2023, Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time (parish Treasure)

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"As unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things." In today’s first reading, we see St. Paul’s wisdom as he writes to the faith community in Corinth. He is teaching them to see positivity in every hardship, every problem, every suffering. To him, every situation, seemingly good or bad, is a blessing, if we have eyes of faith to see it. A good example is our St. Ambrose parish. In the diocese, we are one of the poorest parishes, despite being the Cathedral. Seventy percent of our parishioners are refugees, living every day in survival mode, working hard to build a basic home, to educate their children, simply to live in peace. They left their war-torn country to find a new home, starting from zero. They brought nothing with them, only faith and hope. Materially, they have next to nothing, so they are not able t
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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: March 10, 2022, Thursday of the First Week in Lent

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Homily: September 25, 2022, Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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From the gospel, “He raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side”. The poor man who went to heaven in this parable had a name: Lazarus. The rich man who went to hell had no name. Our name is our identity. Our relationship to God is our identity. And we are all children of God, He calls each of us by name, both on earth and in heaven. In another gospel passage Jesus told his disciples, “Rejoice because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). The rich man may have enjoyed a life of comfort and luxury on earth, but he did not have a relationship with God. Thus in Jesus’ story, he had no name. Now, how did Lazarus get to heaven? Was it because of his poverty. No. How did the rich man end up in hell? Was it because of his wealth? Of course, not. What we have or have not, is not the deciding factor of our destiny after this life.  Our eternity depends on how we use what we have been given. We do not know if the rich man committed any mortal sins in his life, but w
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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: 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: 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: Tuesday, January 4, 2022, Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious.

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 Two things Jesus said in today’s gospel struck me. First, “How many loaves do you have?” and second, “Give them some food yourselves.” Today’s miracle event reminds me of another parallel event, the miracle of water-turned-into-wine at the wedding feast in Cana. Both situations started with a problem which was brought to Jesus – running out of wine for wedding guests and having no food for the crowd. In both situations, Jesus asked for contribution to the solution. At the wedding event, He asked for six jars of water. At today’s event, He asked His disciples to provide whatever food they had. He then transformed and multiplied these. For the wine, He presented the new wine to the master of the banquet while the servants distributed it to all the guests. For the loaves and fish, Jesus gave the multiplied food to the disciples who distributed to the crowd. In both these miracles, Jesus did not work alone, He involved others. God works through us. These miracles teach us that we cannot b
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