Homily: May 28, 2024, Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

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“Set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

St. Peter advises the people to focus on grace, to set their hopes completely on it. But what is grace, really?

Surprisingly, Google provides a very appropriate and theologically accurate answer. It says grace refers to “God’s favor toward the unworthy” or “God’s benevolence on the undeserving.”

So unworthy are we, yet God’s favor rests on us. We are graced.

So undeserving are we, yet God is lovingly benevolent towards us. We are graced.

So deep in sin are we, yet God sent His Son to die so that we are redeemed from eternal death. We are graced.

In his suffering, St. Paul pleaded with the Lord to spare him the thorn, but Jesus comforted and encouraged St. Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

Indeed, it was grace that helped St. Paul go through his pain. Similarly, for all of us, God’s grace is sufficient, with it we overcome everything, we overcome sin, we overcome death.

Where can we find and obtain grace?

The principal source of grace is the sacraments. The sacrament that confers divine grace fully is the Holy Eucharist. The more open we are to the sacraments, the more abundantly we would be graced.

Our generous loving God, through His Church and ordained ministers, wants to shower us with His grace abundantly and wonderfully.

With a gift so precious, valuable, and divine, would we be so foolish as to miss it? Would we be so insane as to deny it?

Instead, let us set our hopes completely on grace. Through the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, where the divine enters humanity, may we be filled with sanctifying grace, to enter divinity and eternity.

His grace is sufficient for us. Amen.


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Homily: October 13, 2026, Tuesday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Love)

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Homily: October 17, 2026, Saturday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Holy Spirit speaking)

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 “For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.” These are the beautiful and comforting words of Jesus in today’s Gospel. Jesus has given us so many wonderful gifts: the Eucharist, the sacraments, the Church, and above all, the gift of the Holy Spirit. And today, Jesus assures us that the Holy Spirit will guide us, especially when we do not know what to say or what to do. There have been many moments in my own life when I have struggled to find the right words. Sometimes I have been afraid to speak. Sometimes I have wondered whether I was making the right decision. I am sure many of you have experienced the same thing. But Jesus makes us a beautiful promise: The Holy Spirit will teach us what to say. However, I believe there are two important things we must do to experience this promise in our lives. First, we must ask the Holy Spirit for guidance. Before making an important decision, before having a difficult conversation, before taking a major step in lif...
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Homily: October 12, 2026 Monday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (True Freedom)

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 “For since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead came also through man.” Sin and death are connected, but Christ has come to break that connection and give us life. In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul says, “The wages of sin is death.” Sin separates us from God, and God is the source of life.  God created Adam and Eve for life and friendship with him. But through their disobedience, sin entered the world, and with sin came death.  But when God prepared the world for the coming of his Son, he gave Mary a unique grace. From the first moment of her conception, she was preserved from original sin.  We can see Mary as the new Eve. Eve was created without sin, but she disobeyed God. Mary, by God's grace, responded differently. When the angel came to her, she said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Eve's disobedience was connected with humanity's fall. Mary's obedience opened the door for Christ, the Savi...
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Homily: July 26, 2022, Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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 Grandma warned little John, “Be a good boy. At the end of the world, all disobedient and bad people will be cast into fiery hell where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” John listened intently and asked with a worried look, “Grandma, you always quarrel with others, and you don’t have any teeth, how will you grind your teeth when you go to hell?” Grandma was annoyed and said “Teeth will be provided in hell!” In today’s Gospel, we heard that “(Jesus’) disciples approached him and said; explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field”. His disciples asked and so He explained. It is so clearly explained that I don’t have to preach about it. What I want to focus on is the inquisitive and learning attitude of the disciples. This is what we should do daily. To read the word of God and whenever we fail to understand, we should approach Jesus and ask Him to explain it to us. He will not just give us answers but He will show us how to understand the world and its problems. He...
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Homily, March 22, 2022, Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent.

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“And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.” These beautiful words are from today’s first reading, from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. What were the promises God made to Abraham? There were several.  One of the promises that always comes to my mind is this: “I will bless you… so that you will be a blessing.” Abraham is known as the father of faith. He became a blessing to the world because of his faith and obedience to God. Think about his life. He followed a God he was only beginning to know, to a land he had never seen. He did not know where God was leading him or what his future would look like. Even when God asked him to do the most difficult things, Abraham remained faithful and obedient. And because of his faithfulness, he became a blessing, not only to his own family but to generations after him. St. Paul reminds us today that through our baptism, we too have become descendants of Abraham and heirs to God's promises....
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Homily: September 27, 2026, Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary time (The Fair way)

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