Homily: June 1, 2024, Saturday of the Eight week in Ordinary time.

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 “"But shall we say, 'of human origin'?" - they feared the crowd, for they all thought John really was a prophet.’

One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is ‘Fear of God’.

Our God is a loving Father, and we are His beloved children, so should we live in fear of Him?

No, we should not. Then what is this gift about?

It is a respectful fear and deep reverence. It is a heightened awareness that “my heavenly Father watches over me and sees everything that I do.” It is also the deliberate and intentional acceptance of and surrender to God’s will, His authority, His power over our life. It is living in mindfulness of the Final Judgment of God at the end of time, which is a judgement of love.

You can thus imagine having this gift of ‘fear of God’ in our lives, we will be able to live truly free from sin and in steady progression towards holiness.

Without this gift, we would be living in fear of other material obsession or other persons, in the sense of worshipping them and giving them top priority and attention. We would live in slavery to material and worldly pursuits, which can never satisfy, never sanctify.

We see the Pharisees in today’s Gospel who lived in fear, not of God, but of the people. They were afraid of losing their authority, influence and power over their people. They had authority over them, but at the same time, they were afraid of them because they needed the people to come under their authority. They know if the people were to give up following them, or worse, to revolt against them, their authority would be useless and powerless. They fail to see that their status was given by God, they fail to live in fear of the Lord.

In contrast, let us look at Jesus; He accepted His Father’s will and lived in full obedience to Him. He was always mindful that His purpose and mission was to serve the will of God, for the salvation of the people. This made Him totally free from the world, He lived only to please God.

What do you live for?

Those who have the fear of God live for God, with a life in obedience to God’s way and will, that which leads them to true freedom, redeemed from sin and death. Amen.


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Homily: September 15, 2025, Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows (Entrustment)

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Homily: September 5, 2026, Saturday of the Twenty Second week in Ordinary Time (Be a saint)

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 “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.” Once I walked into our youth Bible study, and they were discussing the Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish apocalyptic text traditionally connected to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. They asked me questions about it. I had read it myself when I was their age, mostly out of curiosity, but honestly, I do not remember much of its content. There are also several other apocryphal writings, like the Gospel of James, the Gospel of Thomas, and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. But the Church never considered them inspired Scripture, because many of them were written decades after the death of the last Apostle, St. John. Public Revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle. Sometimes I also wish the Bible had more details about Jesus’ infancy and His hidden life. But St. John reminds us today that the world its...
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 “It is I who deal death and give life.” These words from our Responsorial Psalm today are actually not taken from the Book of Psalms. They come from the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32. They remind us of a fundamental truth of our faith: God is the author of life. Our life comes from God, belongs to God, and ultimately returns to God. This phrase beautifully connects our first reading and the Gospel today. In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel speaks against the prince of Tyre, a man who had become proud because of his success, wealth, wisdom, and accomplishments. And so the prophet reminds him of one simple reality: you are only a man, and you will die. There are certain realities in life that quickly reveal our limitations. An illness can make a powerful and independent person suddenly dependent on others. None of us can say, “I am too important to die,” or “I have accomplished enough that death cannot touch me.” Sirach 7:36 says  “In whatever you do, remember your last...
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Homily: September 4, 2026, Friday of the Twenty second Week in Ordinary Time (Do not Judge)

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 “Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes.” It is very difficult to live without judging others. Knowingly or unknowingly, we often judge people based on what we see, especially those who are different from us. But we are all different. Our life situations are different, our ideas are different, and the ways we were raised are different. There is a beautiful saying often attributed to Philo of Alexandria: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.” How true that is. We often do not know what another person is carrying in his or her heart. Jesus also tells us, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” So how do we overcome a judgmental attitude? One way is by becoming more empathetic. Instead of immediately judging someone, we can try to know the person, listen to their story, and understand why they may think or act differently from us. St. Paul reminds us today that the final judgment belongs to God. God knows what is ...
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