Homily: June 25, 2024, Tuesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time (God Alone)

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 “Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”

The Assyrians had already encamped themselves near Judah, ready to march into the city and take over the nation, like how they had already taken over the other ten tribes of Israel. Only Judah and Benjamin were left.

This statement is from the letter which the Assyrian king Sennacherib sent to Hezekiah, king of Judah. It did not just warn Judah that they were coming to take over Judah by force, but was also mocking that the God of Israel will be helpless and a fake.

What should King Hezekiah do in such a situation?

It was a fact that the Assyrian army was huge, Judah was simply too small to fight them.  Logically, it would make sense to surrender to Sennacherib to avoid bloodshed and accept the disgrace and the capture. All the neighboring countries had already lost to the Assyrians.

In our own life, have we also faced such situations before? Stuck and unable to move forward, when decisions are not so straightforward, complications confuse us, and we can’t even figure out what would be the right move next. What should we do? Who can we turn to for wisdom and help?

King Hezekiah, without hesitation, brought the letter up to the temple and spread it out before the Lord, surrendering not to the enemy but to His God, seeking His direction and appealing to Him to show His power to the Assyrians, “Therefore, O LORD, our God, save us from the power of this man, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”

Indeed, God alone is almighty and powerful. He alone decides life and death, and when He chooses to defend His people, He does not need a big army to work. That very night, the angel of the Lord went and struck down all the hundreds of thousands of men in the Assyrian camp.

With that, He declared to the world that He is the true, powerful and living God. He alone decides that “I will shield and save this city for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David.”

We do believe and acknowledge that God is almighty and powerful, Lord of heaven and earth, Master and Creator of us all. But do we even trust to let Him take control of everything in our life, everything that happens to us?

When we are stuck in our situations as King Hezekiah was, do we turn to Him to let Him fight our battles for us? And fight it the way He wants?

Is He the director and we the servant, or are we the director and He the servant?

Throughout the salvation history of church, God has always been the same. The same God of King Hezekiah is with us today, and nothing is impossible for Him, yet His plans are not ours. Do we trust Him enough to be God, and we His servants?

Our beloved Heavenly Father, we surrender our whole life to you, take charge, take control, we trust in you. Amen.


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March 1, 2025: First Holy Communion Homily: St. Joseph's Catholic Church Seffner, Florida

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Homily: September 18, 2023, Monday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Men should pray)

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 "It is my desire, then, that in every place, men should pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument." What a beautiful vision St. Paul had! Imagine if all people are prayerful and peaceful, no anger, no argument. The world would really be perfect. It is through prayerfulness that we learn to be deeply peaceful people, and I too desire to attain this. My papa and grandma were two great examples of prayerfulness for me.  Grandma was completely blind before I was born and she was living in my home. In my memory, she prayed the rosary all the time and she would spend hours reciting all the other prayers daily which she had memorized by heart. I have never seen her forgetting her prayers or skipping her rosary for even one day. My papa, too, had always kept a regular and consistent prayer routine. He read the Bible and devoted a good amount of time for prayer on a daily basis. I also do not recall seeing him miss a single day of his beautiful habit. I do regret though ...
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Homily: June 15, 2025 Soemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

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Today’s second reading ends with this powerful phrase: “Because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Today we celebrate two beautiful events: the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity and Father’s Day. So, happy Father’s Day to all our fathers, grandfathers, fathers-to-be and godfathers! My siblings and I are incredibly blessed to have had a good Christian father who fulfilled his duties both as a father and as a Catholic. My papa was a very quiet, resilient, yet very gentle person. He loved and protected all his seven children, physically, emotionally, mentally and especially spiritually. He taught us the faith and was a great model of the traditions. He made sure we never missed Sunday Mass and took us regularly to Confession. I was very much a “dad’s boy”, working with him daily on the farm, taking care of the animals together with him. He didn’t worry much about school grades, but he was very firm and strict with us re...
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Homily: Tuesday of the Tenth week in Oridnary Time (Salt lose taste)

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 “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Would salt ever lose its taste? From what I understand, the answer is no, not in its pure form. Salt in its pure form, is sodium chloride, and it is very stable, it cannot lose its taste, not even for over a hundred years, it will still maintain its saltiness. So why did Jesus use this salt analogy? What did Jesus mean by “salt losing its taste”? I have come across many interpretations. Some say that salt in this example by Jesus, is referring to our faith, others say it is our love, or our zeal. They are all good perspectives to help us understand what Jesus meant. A Christian without faith, without love, without passion for God, is in a grave spiritual danger of losing his real essence, the purpose of his being and existence. Jesus was warning His disciples: if they lose the mission of their faith, they will lo...
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