Homily: May 28, 2024, Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Holy Family School Mass)

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Today we are celebrating a very, very special and joyous occasion, do you know what that is?

Yes! Our second graders received their First Holy Communion! So a school famliy we celebrate their joy.

Now why is this so special and so joyous? Because receiving Holy Communion is really receiving Jesus Himself, to be united with Him heart in heart, body in body, totally and fully.

Can you imagine the powerful King of the Universe, who loves you very, very much, so much that He is willing to become so small so that He can enter into your heart and stay with you?

That is so wonderful! Something hard for us to fully understand but yet it is true!

Jesus wants so much to be with us always, forever and ever. He wants to bless us and give us everything that we need for our souls to be saved.

Do you think Jesus would give us everything we ask for? 

Like what we heard in the gospel passage today, James and John went to Jesus and boldly asked Him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

And what did they want from Jesus?

"Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."

Do you know what it is that they want? What does it mean to sit on the right and left of a King?

Yes, it is to have power and authority, almost like the King.

But Jesus’ kingdom is different from the kingdom of the world. To sit at the right and left of Jesus, is to share in His suffering which this world will hit out for Jesus.

It will not be fun, it will be very painful and no one will be able to suffer like Jesus unless they are graced by Him. With the grace of God, we can conquer and overcome all the difficulties and challenges of life.

And how can we receive the grace of God to be strong and fearless in life?

Yes, we receive abundant grace when we receive Jesus in Holy communion! So we should receive Holy Communion as often as possible, keeping close to Jesus always.

And so, we are very happy for our second graders today. We pray that you will continue to love Jesus in the Eucharist, continue to attend Mass as often as possible and always keep Jesus in your heart. Amen!


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Holy Family school Mass Homily   “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” Have you ever heard: “You are what you eat”? So be careful what you are always eating… Now have you also heard: “What you think, that you become.” I think there is a lot of truth in this. If you are always thinking about the same things, you will one become more and more like it, or you would behave more and more like the thought. There is a story about Napoleon Bonaparte. Once, he went to a palm reader and asked him to read his hand. The reader told him the usual things, what had happened to his life and so on. But Napoleon interrupted: “Do you see any possibility that I could become a king?” The palm reader replied, “No. Every king has a special line on his hand, but you don’t have it.” And you know what Napoleon did? He immediately took a knife, sliced on his palm, and cut out that special line himself. The palm reader then said, “Yes, you will become an emperor.” Napoleon always dreamed of ...
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