Homily: Ocotber 5, 2024, Saturday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time (Blessed)

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 “Thus the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his earlier ones. For he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses.”

That’s a lot of livestock! Maybe not for American farmers, but I think Job’s property was huge.

When I first came to Iowa, people would ask me about my parents and their lives. When I talked about our family farm back in India, they would naturally imagine it like an American farm, and I didn’t think too much about it.

My family farm was considered one of the larger ones in my area, though it was just 10 acres of land, every inch of it was cultivated. We had five cows, a few goats, and a dozen chickens, which was more than enough to sustain our family of 11.

Only later did I realize that an average American farm can be 500 to 1,000 acres, and their livestock can number hundreds or thousands.

In comparison, Job’s household was much larger, after God restored more than all that Job lost earlier in his life.

Today’s reading is taken from the final chapter in the Book of Job, which tells about Job’s life after all the hardships were over. It begins with God praising Job for his faithfulness, and it ends with Job praising God in turn for His faithfulness.

This book teaches us an important lesson: if we remain faithful to God, He will provide for all our needs. God will strengthen us through our sufferings, He will allow misfortunes but will not let it suffocate us, but will use the situation to mold us into a better person.

The Book of Job shows us that even when we are at our lowest, darkest and most difficult times, God never leaves us, He walks with us through it all. God is always with us. Let us rejoice that “our names are written in heaven”. 

Amen.


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Homily: April 14, 2026 Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter (Simple Faith)

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Did you listen attentively to the Gospel reading? Yes? Let me test you… What did Jesus say? Did He say, “Whoever eats my bread and drinks my wine?”  No! He said, “Whoever eats my FLESH and drinks my BLOOD remains in me and I in him.” Yes, when you receive Holy Communion, you are receiving the real flesh and blood of Jesus. I am sure Fr. Roy, your catechists, parents and the whole parish community have prepared you well for this day, so you know what you are receiving today. But what I want to focus on now is the last part where Jesus says, ‘remains in me and I in him’. 29 years ago in 1996, I received my First Holy Communion. I was eight years old, but I still remember that day vividly. I remember the preparations, my First Reconciliation, and the excitement I felt when I lined up to receive Jesus for the very first time. I remember seeing the priest dipping the Precious Body into the Precious Blood, and then that precious moment – Jesus’ body and blood rested on my tongue. So swee...
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Holy Family School Mass Homily:   “During the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison.” Did you hear that line in today’s first reading? The Sadducees put the apostles in jail. But during the night, an angel of the Lord came, opened the prison doors, and set them free. That is amazing, right? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have an angel like that? But here is the good news: You already do! Each one of you has a guardian angel. God has given every one of us an angel to protect us, guide us, and help us reach heaven. Some saints were very close to their guardian angels. St. Isidore, a farmer in Spain, loved God very much. There are stories that angels helped him with his work when he was busy praying. St. Padre Pio often spoke with his guardian angel and even asked his angel to help others. St. Gemma Galgani also experienced her guardian angel, who guided her and even corrected her when she did something wrong! Even in the life of Jesus, when He was praying in t...
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“Prepare to meet your God, O Israel.” This is the last verse from today’s first reading, and it reminds me of my school days. When I was in school, from Pre-K right up to high school, there were umpteen times when I was told, “Prepare to meet your principal.” And that meant trouble. Every principal that had led my school, has had the privilege of punishing me for being naughty or not doing my homework, and occasionally my parents too were called in to meet them. That was so embarrassing for them, and totally shameful for me. Yet it did not stop me from getting into trouble as I progressed through school. And so, whenever I go to Holy Family School here, and if I see students in the principal's office, it reminds me of my own experience in the past. I imagine that they too probably got into some trouble for not finishing their homework or misbehaving in class. And if I see a kid from SAC in the principal's office, I would just pretend that I did not look inside and did not see t...
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 "Not only will I go down to Egypt with you; I will also bring you back here, after Joseph has closed your eyes." With this promise of God, Jacob was greatly comforted and confident to follow God’s direction to leave the land of Canaan and move to Egypt. Why so? In Oriental cultures, it is a tradition for people to be buried on their family property, within their home ground. You can imagine there could be generations of forefathers buried in the backyard of every house, resting in peace.  Thus, people would never sell their property nor move out of it because their forefathers were buried there, and it would also be their final resting place. Many people who went overseas to work would insist on being sent back to their home countries and be buried in their home ground when they die. Jacob had that same concern. He wanted to be buried in the same cave at Machpelah where Abraham and Sarah, and Isaac and Rebecca were buried. Otherwise, he believed he would not rest in peace....
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 "If you knew what this meant, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice’, you would not have condemned these innocent men."  Jesus is quoting the words God had spoken through the prophet Hosea in the past. He knows that the Pharisees were familiar with the phrase and background but obviously they did not seem to fully understand what it meant. Now, do we know what it means? The root word of mercy is "misericordia," which means a compassionate heart. It is the heart that matters, not the externals. In the first reading, we see God instructing Moses in detail how each Israelite family should offer a lamb and the whole community would sacrifice all the offerings together, share out the roasted meat and apply the lamb’s blood on door posts for the Lord to pass over, destroying only the Egyptians, not the Israelites. The Israelites were to celebrate this festival yearly through all generations as a remembrance of God’s saving grace and liberation of the Israelites from slavery...
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