Homily: October 20, 2024, Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (High Priest )

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 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.”

This verse from today’s second reading is both beautiful and powerful. It tells us profoundly of the deep compassion of God for His people through the sacrificial priesthood of Christ.

Someone who has gone through suffering can surely better understand and empathize with the sufferings of others. When I minister to parishioners whose family members have passed on, I can feel their pain because I too have lost my beloved parents.

I know a couple who lost their beloved son unexpectedly while he was in college. It took them a long time to overcome the pain and sorrow of loss. Eventually, they started a ministry in their parish to help others who were also grieving the loss of loved ones. Their suffering enabled them to offer comfort, consolation and companionship to others in similar situations.

Our high priest Jesus Christ is not one who sits on the pedestal seat to judge us from on high, but through the incarnation, He came down from heaven and assumed the human condition with all its limitations and weaknesses. 

Thus, He can sympathize, empathize and identify with all our weaknesses and struggles. He alone experienced more in ways we can barely imagine. Few of us will ever suffer as much as He did. Jesus has experienced almost everything of what each of us would go through in this life.

Jesus experienced the loss of loved ones, He lived in exile, much like many of you who have had to leave your home countries. 

He was betrayed, violently beaten, criticized, ridiculed, bullied, lived in poverty, counted among criminals, unjustly accused, rejected, abandoned, tempted but never sinned.

Jesus endured all of this, for love of us. God, came as man, to go through all these with us and for us. In the first reading, we heard, “Through His suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt He shall bear.”

There is a quote, “He came to pay a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay.”

He knows what it is like for us. He feels for us. He understands. He came to live among us, to be like us, so that finally, we can be like Him and live with Him.

So, as today’s reading encouraged, “Let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” None of us of too unworthy of God’s grace and mercy, we just have to want it and ask for it.

Whenever we suffer or go through hardships, let us look to the cross and know that our Lord has suffered it. May we be able to unite our difficulties with His torments and ask for the grace to bear our pains in life as He endured His agony on the cross.

Because He has shed His precious blood for us to the last drop, our sufferings on earth for His sake will not be in vain.

Like James and John, let us courageously drink the cup of suffering given to us now and look forward to the reward of sitting with Jesus in His Kingdom.

Amen.


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Homily: November 3, 2024, Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Memento Mori)

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 In the 2,000-year history of the Church, monastic orders like the Cistercians and Trappists have existed, and the monks dedicate themselves to a life of deep contemplation and penance. Some of these monks take a vow of perpetual silence, speaking only in an emergency. When they pass each other in the monastery, their silent greeting is "memento mori" - "remember death." They remind each other daily to consider the reality of death and to always be prepared for it. Today, November 2, we commemorate All Souls' Day, remembering all the departed souls in purgatory who long to see God face-to-face. Like the consecrated monks, this commemoration invites us to pause and reflect on our own mortality. Memento mori. Remember death. We probably have said goodbye to many people in our lives: family, friends, relatives, famous people and people who have done great deeds that impacted society. Some of their names may have already faded from our memories. Perhaps we’ve even s
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Homily: November 2, 2024, The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls); Pleanary Indulgnce.

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 “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.” This beautiful passage from today’s first reading is one we often hear at funeral Masses. It comforts and consoles us deeply, assuring us of God’s merciful love and protection for those who have passed from this life. Today, as we commemorate All Souls’ Day, we remember the souls of all the faithful departed, those in purgatory awaiting the fullness of union with God. Their souls are in the hands of God, and while we need not worry for them, we can still assist them with our prayers. During the first week of November, the Church offers us the special grace of a plenary indulgence for our deceased loved ones. But what exactly is a plenary indulgence? It is a special grace that removes the temporal punishments due to sin. While the Sacrament of Reconciliation forgives sins and removes the eternal punishment of hell, temporal punishments may remain. Temporal punishments are the natural consequences arising f
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Homily, June 1, 2022, Memorial of Saint Justin, Martyr

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For Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021722.cfm St. James advised the Christian community, “My brothers and sisters, show no partiality”, with a stern warning, “if you show partiality, you commit sin…” Is it really possible to treat everyone without partiality? My grandfather had more than 50 grandchildren and he loved all as fairly as he could. But he had a favorite - me. He loved me very specially because we had a common interest – gardening. He often praised me for my green thumb as I am quite gifted in this area, and he valued it very much. To him, it is a great talent. He favored me so much that when he was dying, he called me to his bedside to give me his final blessing. He called no one else. In this world, money is highly valued. And St. James was warning about the biased treatment of favoring the rich ones in the community while despising those who were poor. Being rich or poor should not differentiate the disciples from one another. Neither should it different
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Homilía: 23 de Octubre 2022, XXX Domingo ordinario (ES)

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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
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Homily: July 1, 2024, Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time (The poor)

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