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, Wednesday,January 5, 2022, Memorial of Saint John Neumann, Bishop

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Readings:  https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010522.cfm In the first reading, St. John writes, “Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God”.  Do you truly and fully believe that Jesus is God? Do you know someone who does not believe so? Many, I am sure. Similarly in St. John’s time, there were many early Christian communities who questioned the divinity of Jesus. They followed Jesus’ teachings but regarded Him as simply a human person with the special power to perform miracles. They did not believe He is God. The disbelief stemmed from the humanity of Jesus. He was born from a woman like any other human, he grew from infancy to adulthood in the same way as the rest of humanity. He experienced hunger, pain, emotions and temptations like anyone. But He did not sin. Jesus was indeed fully human, so how could He also be fully divine? Human logic cannot explain it. Science cannot prove it. Thus, many could not accept it. God came to sav...
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Homily:August 18, 2024, Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Wisdom)

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Homily April 29, Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

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 “And all day long, both at the temple and in their homes, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Christ, Jesus”. Even after being flogged, all day long, the disciples continued teaching and preaching everywhere… Amazing, isn’t it?  These past few days, we have been reading from Acts of the Apostles. We see how the Jewish leaders and high priest tried to stop the apostles from preaching in the name of Jesus. But they failed. The Pharisee Gamaliel rightly said, “if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.” How true. The church is from God. The disciples did not stop teaching and proclaiming. They even rejoiced at being flogged for what they were doing. They were on fire for Jesus. They were so eager and excited to tell everyone about Jesus. What about us? If there is a new restaurant serving delicious food or a store is having a great end-of-summer sale, we would hear many people talking about it. Some w...
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Christmas Homily 2021,

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Homily: December 10, 2024, Tuesday of the second week In Advent (Word of God)

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Homily: November 2, 2024, The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls); Pleanary Indulgnce.

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