Homily: October 22, 2024, Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Lost).

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 “Brothers and sisters: You were at that time without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.”

What does it mean to be ‘without Christ’? St. Paul says it means to be ‘alienated’, a ‘stranger’, ‘without hope and without God’.

To me, that means being lost, no goal, no direction, no purpose, no reason to exist.

Have you ever experienced being lost?

When I was in third grade, my family went on a Marian pilgrimage to Tamil Nadu, which is quite far away from our home. Some families from our neighborhood went also.

There were thousands of other pilgrims at the site, all of us on the same path were moving along, packed against one another, like a giant river of people. My parents gave strict orders to hold on to each other’s hands tight and not to let go nor stray away from each other. 

I was holding on to my papa’s hand, but the crowd was pushing so much that at one point, I lost my grip and was quickly separated from my papa. I looked towards him in shock, but the moving crowd pulled me farther away. I was too small to push through the huge crowd.

I was so afraid that I cried and managed to enter the main church. Then I spotted one of our neighbors and ran to him, staying with him until my parents found me.

Being lost is terrible. The feelings of fear, anxiety, restlessness and hopelessness are crippling. Not knowing where I was, which way to go or what would happen next was a most frightening experience.

Living without Christ is being lost. Our souls are fearful, directionless, restless and hopeless.

Last year, during my visit to my sister and her family, I took my then two-year-old nephew to a nearby park to play. We had a lot of fun for about an hour, then suddenly he became very quiet and asked, “Where is mommy?”

He had just realized that he was without his mom, the one who was his provider, protector and most familiar person. She was his world.

I tried to distract him with toys and invited him to play, but he was no longer at peace, he began to cry. Nothing I did could calm or console him. Only his mom could give him the sense of peace and security he needed.

People without Christ live in a similar state of insecurity and fear. Without Christ, our souls are restless, anxious and lost. With Christ, we are confident, courageous, at peace. Because all of us are created through Him and for Him.

May we always have Jesus in our life, may we never lose our hold on His hand, may we always enjoy the fullness of His presence, His protection, providence and peace.

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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 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:August 18, 2024, Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Wisdom)

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Homilía: 3 Julio, 2022, XIV Domingo Ordinario

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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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Homily: August 20, 2022, Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

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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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