Homily: October 24, 2024, Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Know God )

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 "…that you…may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

I love this passage very much. In my native language, it is expressed even more beautifully, and I have cherished it in my heart since young.

Can we ever fully comprehend the love of God?

I don’t think we can ever grasp even a fraction of it. His love is immensely wide, long, high and deep, it surpasses all knowledge and understanding, beyond our imagination.

How do we even begin to understand something so vast? 

Let’s look at how today’s first reading started: "I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named."

To kneel before God is probably one of the first and best way to start to know Him. It is said that St. Thomas Aquinas learned more theology on his knees than from books.

And Blessed Archbishop Fulton Sheen put this wisdom so simply, “No man discovers anything big unless he makes himself small.”

Recognizing and embracing our smallness, our nothingness, means we recognize and embrace the greatness of God. We come before Him humble and empty, and He will fill us full of His graces. That begins our relationship with God.

We can read about God, think about God, and talk about God, but to truly know Him, we must kneel before Him and unite ourselves with Him through prayer.

And we pray and pray and pray. Praying consistently and unceasingly, is not so much for God to hear us, but it is for us to hear Him. And from hearing Him well, we will know Him better. It is much like how we become familiar with a friend, through constant connecting, through regular conversations, through listening to one another.

The wonderful relationships all the saints had with God came not from intellectual studying or learning, but from a life of prayer and contemplation.

So let us pray for the strength to comprehend the greatness of God, to know the love of Christ and be filled with the fullness of God. Let us daily strive to know Him, love Him and serve Him. Amen.


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Homily: June 29, 2025, Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul

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 From the first reading, Peter said: “Now I know for certain that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people had been expecting.” From the second reading, Paul said: “The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom.” Peter and Paul. Distinct characters but one heart and mind. Different persons but together in mission. Two apostles but one Lord and Master. Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the two pillars of the Catholic Church, together they make up the foundation of our Catholic teaching. Among the many disciples of the Lord, we know more about Peter and Paul, thanks to St. Luke, who recorded their stories and events in the Acts of the Apostles. The first half of the book was focused on Peter, the other half on Paul. When we look closely at them, we immediately see many differences, but why does the Church celebrate them together on the same feast ...
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Homily: May 19, 2023, Friday of the Sixth week of Easter (Shave Head)

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 At Cenchreae, he had shaved his head because he had taken a vow. At the end of the first reading, we heard that Paul shaved his head because of a vow he took. Scholars have suggested that very likely Paul had taken a Nazarite vow, and at the completion of the term and requirements, he would shave his head. Such a custom is common in Asia, especially in India. Catholic devotees would make vows to Mother Mary or some saints. Hindus also practice the same, taking vows to their deities, and they would shave their heads in response to the fulfilment of their petitions or requests. My mother was such a devotee, she took many vows. When my parents were childless for 7 years, my mother took many vows in return for the blessing of a child. One of which she promised to shave the head of her first child at the Velankanni Shrine. It is a major Marian shrine located in another state next to where my family lived. Finally, my mother gave birth to 7 children over 13 years, she could not travel t...
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 “As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep.” Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. And yet, if we look closely at the readings, we don’t see any explicit reference to the heart of Jesus. However, in the second reading, we read about the love of God through Jesus and in the first reading and Gospel, we are given a clear description of the love of a good shepherd for his own sheep. The good shepherd in these texts refer to Jesus, so what we celebrate today, is the loving, self-giving heart of Jesus, our good and true shepherd. We celebrate His unwavering protection, dedicated care and sacrificial love for us, His flock. Sheep are vulnerable, they do not have any sense of direction, totally cannot protect themselves or each other, but quite amazingly, they respond to the voice and instructions of their shepherd. They cannot survive on their own, they need their shepherd. So, the good shepherd w...
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Today’s second reading ends with this powerful phrase: “Because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Today we celebrate two beautiful events: the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity and Father’s Day. So, happy Father’s Day to all our fathers, grandfathers, fathers-to-be and godfathers! My siblings and I are incredibly blessed to have had a good Christian father who fulfilled his duties both as a father and as a Catholic. My papa was a very quiet, resilient, yet very gentle person. He loved and protected all his seven children, physically, emotionally, mentally and especially spiritually. He taught us the faith and was a great model of the traditions. He made sure we never missed Sunday Mass and took us regularly to Confession. I was very much a “dad’s boy”, working with him daily on the farm, taking care of the animals together with him. He didn’t worry much about school grades, but he was very firm and strict with us re...
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 “No slave is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” There is no doubt: every Christian who follows Jesus truly and live fully obedient to His commandments will face some form of persecution. The stories of the saints and martyrs throughout history confirm this reality. If we genuinely live according to the values of the Gospel, persecution is inevitable. Why? Because the world lives in opposition to the Gospel values. We all love Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She is now a canonized saint of the church but before she even died, she was already recognized as a living saint. She responded to the call of Jesus with extraordinary faith, humility and full obedience. She lived the Gospel in a powerful and real way, she showed mercy, compassion and solidarity with the poorest of the poor, living with them in the poorest of conditions, feeding them from the poverty she embraced but embracing them with the fullness of Christ’s love through the congregati...
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Homily: January 10, 2023, Tuesday of the first week in Ordinary Time.

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In today’s first reading, St. Paul is writing to the Hebrews to tell them about the dignity with which God created the first man, “You crowned him with glory and honour, subjecting all things under his feet.” This was our original state. We were subject to God only, and all else, the whole of creation, were subject to us. But with one fall, a single sin, we lost our glorious state, and became subject to many other things, even to nature and its forces.  In today’s world, we are still enslaved. The greatest slave master is the social media. Many children are addicted to it and can’t live without their gadgets. Through easy access to social media and its influences, these children are also exposed to drugs, alcohol, pornography, promiscuity and other illegal and immoral activities easily. Many adults too are vulnerable to these. Who introduced gadgets and social media to the children? Their parents, the adults. Slavery is passed down from one generation to another. It all began with ...
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“Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, ‘Come up here.’ So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.” In this scene, we can identify three parties: the loud voice from heaven, which we know is God; the two prophets who died, but later received the breath of life from God and went up to heaven in a cloud; and finally, their enemies who could only look on as the two were taken up to heaven. Are we people who reject Church teachings and persecute Jesus’ way of life? Or are we people who live by the teachings of the Church and give witness to the Gospel of Christ? We can be called Christians and be baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, but are we living the life as witnesses or anti-witnesses? This vision from the book of Revelations gives us hope and reinforces our belief in resurrection, it also is a warning to those who are believers only in name but not in practice. This vision will become a reality at the end of time. Will we be the ones taken up...
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 “Flee for your life! Don’t look back or stop anywhere on the plain.” Sodom was about to be totally destroyed, and the angel of the Lord came to save Lot and his family. But Lot hesitated. Why? Because all his property, his possessions, his wealth, his pleasurable and comfortable life were left behind and would be destroyed. Lot was very attached to all those material things. They were his life. We recall in the earlier chapters of Genesis, when Lot and Abraham divided the lands, Lot chose the best portion for himself, it was the fertile land near Sodom. He wanted to be wealthy and prosperous. Now, everything he had built had to be abandoned; he had to detach and let go. Detachment is painful. This reminds me of a real-life story I heard recently. A businessman who left India years ago and went to Kuwait. Through much hard work there, he finally built a profitable and successful crude oil company with many offices in major cities around the world. But when the Kuwait War broke out,...
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Homily: October 30, 2022, Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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 Today’s first reading begins with this, “Before the Lord the whole universe is as a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.” During my personal prayer time, I often tell the Lord all my worries and anxieties, the stress from ministry, the financial burdens of the parish and so on. Sometimes I grumble, sometimes I am angry, sometimes I am so tired, I fall asleep while complaining to the Lord. So if you ever find me asleep and snoring in front of the tabernacle, please don’t laugh, just pretend you didn’t see me. And after all my lamentations, I always find consolation from a deep realization of the immense breadth, width, greatness and love of God. Our God is just so BIG. To the God who created this vast universe, millions of stars, the faithful sun, the comforting moon, and this wounded earth… my worries and anxieties are nothing. He has everything under control, if I let Him. Our big God loves, feels for and is attentive to every little one of His ...
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