Homily: November 16, 2024 Saturday of the Thirty Second week in Ordinary time (Find Faith)

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 But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” 

Just a few days ago on Monday, we saw the disciples pleading with Jesus, and ourselves too praying for the same, “Lord, increase our faith.”

So, has your faith increased since then?

Because today our Lord is checking in with us, when He comes again, will He find faith on earth, will He find faith in us?

I am sure we are able to answer ‘yes’! I see many of you coming regularly for daily Mass, serving passionately in the ministries, and doing your best to live a holy life.

Very often, I would look back and am so thankful that I have faith in God. I think you would understand and agree too, because we know we would not have come this far in life if we didn’t know God, if we didn’t know prayer.

But of course, there is still much to do in terms of spreading the good news. Just within Des Moines, I guess there are still thousands of people who live without faith. I really wonder how they will manage life, especially in its darkest and lowest moments without God. When we see the violence, abuses and depressive conditions, those are signs that people do not have faith to guide them, they do not know God personally to seek help from Him. It is a pitiful situation.

Will our Lord find faith on earth when He comes again?

Yes - if we do something now, to share the faith we have found, to help others redirect their lives to God and find clarity in the purpose of living.

Let us pray for an increase in faith and let us be God’s instrument in realizing it, at least in our families, in our society, in Des Moines. Amen.


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Homily: October 18, 2025, Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist (Right - Companion)

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Homily: March 7, 2022, Monday of the First Week of Lent.

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  “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am Holy”. Both the first and Gospel readings today presented a ‘to-do’ and ‘not-to-do’ list. Some are really tough tasks. Can we ever accomplish them? Is it possible for us to be holy? We all know that at the sacrament of reconciliation, it is Jesus Himself who is sitting at the confessional, listening to the confessions. And the sacred privilege for me as a priest, is that I get to see as God sees and hear as God hears. And what does God see and hear? He doesn’t see our failures. He sees our brokenness. He doesn’t hear our sins. He hears our desire to be good. And God wants to help us. He reaches out to us, pouring out His graces. We desire to be holy and God desires the same. In that moment of reconciliation, in that meeting of desires, we become holy. And I, the priest who witnesses that sacred moment, also become holy. The very first step to becoming holy is to desire holiness. To desire becoming what God wants us to be, to be like Him, to...
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March 1, 2025: First Holy Communion Homily: St. Joseph's Catholic Church Seffner, Florida

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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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Homily: February 18, 2024, First Sunday in Lent (Repent and belive)

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 "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." Jesus is crying out loud at the Jordan, the same place where John the Baptist was calling out to people before he was arrested. There is sense of urgency in the message, a kind of ‘do it now’ warning, a very clear call for action, “repent, and believe…” As we enter the first Sunday of Lent, this is the first call of Jesus to each of us. ‘Repent’ – have you? ‘Believe’ – do you? If not, what are you waiting for? This is usually the period when our catechumen and candidates go through their final stretch of preparation towards baptism, and this message of Jesus is also calling out to them to take action, to convert their hearts, to believe in Him, to wait no more. Today, during this Mass, we will have the rite of sending, to dispatch them to our bishop for the rite of election at St. Francis of Assisi Parish. They have spent many months learning about the teachings of the Cathol...
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Homily: October 20, 2025, Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Greed)

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“Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” So true. Jesus warns us to guard against all greed, not just greed for money, but also for power, recognition, control, comfort and possessions. Even simple possessions, with greed, become obsessions. Greed blinds the soul. It makes us believe we need more and more, when we already have enough. At the end of our lives, what we had will not define us, nor give us any advantage at all for entry into heaven. But here, Jesus is saying, having too much might even disadvantage us. The rich man in today’s Gospel was a wealthy man, so distinguished was his wealth that he was simply known as a rich man, there was nothing else that could define him. Then God blessed him with even more. But instead of sharing his abundance, which will not affect his lifestyle in any way, he decided to build bigger barns to store it all for himself. Greed consumed him. He forgot that all his wealth was n...
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Homily: October 5, 2025, Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Wait-God's Time)

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 “For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.” These powerful words from the prophet Habakkuk point towards hope. Hope in the fulfillment of God’s promises, despite the people’s failures. Habakkuk is one of the twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament, a small book of just three chapters, but every line is theologically deep. Habakkuk lived in the 7th century before the Babylonian exile. He saw the kingdom of Judah sinking in moral decay, corruption, and spiritual emptiness. The kings were weak, the people disobedient, and the once glorious nation of Israel was on the brink of collapse. Meanwhile, nearby nation Babylon was rising in power and strength, and ruthlessness. Habakkuk could see what was coming, and it terrified him. He wrestled with God in prayer. “Lord, how long?” he cried. Why do the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer? And God’s answer was simple yet...
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Homily: December 26,2022, Feast of Saint Stephen, first martyr.

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From the first reading, we heard Stephen declare, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But his persecutors ‘cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together.’ If we could visualize the scene, we would imagine Stephen looking radiant with joy as he anticipated his death, while his persecutors looking tormented and fearful as they prepared to kill. We know why Stephen was joyful as he looked up to heaven, because he could see where his future would be. We also know why his persecutors were afraid as they closed their ears to Stephen’s words, because they did not want to hear the truth. It tormented their conscience and pierced through the darkness in their hearts. I am sure we ourselves may have experienced the same, when our wrong doings were being highlighted, when our shame were being revealed or when our hurts were being exposed, we might also cry out, “stop! I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want to know i...
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