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: January 20, 2026. Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time (Anointed-Spirit )

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Holy Family School Mass Homily.   “At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.” In today’s Gospel, we hear about Jesus healing many people with different diseases. The passage begins with the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, who was very sick in bed with a very high fever. She was not merely resting, in fact her fever was so bad that she was unable to get out of bed. I am guessing it could be 103 or 104 degrees! Normally, if we get such a high fever, it would take us days to recover with strong medication. But when Jesus visited Peter’s mother-in-law, He simply stood over her, rebuked the fever, that means He scolded the fever, and it left her!  Instantly, she was well again and was able to get up and serve Jesus and His disciples. Wow! Jesus is the King of the Universe, He has power over everything in the world, if you would only believe in Him and trust Him. Even today, Jesus continues ...
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Homily: June 15, 2025 Soemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

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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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Homily: December 8, 2025, Solemnity of Immaculate Conception

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 “He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” These powerful words from St. Paul to the Ephesians remind us of a truth that should fill our hearts with great joy: we are chosen. We choose or nominate someone because we see great value in the person. It is an honor to be chosen, especially for something great. But today, St. Paul tells us something far greater: You and I have been chosen by God Himself the Creator of the vast universe, the Lord of galaxies and stars, the One who holds everything in existence. And God chose us, long before the world began, long before our birth, before we could do anything to earn His love. Why? Because God has a divine purpose for all of us. The blessed virgin Mary was chosen too, in an extraordinary way. God chose her and granted her a unique grace: conception without original sin. Mary’s soul was untouched by any stain of sin from the very first moment of her existence. God has a plan of salv...
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Homily: January 17, 2026, Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary Time (Discipleship)

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 Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” And without hesitation, Levi got up and followed Him. There was no second thought, no delay, no negotiation. In that moment, Levi left behind his profession, his security, and all the benefits and privileges that came with it, and he became Matthew, the apostle. Not only that, Matthew brought many of his friends to Jesus.  Where there is true conversion, others are always drawn in. This is how discipleship works. When someone genuinely encounters Christ, that encounter never remains private. Every true conversion becomes contagious. Those who grow closer to Jesus naturally begin to bring others to Him. The same is true for us. Our discipleship is not a one-person journey. We live our faith within families, communities, and parishes. If we are truly walking with Christ, our lives will influence others, whether we realize it or not. And this leads us to a serious truth. Influence works both ways. In the first reading, we hear about Saul, who was ...
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Homily: December 28, 2025, Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (Dreams)

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 “The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.’” As a young man, Joseph must have had beautiful dreams about his future family. He could have imagined a helpful and capable wife, children playing around the house and growing up to be well respected people in the community, a vision of a stable and peaceful life. When he got engaged to Mary, it seemed like his dreams would become reality soon. Many of us, married or not, can identify with the dreams that Joseph could have had. Yet like Joseph, the realities of our lives would have unfolded quite differently from how we have dreamt it. Joseph’s family life turned out totally unlike his own dreams, yet he continued to dream, now with God’s will revealed and God’s plan unfolding in the reality of his life. The hardship he went through in Bethlehem, with the birth of Jesus, did not end there. Today’s Gospel shows another unexpected cha...
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Homily: January 11, 2026, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (Beloved)

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 “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” These words were spoken by God was not meant to be a private revelation. It was heard by everyone present on that day, all who witnessed Jesus being baptized by John.  These words were blessings from God, springing forth from His heart. Before Jesus preached a single sermon, before He healed anyone, before He suffered persecution and death, His Father in heaven proclaimed the Truth over Him: This is my beloved Son. Jesus lived His entire life grounded in that truth. He never struggled with His identity. He never doubted His mission on Earth. He knows who He is and why He has come. His purpose is to do the will of the Father, to reveal to the whole world who God is, to show to all generations how God loves and thus save all of humanity. Let us look again at where Jesus was baptized, the River Jordan. Its waters flows from near Mount Hermon, in between Lebanon and Syria, runs through fertile land, carrying nourishment for t...
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Homily: February 22, 2025 Feast of the chair of St. Peter.

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 “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”  Our Lord founded the Church and handed over its growth and development into the future, to Peter. Note that the disciple is Simon, but the pope is Peter. Thus, this appointment to build the church, an appointment so solid like a rock, will be so strong and firm that not even hell could ever overcome it. Simon Peter was not perfect; he had his human weaknesses. It is written that he had cowardly denied Jesus three times, and at one point, Jesus even rebuked him, “Get behind me, Satan” (Matthew 16:23). Christian Tradition also tells that during the time of persecution in Rome, he had tried to escape and flee from Rome. The story continued that on his way along the road outside the city, he met our Lord Jesus where he asked, “Quo vadis, Domine?” - “Where are you going Lord?” To which our Lord replied, “Romam eo iterum crucifigī” – “I a...
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