Homily: November 23, 2024, Saturday of the Thirty -Third Week in Ordinary Time (Resurrection)

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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 to heaven or will we be the ones looking on?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus affirms the truth of the resurrection but also clarifies that the resurrected life will not be the same as earthly life. Life after resurrection does not follow the rules and logic of earthly life. In the resurrected life, we will all belong to God. So why are people putting so much effort into fighting the church and her teachings?

When we are resurrected, our mortal bodies will be transformed into glorified bodies, because we will be united with God in His glorious splendor.

Resurrection is the cornerstone of our faith. If we live with this belief, we live with hope. Our struggles and hardships in life will not stumble us but will strengthen us to persevere in faith and keep moving forward in trust.

Let us always remember that Jesus is “the resurrection and the life.” In Him, we place our trust and our hope.

Amen.


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Homily: April 5, 2025, Saturday of the Fourth week in Lent (The crowd and Pharisees)

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 “But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.”  Poor Pharisees. They held onto an unrealistic dream that all Israelites would know the law as well as they did. But the reality was that most people were living in poverty, under oppression, and with fear. They didn’t have the same access to education or religious instruction. Sometimes, I feel something similar in my own life. People often talk to me about TV shows, baseball, or football, assuming I’m familiar with what they enjoy. But the truth is, I don’t even know the basics of those games, I don’t follow any American TV shows except The Chosen.  I live in America, and many assume I share the same interests. But just like the Pharisees in Jesus’ time, it’s easy to forget that not everyone fits into the same mold. In today’s Gospel, the people including the guards were amazed by Jesus’ words. They praised Him for His miracles. But the Pharisees? They weren’t interested. They were so focused on studying the L...
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Homily: April 25, 2022, Feast of Saint Mark, evangelist.

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  “Knowing that your brothers and sisters throughout the world undergo the same sufferings”. Is this true? If we look around us, and into our own lives, what St. Peter says in this first reading is probably true. Everyone seems to have one or some of the same problems that cause suffering: health conditions, emotional situations, mental stress, financial troubles, family issues, natural disasters, man-made wars and so on. Sufferings are unavoidable in this life. They became part of human life when the very first sin of disobedience was committed. Sin entered human life, destroyed harmony and peace between people, and everyone is subjected to death. Why do we have to go through all these? Why should there be suffering and all kinds of problems in the world? Why can’t God just snap His fingers and let everything be restored to perfection? I once asked a friend these questions and she replied thoughtfully, that if our earthly life was without any problems, would we ever yearn for the ...
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“He shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street.”  Throughout Holy Week, we will be reading from the Book of Prophet Isaiah. 700 years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah had prophesied about the coming of the Messiah, not in a grand arrival, neither would He leave earth in a dignified departure. The image of Christ described by Isaiah is that of a humble suffering servant of God. His mission is to ‘bring forth justice to the nations’, by taking on injustice on Himself. He will carry the sins of the world through pain, yet He will not cry out, nor shout, He will bear all these in a meek, mild and humble way. Isaiah’s prophecies were all fulfilled by Jesus, particularly in the days of Holy Week. This week’s readings invite us to look to Jesus, no to pity and pain for Him, but to learn from Him, to straighten up our spirit to imitate Him, and to follow His example. All through Jesus’ trial, His great sufferings on the...
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Homily: June 20, 2022, Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time.

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 “The king of Assyria took Samaria, and deported the children of Israel to Assyria”. The northern kingdom, Israel, had been captured. Israel turned against God’s law, forgot all that He had done fore them and worshipped idols. That resulted, living in exile, homeless and with great suffering. That was one of the darkest episodes in the history of Israel. The chosen people of God were scattered from the exile and never returned home to the promised land given to Abraham and his descendents. Only the southern kingdom, the tribe of Judah, returned after their exile to Babylon. Why was God merciless? Why did He punish His people? We understand God to be loving, compassionate and merciful. So, does God punish us when we do wrong? Does He turn a blind eye to our sorrows and sufferings? The good news is God never punishes. We chose to punish ourselves, by choosing sin, choosing wrong, choosing evil. Each cause has an effect, every sin has its consequence, its effect according to the gravi...
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Homily: November 27, 2023, Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Fear of the Lord)

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 “In any question of wisdom or prudence that the king posed to them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his kingdom.” One of my favorite books in the Old Testament is the book of Daniel. The stories of Daniel and his friends inspire me a lot. I enjoy reading how God was always with them and blessed them with great wisdom and a unique gift in interpreting visions and dreams. In today’s first reading, we see how King Nebuchadnezzar tested and then invited these three young men, Daniel and his two friends, to serve him. It was an honor and seen as a great fortune to be trusted by the King, to eat and converse with him while all other Israelites were living as slaves. But Daniel and his friends did not once forget the God of their ancestors. Even though they had privileges from the King, they did not disobey God’s laws. They feared the Lord in all their days, they loved God in all their ways. And for that, they had great wisdom and understanding. An...
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Homily: August 21, 2023, Monday of the twentieth week in Ordinary Time.

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 “The children of Israel offended the LORD by serving the Baals.” We often say that "experience is the best teacher." However, this holds true only for those who are open to learning. It seems that humanity has never learnt from experience and so history repeats itself. If we had learned the lessons from World War 1, there would never have been World War 2, and the world thereafter would have been free from all wars as well. The Israelites were foolishly guilty of the same. While in the desert, they worshipped other gods and suffered the consequence of being bitten by snakes, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of people. That was not the only experience they had for being unfaithful to God. Did they learn their lesson? No. What are the baals? They were names given to deities, commonly referred to the Canaanite-phoenician god of fertility and rain. Rain was necessary to bring about a bountiful harvest in a fertile land, it was a symbol of fertility. Fertility was a sym...
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Homily: February 23, Wednesday of the seventh week in the Ordinary time

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Preached at Holy Family school mass  Did you hear what the Gospel reading was about? Something very exciting and amazing was happening. Let me repeat that part for you: John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name…” Yes, someone was driving out demons. wow! Can you imagine, the nasty, violent, fierce and frightening spirits entering a human person, controlling his behaviour and making him talk crazy and look mad. Then came the brave man who used Jesus’s name, called out the evil spirit and freed the poor man. What a hero! Now tell me, who has greater power? Is it 1) the evil spirit? 2) the brave man? Or 3) Jesus? Yes, Jesus is the powerful one, His name alone is strong enough to cast out evil spirits because they fear Him so much because He is God. We too can do wonderful things, perform miracles and save souls but only if we fulfil these two conditions: First, we must be friends with Jesus. We must believe in Him and be His followers. Jesus says, “F...
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Homily: May 22, 2022, Sixth sunday of Easter

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 “I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb”. This vision of St. John is so powerful! God Himself is the temple, His glory is the light for the world. So, there is no need for the sun or the moon. Probably there is no need for food and drink also, since Jesus’ body and blood is the real food and drink. God provides. There is a popular quote: “If God is all you have, you have all you need.” This is true not just at the end of time, but in our lives today. Do you believe? I have a good friend, Terry, who is the sole bread winner of her family. She works as a sales-person and her income fluctuates according to the sale she makes. During the year when Covid-19 first hit, everything slowed down. Her income suffered. But household expenses did not go down. She tried to find ways to make ends meet and dug into her savings. Then in May th...
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Homily: October 27, 2024, Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (I want to see)

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 "Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you." Bartimaeus was blind and a beggar, someone whom society had ignored, forgotten and cast aside. Bartimaeus had no status, no rights, nothing. But Bartimaeus had faith.  He believed that this Jesus whom he had heard so much about, could do for him what others could not do. He was so sure thus he did not hesitate to call out to Jesus who was walking by. Not once, but repeatedly. Even when others told him to stop, to keep silent, he cried out louder. Jesus heard his cry, his desperate plea for mercy. Jesus saw his sincere persistence and responded to him. "Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you." And what Bartimaeus do? “He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.” Bartimaeus was spontaneous and immediate in his response. His cloak was the only thing he had, which gave him protection and security. But at the call of Jesus, he threw it aside and came to Jesus, he did not hesitate at all to detach from his one...
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Homily: March 4, 2022: Friday after Ash Wednesday

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  “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much but your disciples do not fast?” The disciples of John did not understand the real purpose of fasting. They were blindly following the law. We also fast. Do we know why? Fasting was practised even before Christianity. The Hindu and Buddhist teachers fasted. Not by law but for spiritual meditation. Depriving body cleared their mind and purified their spirit. They received enlightenment. They received wisdom. Our daily living is cluttered with too much social noise, mental distractions, physical sensualities, and spiritual sin. We cannot see clearly the presence of Christ - the bridegroom. When we fast, we deprive, we detach, we free ourselves. We become more aware of the real need within us. We become more conscious of the real needs around us. We see truth, we understand eternity, we encounter divinity. We become enlightened. We become peace. My papa fasted regularly throughout his life. He was calm, compassionate and patient, even when in p...
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