Homily: December 9, 2024, Solemnity of immaculate conception of Blessed Virgin Mary (Holy Family School Mass)

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 “As he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him."

We heard this phrase in today’s second reading. It is such a wonderful affirmation for us! God planned for us to belong to Him even before the world began. Imagine that!

Billions of years before today, God already had you in mind, your existence was in His plan. You did not exist by chance, you were not an accident and definitely not a mistake. You are God’s dream, God’s desire, God’s wish, God’s plan. Isn’t that amazing?

Today, we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Just as God knew us before the foundation of the world, He also knew the Blessed Virgin Mary before she was born. He chose her for a special mission, to be the mother of His Son from the very beginning. This is truly wonderful!

But what does "Immaculate Conception" mean?

‘Conception’ refers to the moment when a new life is conceived in the womb, the moment a human life begins and keeps growing in the womb until ready to be born. 

‘Immaculate’ means spotless, clean, pure. For example, if a shirt is immaculate, it means it is perfect, without any stain or wrinkle. When we use this term on people, it means they are holy, pure, and without sin.

God chose Mary before the foundation of the world to be holy and without sin. To prepare her for her unique mission — to be the mother of Jesus, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. So from the very beginning of her life, God poured out special graces onto her soul, thus she is ‘full of grace’, as how Angel Gabriel addressed her.

From the moment of her conception, Mary was preserved from all the effects of original sin. She was born immaculate so that she could bear in her womb the Most Holy Son of God.

Today, when we praise Mary, our Blessed Mother, we are praising God. As we love and honor her, we are thanking God for His wonderful plan for to save our souls, through Mary’s grace-filled life and mission. She brought Jesus to the world, and leads us back to Jesus.

No one loves Mother Mary better than Jesus does. So let us turn to our Mother always, confident that she will hear us, help us and intercede for us. Every day, let us pray with love and trust:

“Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to you. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”


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Homily: March 23,2025, Third Sunday of Lent (First Scrutiny of the elect)

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 "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13-14) On the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent, we celebrate the Rites of Scrutiny with our elects - those preparing to receive the Sacraments of Initiation, to enter the Catholic Church, as part of the period of ‘Purification and Enlightenment. The purification process is God's way of helping to remove the stain and dirt from the souls of the Elect, so to see the true good and beauty of each soul. God does not scrutinize to find the wrongs but to celebrate the real identity of each child of His, revealing the value within each of us and rejoicing in the light of Christ reflecting from us. Each of these Sundays has a powerful theme: Water, Light and Life. These themes are presented through the Gospel texts of various encounters with Jesus Christ: the wom...
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Homily: October 7, 2024, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary (Weapon)

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"And coming to her, he said, 'Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.'" I have seen this many times – one of our catechists holding up a rosary in her hand and asking the kids, “What is this?” When they respond, “It’s a rosary,” she would add, “This is a weapon to fight against the evil one.” How true! But have you ever wondered how does a rosary become a weapon against Satan? When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He used the Word of God to counter the temptations presented by the evil one. Satan is afraid of the Word of God. And when we pray the rosary, we are repeating the Word of God, bead after bead, don’t we? Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you. The “Hail Mary” is a prayer woven beautifully with the words of Scripture, and the “Our Father” is the prayer that Jesus Himself taught us, straight from the Bible. These are prayers recited repeatedly in the rosary. The rosary is thus a deeply biblical prayer which anyone can pray, and anytime we can recall ...
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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: August 24, 2024: Feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle (Duplicity)

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 "Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him."  Bartholomew the Apostle is Nathanael. Today’s Gospel account is a moving encounter between Jesus and Nathanael. Nathanael encountered the true Son of God and Jesus encountered the true child of Israel, which also meant a true child of God. Jesus highlighted the quality that makes Nathanael stand out as being true and real - having no duplicity. Initially, I thought duplicity meant hypocrisy, a description Jesus often used on the Pharisees. Later I understood the difference. Hypocrisy is outwardly pretending to agree while inwardly opposing, or outwardly expressing to believe while inwardly is totally in disbelief. A hypocrite would criticize others openly for behavior which they themselves would engage in privately. A hypocrite is the biggest liar, pretending to be good when in truth, he is actually evil.  Duplicity is having two faces, two sides, often with the intent to deceive or simply hiding the truth....
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Homily: September 11, 2024 Wednesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time (best attitudes)

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 "Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven." When I was a small boy, I used to look up in the sky when I heard a plane fly by. At that time, no one in my village had ever flown in an airplane before, so my dream was to fly in a plane to a place far away from my home. I thought that would be the day I would be very happy. Today I am here in the USA, more than 8 thousand miles away! Do you have a dream for yourself? We all have dreams, and whatever our dreams are, we all believe that when they come true, we will be very happy. I too have a dream for Holy Family School. I dream that every student who comes to this school will experience joy, that they will be happy learning and growing together, to make good friends and create beautiful memories here, and that every student here will gain not just great knowledge of the world, but also develop a deep understanding and love for God. Today’s Gospel passage is known as the Beatitudes. The Be...
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Homily: October 12, 2024, Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Bible)

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 “Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.” Is the word of God living and effective in your life? This is my personal Bible. It is in Malayalam, my native language. My papa bought it for me on June 7, 2003, two days before I turned 15 years old. It has been with me ever since. It accompanied me through all my seminary years even when in Rome. I’ve read it many, many times. If you receive a beautiful letter from someone you love, wouldn’t you read it over and over, many times? I’ve used my Bible to pray, to praise God, to seek His advice, and to learn more about Him. When I was younger, I had the habit of memorizing a verse from the Bible every day. Over that time, I have memorized hundreds of passages. In our family, everyone, as well as my parents, had their own personal Bible. My family still keeps my grandpa’s Bible, wh...
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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: July 1, 2024, Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time (The poor)

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 "For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke my word; because they sell the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the weak into the dust of the earth and force the lowly out of the way." This was how our first reading began today. Prophet Amos was prophesying against the northern kingdom of Israel. They had become rich and established themselves as a superpower among the nations, but they had completely forgotten how God was the one who guided and protected them all through the years when life was uncertain, and they were poor. Instead of being thankful to God, they disobeyed His commandments and abused the poor among them, the rich became richer while the poor became poorer. Thus, Amos warned how God will ‘crush (them) into the ground’ if they persisted in their sinfulness. Is being poor a sin? In this country, many people choose to be poor and homeless. In my home country, no one wants to be poor, because in ...
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Homily:August 18, 2024, Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Wisdom)

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 “Let whoever is simple turn in here; To the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed!” This generous invitation in today’s first reading is from Lady Wisdom. This reading is taken from Chapter 9 of the Book of Proverbs which portrays two women: Lady Wisdom and Dame Folly. Our first reading presents only the invitation of Lady Wisdom. She invites us, ‘whoever is simple’, to her home to enjoy the real good life, one of understanding and food good for our body and soul, while Dame Folly attracts people to destruction. Many people seek wisdom, sometimes for unwise reasons, often in the wrong places, and in the wrong ways. Wisdom is unlike knowledge and intellect, it is not something we can gain through studying or hard work, it does not come automatically with age or experience; it is ultimately a gift from the Holy Spirit. In Proverbs 2:6, it says ‘For the Lord gives wisdom…” I am very blessed to have met many wise people who in ...
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Homily: April 1, 2025, Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Lent ()

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 “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be well?’” I have to be honest, I really didn’t like the man who was healed, when I first read the event in today’s Gospel text. Jesus asked him a simple and direct question: “Do you want to be well?” All he needed to do was to answer yes or no. I would expect him to be enthusiastic and respond yes! But he didn’t answer the question directly. Instead, he complained. He blamed it on the fact that there was no one to help him get to the pool, and that someone else would always get in before he did. Again, after he was healed, when the authorities told him off for carrying his own mat on a sabbath, he blamed it on Jesus, for telling him to pick up his mat, and caused Jesus to be persecuted. Wasn’t he grateful for being healed? Did he want to be healed at all? It seems to me that he was a complainer, someone who doesn’t own up and puts the blame on others. But I paused and re...
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