Homily: April 30, 2025, Wednesday of the second week of Lent (God's power)

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Holy Family School Mass Homily 

 “The men whom you put in prison are in the temple area and are teaching the people.”

Wow, what happened? The apostles of Christ were supposed to be locked up in prison, how did they appear in the temple area preaching and teaching the people?

Well, blessed and happy Easter to all of you!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend and a restful spring break!

Jesus died, and have risen from the dead, and continued to walk around earth, spending time with His disciples for 50 days, that is why we are still in the Easter season.

Thereafter, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to His followers, empowering them with many spiritual gifts and that changed everything!

Before that, the apostles were all afraid and were hiding from their enemies. But once the Holy Spirit came upon them, they became super courageous. They began to go around preaching boldly and confidently about Jesus, even to the very people who had put Jesus to death. They were no longer afraid of being caught, tortured or even being killed.

Wasn’t that amazing?

In today’s reading, we heard that Peter and John were caught and thrown into prison because they refused to stop preaching about Jesus. But then something incredible happened - an angel of the Lord came in the dark of night quietly and released them. The prison guards were still guarding the prison without knowing what happened.

I remember reading this story when I was younger, and it always filled me with amazement and wonder. I learnt something very important, that “Nothing is impossible for God.”

I want you to also never forget this, now repeat after me: “Nothing is impossible for God!”

One more time, “Nothing is impossible for God!”

Never ever forget this. Yes, it is the Truth.

But of course, God is not going to do anything impossible that you ask of Him. You see, Peter and John were doing what God asked of them. They were preaching, healing, and serving the people in Jesus’ name. Because they were faithful to God’s call, thus God protected them and worked miracles through them.

So, it is important for you to also know what God wants you to do as His faithful children. Do you know?

• He wants you to learn well in school, so you understand about the world, and also learn more about God.

• Be kind to others, because God is loving and kind.

• Respect, honor and listen to your teachers and parents, because they too are doing God’s work in teaching you and caring for you.

• Grow in goodness, wisdom, love and faith.

That is how you can do God’s will right now. Do these well, the Holy Spirit will be with you guiding you and helping you.

Today, after Mass, we will honor Mother Mary by placing a crown on her head. Why do we honor Mary? Because she is our model of obedience to God, she is the one who always does God’s will perfectly. She is the one who will also bring us to Jesus.

So, let us always go to Mary when we feel too lazy to pray, too weak to resist temptations, too confused to choose what is right. She will always help us.

And let us learn to be like Mary, following her example of obedience to God’s will, He can then do great things through us, even things that seem impossible, because “Nothing is impossible for God!”

Amen.


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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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