Homily: May 19, 2025, Fifth Monday of Easter (Human Gods)

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 “Men, why are you doing this? We are of the same nature as you, human beings.” 

Paul and Barnabas were in serious trouble. After fleeing persecution in Iconium, they arrived in Lystra, only to face another challenge. But this time, it was not violent persecution, it was overwhelming appreciation. The people there were almost worshipping them as gods.

The people of Lystra, who had long been worshipping Zeus, Hermes, and other deities, thought that the gods had finally come down in human form when they saw the miracles performed by Paul and Barnabas. They believed only divine beings could do such wonder.

Truly so, but Paul and Barnabas were ordinary men, made of the same flesh and blood. Yet there was something different about them, the miracles they performed were truly acts of God, working through human beings.

Paul and Barnabas were true and faithful followers of Jesus; thus they were filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered to perform great works for God.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes us a promise: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

This promise has come true. 

The Advocate sent by God the Father in Jesus’ name from the first Pentecost, has taught the Apostles everything, and helped them recall in full clarity and understanding all that Jesus had told them. And everything that Paul and Barnabas did: teaching, healing and preaching, were all done through the power of the Holy Spirit.

During these 50 days of the Easter season, we have been reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Again and again, we witness the amazing works of the Holy Spirit. These events we read are always so inspiring and fill us with awe. It makes us wish for a return of the “good old days” of the early Church, when faith was so alive and dynamic, bold and Spirit-filled.

Well, we still have about 20 days before the feast of Pentecost. Let’s use this time to pray deeply and ask for the continuous outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives, in our parishes, and in our Church. Come, Holy Spirit, renew the face of the earth!

Amen.


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Homily: June 29, 2025, Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul

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Homily: May 16, 2016 Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter (Ask)

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“Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” What do you ask God for? When I was little, I asked God for many small things. One of them was the snacks from a tea shop on the way to school. Once in a while, my parents  would buy them for me, and I loved them. I even wished sometimes that I had been born as the tea shop owner’s son, so I could eat those snacks every day. Years later, one of my friends whose father owned a tea shop told me that he was tired of those snacks because he had them every day. He wished he had grown up on a farm like me, with fresh food and fruits. Very often, we ask for small and temporary things, thinking they will make us happy. Even now, as adults, many of our prayers are like that. We ask for things that are passing, things that do not truly satisfy the heart. But Jesus says: “Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” Not temporary happiness—but complete joy. So maybe today we should ask for something greater: A joyfu...
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