Homily: May 31, 2025, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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 “Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged! The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior.”

These powerful words from the prophet Zephaniah are just as timely today as they were when first declared. Indeed, it is a much-needed message for the Church today.

At the last NCYC, one of the bishops began his talk, addressing the youth, with three simple words: “Joy over Fear.” And those words captured the attention of over 13,000 teenagers; it sure captured my attention too. We all listened to him keenly for more than an hour because deep inside every one of us, we yearn to have courage over fear, we long for joy over sorrow, and we all live in the hope that all will be well and good at the end of our days.

Every day we wake up to some bad news, so it is very easy to slip into anxiety, fear, sadness and hopelessness.

Even when we look at our church, observe its declining numbers and its silent community, it is easy to think that God is far away, Jesus is in the distance and we are heading to the bottom.

At the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage Mass this past Tuesday, Fr. Malachy addressed this situation head-on. He said, “There’s a lie that lives in the Church today, a lie told to you by the culture, that you are on the defense. That the Church is shrinking, that you should keep quiet about Jesus, that faith belongs only in your home or within church walls.”

But then he added boldly: “That’s the lie. The truth is Satan is scared to death of the Church.”

Why? Because satan knows the power of Jesus Christ, the One who was crucified and has risen. He knows the power of the Eucharist, the sacraments, and he fears the power of the disciple who has faith.

However, he is also relaxed when he sees the reality, where clergy and laity seem to be more fearful than him. We seem to live unaware of the power of the Eucharist, the sacraments, the power of our faith – precisely those things which will empower us to overcome the world’s lies and lures, and crush satan.

If only we are fully aware, and claim these powerful gifts already given to us, will we still be fearful? If we have the Good News of our Lord in focus, if we daily invite the Lord into our midst, He who is our mighty savior, will we hear Zephaniah’s words clearly, “Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!”

As we prepare for the great feast of Pentecost, let us ask God for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who brings courage, conviction, and joy. Who will empower us to be like Jesus and speak of Jesus at work, at school, everywhere and with everyone, like the Apostles after that first Pentecost.

Yes, we have “Joy over Fear” because we have Jesus, the Eucharist, the sacraments and firm faith. May that be our prayer and our proclamation. Let satan be the one to worry and fear. Amen.


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Homily: July 20, 2025, Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary time.

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 “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing.”  What is the only one thing needed? In the first reading, God visited Abraham in the heat of the day. Abraham saw three men approaching his tent and sensed something special about them. In normal circumstances, Abraham simply could have acknowledged them and gone on with his work, but he did not. He dropped his work, ran to them, bowed before them, presented himself at their service, and got his household to prepare a good meal for them. He paid attention to their needs, and to what they had to tell him. In the Gospel, Jesus visits His dear friends Martha and Mary. Martha busies herself to prepare food to serve her special guest. While Mary chooses to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to Him. Mary is paying full attention to Jesus and enjoying His presence, while Martha is overwhelmed with perfecting her tasks, and then complains, in an attempt for Jesus to deny attention to Ma...
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Homily: February 13, 2022, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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 In the first reading we heard, “Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.” And then it continued with, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.” It is very clear, isn’t it? That those who turns away from God will be cursed and those who trusts in God will be blessed. The gospel reading today is known as the beatitudes, in which our Lord Jesus also spelled out the curses and the blessings. But it seems much harder to accept what Jesus is teaching here. I too struggle with this. Let us try to understand it together. We have been told that we came from God, and after this life, we will go back to God. For a long time, I questioned the rationale. Why create me to throw me into this difficult life just to bring me back to Him again? Why not just keep me with Him from the beginning and save me the trouble of going through this life? This earthly life is not easy. I w...
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Homilía: Marzo 24, 2022, Jueves de la III semana de Cuaresma.

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 “El que no está conmigo, está contra mí; y el que no recoge conmigo, desparrama”.”. El mensaje de Jesús es muy claro. No podemos seguir a Jesús parcialmente. Si no lo estamos siguiendo de todo corazón, no somos sus seguidores. Hoy es el vigésimo día de Cuaresma, sin contar los domingos. Estamos a la mitad. ¿Recuerdas lo que decidiste hacer especial para estos 40 días de Cuaresma? ¿Lo estás cumpliendo? Mientras nos esforzamos por fortalecernos espiritualmente, los demonios se esfuerzan más para mantenernos deprimidos. Me pregunto quién está a la cabeza en esta mitad de camino. En mis años de infancia, solo los niños ricos de mi pueblo podían tener bicicletas. Cuando estaba en quinto grado, mi hermano mayor y yo decidimos recolectar flores silvestres de nuez moscada del bosque cercano para venderlas y poder comprar una bicicleta. Nos despertábamos muy temprano en la mañana y corríamos al bosque para buscar y recolectar tantas como fuera posible. Muchos niños de otros pueblos estaban...
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Homily: Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist, Monday, December 27, 2021

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  “ They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter…” Today is the 25th death anniversary of my paternal grandmother. I remember vividly that day. My papa had always been a calm and composed man, I hardly see him excited or hurried. But exactly 25 years ago this day, I saw my papa run in anxiety. Early that morning, my grandmother collapsed at home and was unconscious. We had no telephone, no car. There were only three cars in our village and only two families had telephone connection. Papa ran to one family to ask them to drive grandma to the hospital. The rest of us waited in silence at home. Later in the afternoon, our neighbour who had phone connection, ran to our house and reported, "grandma is no more". That was the first time I encountered death in the family. I was eight years old. I didn’t understand what death meant. I knew I would not see grandma at home anymore, I felt sad, because papa was sad. Grandma’s death was certain. But is death final? In the g...
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Homily: March 20, 2023 Monday, Solemnity of Saint Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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 From the first reading, “I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.” From the second reading, “I have made you father of many nations.” And from the Gospel, “Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.” Today we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, not ‘St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus’. Yet today’s readings seem to focus on fatherhood, having descendants and heirs, being the head of many nations etc. Little is mentioned about being a husband, a spouse. So why does the church celebrate St. Joseph’s role as the Spouse of Mary with readings about fatherhood? We know for a fact that it is not possible for a man to have biological children without the woman, so no heir without the wife, no kingdom without the queen. From conception to birth, the woman bears the burden and delivers the joy. The man supports. There was a couple with two little kids, who went to the clinic one day. The wife was not feeling well. When the do...
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Homily: July 22, 2025, Feast of Mary Magdalene (Loved Most)

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 Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’  St. Mary Magdalene is known in the Church as the “Apostle to the Apostles”, a privileged and beautiful title. Even Peter, the head of the apostles, or John, the beloved disciple, were not entrusted with the first announcement of the Resurrection. Instead, Jesus gave that mission to Mary Magdalene. She was the first to proclaim the central truth of our faith: Christ is risen! He has overcome death, and because of that, we live with hope and our faith is strengthened. Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. Death has no power over us too, because the One who conquered it, has the power to resurrect us as well. For over 2,000 years, since Mary Magdalene’s first announcement, Christians have continued to proclaim the Good News of Jesus’s resurrection. It is our call, our mission, to echo Mary Magdalene’s joyful ...
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Homily: March 2, 2022, Ash Wednesday

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 Today begins another holy season of Lent. A time to turn away from sinful ways. To turn back to God. Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are from dust. Unto dust we shall return. God looked at dust and loved. He gave dust His breathe of life. God looks at us and loves. He gives us His body, blood and spirit. What can we give Him? “Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart”. God doesn’t want anything from us, He wants us. Live in God. Live with God. Live for God. In God’s ways. When I first came to this country, I saw crowds packing the mega churches. Non-Catholic Christian churches. I was really fascinated. Our Catholic churches are hardly ever filled. I asked an elderly priest, “why?” He replied, “Ours is a worship and sacrifice. Theirs is a show.” People like shows, performances, excitement. The world says, “be heard, be seen, be known, and be successful.” The Gospel says, “pray but don’t be heard, fast but don’t be seen, give but don’t be known, and be faithful.”...
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Homily: January 18, 2022, Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time.

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 Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011822.cfm “Take no notice of his appearance or his height for I have rejected him; God does not see as man sees; man looks at appearances but the Lord looks at the heart.” These words of God are so assuring. If God were to choose based on appearances and height, I would never have made it to priesthood. But the world chooses differently. When I was doing my seminary studies in Rome, I used to go to Germany for summer jobs. I was poor and my home diocese could not afford to give seminarians who studied overseas any allowances, so I worked during the vacation to earn pocket money for my daily expenses. During my first vacation stint, I got a job with a car factory in Munich which produced the BMW cars. Our job was to do summer cleaning of the factory. On the first day of work, they lined up all student workers according to our heights and weights. I was so skinny at that time, so I was almost last in line. Then the work was assi...
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Homily: September 18, 2023, Monday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Men should pray)

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 "It is my desire, then, that in every place, men should pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument." What a beautiful vision St. Paul had! Imagine if all people are prayerful and peaceful, no anger, no argument. The world would really be perfect. It is through prayerfulness that we learn to be deeply peaceful people, and I too desire to attain this. My papa and grandma were two great examples of prayerfulness for me.  Grandma was completely blind before I was born and she was living in my home. In my memory, she prayed the rosary all the time and she would spend hours reciting all the other prayers daily which she had memorized by heart. I have never seen her forgetting her prayers or skipping her rosary for even one day. My papa, too, had always kept a regular and consistent prayer routine. He read the Bible and devoted a good amount of time for prayer on a daily basis. I also do not recall seeing him miss a single day of his beautiful habit. I do regret though ...
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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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