Homily: June 1, 2025, Ascension Sunday

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 “He put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.”

Today’s second reading concludes very clearly the role and relationship of Christ and us, the church.

This day of solemnity is not merely a commemoration of Jesus the Son returning to the Father. It is a firm proclamation of our identity, our mission, and our destiny as Church.

Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. We, the Church, are His Body. And where the Head has gone, the Body will follow.

The opening prayer for today’s celebration puts it beautifully for us: “Where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope.”

Our destiny is heaven, confirmed. But we are not going alone as individuals, we are going as one united Church.

When Jesus ascends into heaven, He goes in the same human body He took on through the Incarnation, the body which still bears the wounds of His sacrificial love, inflicted by our sins. He brings our humanity with Him to heaven, to God. In heaven, He sits at the right hand of God, who puts all things beneath His feet.

As His Body, we too will share that same power and authority. All things will be beneath the feet of Christ and His Church. By virtue of our baptism, being a part of the Church, we inherit this dignity, power and authority.

Are we aware of this gift?

What does it mean?

If we are still asleep and unaware, it is time to wake up and do something about it, because Satan knows this truth, and at every opportunity, he tries to destroy it for us. He is jealous of the glory promised to us, envious of the authority Christ shares with us.

For as long as we remain ignorant, the devil will keep us distracted and attracted by the world’s poor version of power and authority which is fake and temporal. By making us believe that we have power over ourselves and others, by deceiving us into thinking that we can rule the world by turning against God, or pretending to be our own gods, the devil presents an inferior imitation of what God has prepared for us.

When we are aware of and fully claim our identity, when we live out our true dignity and remain in Jesus, allowing Him to remain in us, through the Eucharist, the sacraments and the Word of God, we become truly powerful and are a big threat to the kingdom of darkness.

We are the Church of the Risen and Ascended Christ! As Pope Leo XVI assured us in his first public address:

“God loves us - all of us. Evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God. Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and with one another, we will go forward.”

Noteworthy and I emphasize here the words we must not overlook: “without fear”, “united”, “hand in hand with God and with one another”.

We do not go forward on our own, alone. Jesus Christ is the head, we are His Body, where He goes, we will go with Him.

The Crucified Christ looks like the victim of life, but the Risen Christ proves He is the victor of world. The Ascended Christ shows He is the glory of the universe.

Therefore, we too will be victorious and glorious with Christ. Be awake and aware, hold on to our real and true identity, claim the full extent of the gifts and graces our God has given us. Look to the Lord ascended into heaven, and know for certain that there we will be, there is our destiny.

Amen.


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

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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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 “No slave is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” There is no doubt: every Christian who follows Jesus truly and live fully obedient to His commandments will face some form of persecution. The stories of the saints and martyrs throughout history confirm this reality. If we genuinely live according to the values of the Gospel, persecution is inevitable. Why? Because the world lives in opposition to the Gospel values. We all love Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She is now a canonized saint of the church but before she even died, she was already recognized as a living saint. She responded to the call of Jesus with extraordinary faith, humility and full obedience. She lived the Gospel in a powerful and real way, she showed mercy, compassion and solidarity with the poorest of the poor, living with them in the poorest of conditions, feeding them from the poverty she embraced but embracing them with the fullness of Christ’s love through the congregati...
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In today’s first reading, St. Paul is writing to the Hebrews to tell them about the dignity with which God created the first man, “You crowned him with glory and honour, subjecting all things under his feet.” This was our original state. We were subject to God only, and all else, the whole of creation, were subject to us. But with one fall, a single sin, we lost our glorious state, and became subject to many other things, even to nature and its forces.  In today’s world, we are still enslaved. The greatest slave master is the social media. Many children are addicted to it and can’t live without their gadgets. Through easy access to social media and its influences, these children are also exposed to drugs, alcohol, pornography, promiscuity and other illegal and immoral activities easily. Many adults too are vulnerable to these. Who introduced gadgets and social media to the children? Their parents, the adults. Slavery is passed down from one generation to another. It all began with ...
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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...
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Today’s Mass is very special. We are here to give thanks to God for someone who has been a beloved part of our school community for many years, Fr. Ly Chu, who will be retiring from active ministry this July. Fr. Ly Chu has been a part of Holy Family School since 2008 and has served faithfully as a priest in our diocese for over two decades. The normal retirement age for priests is 70, and Fr. Ly Chu has reached that milestone this year.  Can you guess which year he was born in? That’s right, 1955! He was born in Vietnam, during a time of war, civil unrest, and religious persecution in the country. Even though it might endanger his life, Fr. Ly Chu felt called to become a priest. He began his seminary studies at what’s called an ‘underground seminary’, because at that time, religion was not permitted by the communist government. People had to celebrate Mass and receive the sacraments secretly, often in underground churches or hidden places. Despite many hardships, Fr. Ly Chu remain...
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