Homily: June 13, 2025, Friday of the Tenth week in Ordinary time (Life in you)

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 “So death is at work in us, but life in you.”

This phrase from today’s first reading truly struck me powerfully. It is deep, profound, and it captures the essence of what it means to be on Christ’s mission.

If we really observe the way the apostles lived, or study how the saints chose to live, literally, they chose death. Like their Master, like the life of Jesus Christ, who chose death for Himself, so that all of us may live. This truth is in the cross.

As a priest, if I die to myself and my selfish desires every day, my parish life and my mission for Christ will thrive. A father or a mother who sacrifices their own comfort and convenience for the good of their children will see them bloom and grow positively.

John 12:24, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”

This fruit is a fruit in the life of Christ. So, death is at work in us, but life is in Christ.

The love we receive in the Eucharist is a sacrificial love. And we are graced to become what we receive, to become Eucharist for others, to give life, to give sacrificial love.

This past Monday during adoration, I heard a quote from Mother Teresa that stayed with me: “We need to be woven by the Eucharist. We need that oneness. We need to be so one with Jesus that we can be broken, so that people can eat us, so we can be truly spent, as Jesus was spent.”

What a profound description! To be so united with Jesus in the Eucharist that we, too, can be broken, spent, and poured out like Him. That is the Eucharistic life.

Saint Paul and the apostles lived such a life. Day and night, they labored, sometimes in hunger, sometimes in chains, often in danger, not for themselves, but for the Church, for Christ. They gave their life till they are emptied out, and the Church grew, the communities thrive, fully alive in Christ.

What about us?

Are we willing to work till death for Christ so that Christ can live fully in us?

Are we willing to be broken for others so that they may live in Christ?

May we be graced and empowered by the Holy Eucharist, to become His Eucharist for others.

Amen.


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