Homily: June 14, 2025, Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time (Love Impels)

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 “The love of Christ impels us.”

Have you ever observed someone who was madly in love?

I know of a young man whose mother always complained that he was sloppy and unkempt, looked like a mess and smelled like a dead rat! He was not interested in anything but was always slouched over his computer games when he was off work. He wore the same dirty shirts and just could not be bothered by the world.

Then one day, she noticed he took a bath, shaved clean, brushed his hair neat, wore a crisp ironed shirt, sprayed perfume and asked her excitedly where the best place for pasta was.

He was a changed man! And what had that power to move him from the valley to the mountain top? Yes, love!

Love is powerful. When we love someone, we are willing to go beyond our limits, step out of our comfort zone, fly to the moon and back, just to please, just to satisfy, just to enrich the relationship. We go more than the extra mile.

We might even be willing to die, be it a painful death, to go to hell and come back again, just to see our beloved one more time, to encounter our loved one more deeply, and ensure the one we love is at peace and is happy. We would do all we can to be with the person we truly love for as long as possible.

Does this sound familiar?

Yes, it is how Jesus loves us, every one of us. On the cross, we see the full measure, the zenith of true unfailing unconditional selfless love. The love of God the Father impels Jesus to give till He is fully spent.

Jesus has loved us, and He continues to love us forever. Do we also love Him the same? Does the love of Christ impel us?

Think of Mother Teresa. She shared that she saw the face of the crucified Christ in every person she served. A journalist once watched her clean the rotting wounds of a leper, and told her, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars.” She looked up and said, “Neither would I. But I do it for Jesus.”

Money can’t move us. Love can. The love of Christ, if we fully understand it, will move us.

This weekend, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. We celebrate God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons united in perfect love. Our God does to go solo, He is trinity, He is relationship, He is love.

So today, let us ask sincerely and earnestly for the grace to know and understand the love of the Trinity, to feel and be filled with the love of Christ, that it may impel us, move us, drive us to serve and love others generously, unconditionally, selflessly and joyfully. Amen.


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

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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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 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: August 21, 2023, Monday of the twentieth week in Ordinary Time.

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