Homily: June 18, 2025, Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time (Not to be seen)

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 “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them.”

We live in a world of performance, we work to be seen and heard, to be recognized and applauded. With the explosive growth and popularity of social media, modesty has nearly disappeared. Many have taken to exposing every aspect of their personal lives, it is now so convenient and easy to share, like, and repost every little thing for the world to see.

It is not a bad thing to share openly and freely with friends, especially the good moments, the joyful events, the memorable occasions. And within the Church, it is helpful to keep the community connected and informed, to broadcast and share all the good that is done, so that we can together praise and thank God for His blessings.

Ahhh, here is the problem...

Do we do good so that we can praise God, or do we do good so that others can praise us?

Do we sometimes work hard to show that we are the most active, generous, or popular church in town?

Are we offended if we do not get many likes, or if we get dislikes, for the posts on the good work we did?

Today’s Gospel is challenging us precisely in this aspect. Can we do good, truly for the sake of good, not for any form of reward, and remain hidden, unseen, unknown?

This call to hidden holiness reminds me of Pope Benedict XVI. At his final public address in 2013, after announcing his resignation, he said: “I will continue to accompany the Church with my prayers, and I ask each of you to pray for me and for the new Pope. In the future, I wish to serve the Holy Church of God devotedly through a life dedicated to prayer… Even if I am withdrawing into prayer, I will always be close to all of you… even if I remain hidden from the world.”

Those last words struck me deeply. For the ten years that followed, Pope Benedict lived a quiet, hidden life, away from public eyes. He lifted the world in his constant prayer, without anyone thanking, praising or even acknowledging him for his dedication. That, to me, is sincere service, true humility, authentic living.

The litany of humility prays “that others may be loved more than I… that others may be praised and I unnoticed… that others may be preferred to me in everything…”

These echo the Gospel we hear today. These reflect the beatitude “blessed are the poor in spirit”.

Let us be mindful not to perform our righteous deeds for applause or attention, but with purity of heart and intention, and offer the glory and praise to God alone. Then, as Jesus assures, our reward will be great in heaven.

Amen.


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Homily: September 27, 2025, Saturday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary time (SVDP)

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 “But I will be for her an encircling wall of fire, says the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst.” This is such an assuring powerful message from God, from today’s first reading. Our God is fiercely protective of us, His beloved creation. I am sure some of us may have personally experienced God’s protective love, His wall of fire encircling us, defending, guarding, sheltering us from harm and hurt that may destroy our souls. His goal is to save humanity, and in response, in line with His love for us, we are called to be His hands and feet, to extend His protective love towards others. Today we celebrate the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, a saint who made God’s love visible in concrete ways. He fed, clothed and sheltered the very deprived and forgotten people, especially the imprisoned slaves with generous charity, providing for their very basic needs of a human person. His mission continues, through Vincentian priests, sisters, brothers, and lay members who serve the in nearl...
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Homily: October 22, 2024, Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Lost).

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Homilía: Julio 17, 2022, XVI Domingo Ordinario

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 "Marta, Marta, muchas cosas te preocupan y te inquietan, siendo así que una sola es necesaria. María escogió la mejor parte". ¿Qué es esa única cosa que se necesita? Este consejo de Jesús es muy importante para cada uno de nosotros. Reflexionemos sobre las lecturas de hoy para entenderlo mejor. En la primera lectura, Abraham vio a tres hombres que estaban cerca de su tienda; inmediatamente se ofreció a servirles y les dio una buena cena, antes de que siguieran su camino. En la lectura del Evangelio, cuando Jesús entró en el pueblo, Marta y María lo recibieron. Marta se ocupó de preparar una buena cena para Jesús. Mientras que María, se sentó a sus pies a escucharle hablar. Marta se sentía agobiada y ansiosa. Necesitaba la ayuda de María para dar una buena comida a su invitado. Entonces Jesús dijo: "una sola es necesaria. María escogió la mejor parte...". Efectivamente, María eligió algo maravilloso. Sentarse con Jesús y escucharle hablar. Eso es lo que nos gustaría...
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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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 We see the violent persecution of the early Christian communities in today’s first reading. We heard, “Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment.” Cruel, inhumane, unjustified persecution. Do you know anyone who is against the church, always criticizing the church and disagreeing with people who are associated with church? I suppose it is not too difficult to think of a few names. Here we see Saul, the champion persecutor of the early Christians, totally against the Christian church, but who later was also converted and became the champion evangelizer for Christ, totally dedicated. He wrote 25% of the New Testament and founded many churches in Asia. Saul, who once tried his best to destroy the Church later became Paul who tried better than his best to build the church. He was very successful in both missions but his powerful encounter with Jesus stopped him from his persecution...
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Homily: September 24, 2025, Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time (Prayer)

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 “At the time of the evening sacrifice, I, Ezra, rose in my wretchedness, and with cloak and mantle torn I fell on my knees, stretching out my hands to the LORD, my God.” How do you pray? Today’s first reading gives us a beautiful description of how priest Ezra prayed. He considered himself ‘wretched’, totally unworthy of God and His mercy. This expressed his deep reverence for the vast greatness and graciousness of God. He fell on his knees with outstretched arms. This expressed his total surrender, obedience and submission to the ultimate good and perfect will of God. Ezra’s humble prayer disposition is beautiful. He prayed with a deep, sincere, and remorseful heart, laid bare before God, bearing the guilt of his people, yet completely appreciative and grateful for God’s forgiveness. He offered this prayer after the completion and dedication of the rebuilt Temple. The broken temple now rebuilt signified a reconciled relationship with God. Now the Israelites can worship in God’s h...
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Homily: March 7, 2022, Monday of the First Week of Lent.

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  “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am Holy”. Both the first and Gospel readings today presented a ‘to-do’ and ‘not-to-do’ list. Some are really tough tasks. Can we ever accomplish them? Is it possible for us to be holy? We all know that at the sacrament of reconciliation, it is Jesus Himself who is sitting at the confessional, listening to the confessions. And the sacred privilege for me as a priest, is that I get to see as God sees and hear as God hears. And what does God see and hear? He doesn’t see our failures. He sees our brokenness. He doesn’t hear our sins. He hears our desire to be good. And God wants to help us. He reaches out to us, pouring out His graces. We desire to be holy and God desires the same. In that moment of reconciliation, in that meeting of desires, we become holy. And I, the priest who witnesses that sacred moment, also become holy. The very first step to becoming holy is to desire holiness. To desire becoming what God wants us to be, to be like Him, to...
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Homily : January 10, 2022, Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time,

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 “Why do you grieve? Am I not more to you than ten sons?” Hannah was barren. Everyone probably thought she was a cursed woman. Except her husband. Elkanha was a good man and a loving, supportive husband. I think many women dream to have an appreciative husband like him.  Hannah was sad because she wanted to have children, nothing else could satisfy that desire, not even her wonderful husband, not even if there were ten of her husband, could count for having just one son. Some things in life just cannot be replaced, there is no equal substitution. Just like my mommy’s fish curry. She prepared every ingredient from base, slow cooked in a clay pot over firewood. It was not quick cooking with electricity in a steel pot. Believe me, the result is very different. I can still remember the wonderful smell and taste. Sadly, no one else could cook fish curry like mommy, not even my sisters who knew the recipe. There is simply no substitution. (ha ha now I feel hungry…) In recent years, ...
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Homily: February 23, 2025 Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Love enemies)

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 “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28) Love and hate are two very powerful human emotions that can heal or kill. Love can heal deep wounds and great divisions, while hatred can drive one to destroy lives and shatter peace. With love we can forgive, through hate we create fear. In the first reading, we see David and Abishai entering the camp of Saul’s 3,000 strong army, crept into where the king was sleeping soundly. David had good reason to hate Saul and the perfect opportunity to kill him, but he chose not to. David chose to love and honor God who anointed Saul.  26 years ago, Graham Staines, an Australian Christian missionary who took care of lepers in North India, was burnt alive by extremists, along with his two young sons. The attackers were fueled by hatred. Yet, just days after the deadly attack, Graham’s widow, Gladys Staines, publicly forgave the murderers, ...
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Homily: September 26,2025, Friday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time Grand Temple)

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 “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now?” This passage from the prophet Haggai was written after the dedication of the second Temple. The exile in Babylon lasted about 70 years. Many Israelites who returned and were in their 80s or 90s, had seen the original temple built by Solomon in their youth. They could still remember its former glory. In our own parish, there are also people who remember the “former glory” of our Cathedral. Msgr. Beeson is one such person. He saw St. Ambrose Cathedral in its original beauty. Our Cathedral is still beautiful today, but it does look different now, some features and designs have faded or are worn out. If we have the resources, perhaps we would try to restore some of these to preserve the legacy left behind by our forefathers. But when Jesus spoke of the Temple, He was referring to His own body. And later, St. Paul would teach that our bodies too are temples of the Holy Spirit. That brings us to ...
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