Homily: June 21, 2025, Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time (Sufficient Grace)

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 “Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’”

This sentence in today’s first reading is one of the most well-known and quoted lines in the New Testament. There are many interpretations about what could be the “thorn in the flesh” which St. Paul referred to and asked for the Lord to remove for him. No one knows for sure, and no one needs to know exactly.

What we do know is that it was something Paul believed the “angel of Satan” was sent to torment him. It was so bad for him that he wished and prayed for the Lord to take away from him. But Jesus did no, and told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

Jesus is telling us the same: “My grace is sufficient for you.”

Are you struggling terribly?

Do you feel greatly tormented?

Are you facing huge troubles?

Do you feel like there is no way out?

If you are crying out to the Lord like St. Paul, know that you are not alone. God’s silence is not absence. He is with you, more closely than you will ever know. He is supporting you, more firmly than you can ever feel.

That is grace.

Unseen, unfelt, but real and ever present, in the sacraments and sacramentals.

Do you have holy water, blessed rosary, medals, statues, holy pictures?

Look at these, hold on to these, pray with these. They are signs that God is present, God wants to strengthen us through the effects of the ‘thorns in our flesh’.

Go do a good confession, continue to receive the Holy Eucharist. These are sacraments through with abundance of grace are poured into our hearts and uplift our souls even without us feeling it.

There are countless ways to receive grace, like daily nutrition supplements, they build us up silently. While they may not remove the thorns, they build up spiritual resilience.

Because seriously, the Lord’s grace is truly sufficient for us to walk through the valley of death and be unharmed. Believe it, claim it, receive it. Amen.


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Homily: June 24, 2025, Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist

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Did you listen attentively to the Gospel reading? Yes? Let me test you… What did Jesus say? Did He say, “Whoever eats my bread and drinks my wine?”  No! He said, “Whoever eats my FLESH and drinks my BLOOD remains in me and I in him.” Yes, when you receive Holy Communion, you are receiving the real flesh and blood of Jesus. I am sure Fr. Roy, your catechists, parents and the whole parish community have prepared you well for this day, so you know what you are receiving today. But what I want to focus on now is the last part where Jesus says, ‘remains in me and I in him’. 29 years ago in 1996, I received my First Holy Communion. I was eight years old, but I still remember that day vividly. I remember the preparations, my First Reconciliation, and the excitement I felt when I lined up to receive Jesus for the very first time. I remember seeing the priest dipping the Precious Body into the Precious Blood, and then that precious moment – Jesus’ body and blood rested on my tongue. So swee...
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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 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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