Homily: July 27, 2025, Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Rekindle the gifts).

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 “Even when you were dead in your transgressions, He brought you to life along with Him, having forgiven us all our sins.”

A dear friend of mine, a Catholic, who has been struggling with deep depression and lingering wounds from a past abusive marriage, sought help with a counselor, who is a prayerful and spiritual Christian. During one of the counselling sessions, this counselor told my friend, “You need to be born again.”

Do I think she should be born again? No.

Then she voiced some of the struggles she is having with the Catholic Church, in her opinion we are restrictive, do not encourage people to use their spiritual gifts, are caught up in rites that are not relevant to real-life problems, and wondered why the Church does not teach much about the Holy Spirit…

I don’t know whether you think the same, but what went through my mind was what Archbishop Fulton Sheen said: “There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church—which is, of course, quite a different thing.”

Many of us do not know much about the richness and wealth and truth about the Catholic Church, 

and we think the grass is greener on the other side or the Spirit is more active in the other churches.

Finally, she asked, “Would it be wrong if my counselor prayed a deliverance prayer over me?”

I need to talk to her more about this. There are so many resources within the catholic Church, so many priests like Fr. Stephen Rossetti, who leads a deliverance ministry in the Catholic context.

That conversation stayed with me. It left me reflecting deeply, why do our people need to look outside our faith, beyond our church for healing, for help, for answers?

I need to do a lot more to counsel and educate our congregation. All of us need to pay more attention when we attend formation classes, listen more to many Catholic preaching available even in Youtube, and we need to read up scripture with our heart and mind and soul!

There is so much the Catholic Church can offer for all our needs, if we pay attention and get interested. We are the true church founded by Jesus Christ Himself.

Today’s readings bring us back to the core of what we believe in and who we are.

In the second reading, St. Paul wrote: “Even when you were dead in your transgressions, He brought you to life along with Him, having forgiven us all our sins.”

Before Baptism, we were dead, spiritually lifeless. But in Baptism, we are made alive in Christ.

All of us baptized Catholics are already born again, through water and the Spirit, in the name of the Holy Trinity.

We have been delivered from sin, received the Holy Spirit and given the freedom, the right, the privilege to call God ‘our Father’.

Think about that: the Creator of the universe invites and encourages us to speak to Him not as servants, but as sons and daughters. This was all made available to us from our baptism.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says: “Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.”

But where are we knocking? What are we seeking?

What are we asking for?

Jesus ends with this powerful logic: “If you who are wicked know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

So, what do you ask of God when you pray?

How many of us truly ask for the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit?

What do we seek when we turn to God?

Do we seek His will or our own will?

Where do we knock when we need answers?

Do you search the vast resources of the Catholic Church, read the deep reflections and preachings, understand the teachings, talk to fellow practicing Catholics, seek counsel with your priests?

When you pray, do you speak to God with sincere hearts longing to hear the Holy Spirit clearly?

The Holy Spirit is not a symbolic representation, He is a real Spiritual Being, our Divine Helper, our God. In fact, He is more real and more present than we ourselves are.

And His gifts were all poured into our souls at Baptism and strengthened at Confirmation. Do we think about that? Are we doing anything wonderful with those gifts?

St. Paul wrote to Timothy: “I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.”

Yes, we all need to rekindle the fire of our being God’s children. And I really need to reflect if I have done my part to be available to you when you need me, your priest. Have I tried my best to provide you with opportunities and avenues to deepen your faith and understanding of our Catholic Church.

We do not need to be born again and again, that will be an insult to Jesus Christ, won’t it?

But we do need to reflect on ourselves, rekindle the flame, reclaim the fire, revive the spirit!

Let us ask our heavenly Father to break open our hearts to receive fully the Spirit showered upon us every day. Because with the Holy Spirit alive in us, we lack nothing.

Come, Holy Spirit. Fill our hearts. Inspire our minds. Rekindle your fire in us. Amen.


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Homily: July 28, 2025, Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time (Moses Blackmail)

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