Homily: August 2, 2025,Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time (Jubilee)

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 “This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants.” 

Those of us born before year 2000 are so privileged and blessed to have been through three Jubilee Years in our lifetime so far.

The Great Jubilee Year of 2000 was a huge significant milestone of 2000 years since the birth of Christ. St. Pope John Paul II made it deeper and more meaningful by dedicating each of the three years before that to one of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, preparing the Church extensively spiritually for renewal and the outpouring of graces.

Then in 2015, Pope Francis declared the Jubilee Year of Mercy, concretely demonstrating God's boundless compassion and endless mercy for all, and inviting us to be merciful like the Father.

Ten years after, this 2025 is declared the Jubilee Year of Hope. Hope does not disappoint us even in the midst of trials and uncertainties, if we entrust all to God.

I wonder how many of us will live till the next jubilee in 2050. Personally, I hope the Church will declare 2033 as an extraordinary Jubilee Year marking 2,000 years since the Redemption, the year of the death and resurrection of Christ.

But why did God institute Jubilee Years? 

Because God knows the burden and chain of slavery to our sins, mistakes and wrong-doings, and He wants to His people to be freed. The Jubilee year is a celebration of liberation from suffocation, freedom from bondages, release from slavery, rest for the land, giving all living creatures a chance to start anew.

It was God’s way of saying: “Pause, rest and focus on me.” 

Let us ask ourselves today:

Do I feel burdened with life’s duties and responsibilities?

Am I guilt-ridden with my past wrongs and mistakes?

Am I suffocating from my deep sense of emptiness and restlessness?

When all these chains are cut and heavy loads lifted, our souls will all experience the fullness of life God has given to us. The world can’t do it for us, God can. 

This Jubilee Year of Hope is God’s gift of extraordinary graces, to cut the chains and lift the loads. Let us claim these graces, we still have some months left.

Let us take advantage of the grace of the plenary indulgence gifted to this year and free our souls from the burden of any temporal punishment due to sin. Claim the joy of true freedom only God can and want to give.

Amen.


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Homily: October 4, 2026, Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (No Anxiety)

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 “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” This is how St. Paul speaks to us in today’s second reading. “Have no anxiety at all.” We might immediately think: That is easy to say! But look at the person who said it. St. Paul wrote these words while he was a prisoner. He was facing an uncertain future and even the possibility of death. And yet his Letter to the Philippians is often called the Letter of Joy. All of us have anxieties. I have my anxieties too—what to preach, how to raise money, what comes next, concerns about family and ministry. Parents worry about their children and their future. We worry about our health, finances, relationships, and many other things. St. Paul does not simply say, “Stop worrying.” He tells us what to do with our worries: bring them to God. “By prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” In other words: Do what you can, and place what you cann...
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Homily: September 21, 2026, Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and evangelist (Follow me)

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 “Follow me.” On this feast of St. Matthew, we hear Matthew’s own account of his calling. Jesus saw him sitting at the customs post and said just two words: “Follow me.” And Matthew gets up and follows him. No second thought. No long discernment. No plan for the future. Maybe Matthew had been waiting for a moment like this—a chance to begin again. Matthew was a tax collector, considered a sinner and hated by his own people because he worked for the occupying power. Yet Jesus looked at this man whom others rejected and saw an apostle. That should give every one of us hope. God can change people. God does not wait until we are perfect before he calls us. Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” We are all sinners. We all have weaknesses, habits, failures, and things in our lives that need to change. And there may be people around us struggling with addictions or trapped in sinful situations. Sometimes we may even wonder whether a person can ev...
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Homily: October 5, 2026, Monday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time (Repay you on my way back)

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 “If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.” This is one of the beautiful lines from today’s Gospel.  We can easily see Jesus as the Good Samaritan. Humanity was wounded by sin, and Jesus came to rescue us. He lifted us up, cared for our wounds, and brought us to the inn. And we can see the inn as the Church—a place where wounded people are brought to be healed, cared for, and loved. But then Jesus gives the innkeeper two coins and says, “Take care of him.” Perhaps we can see ourselves as that innkeeper. Jesus has entrusted people to our care. And we might imagine those two coins as the two great commandments: Love God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. The first coin is love of God. God deserves the first place in our lives—our heart, our time, our attention, our will. So let us intentionally live our lives trying to please God. Then comes the secon...
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Homily: October 6, 2026, Tuesday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary time( Zealous Catholic)

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“You heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.” Whenever I read the letters of St. Paul, one thing that strikes me is his zeal. Paul never did anything halfway. Before his conversion, he was completely committed to what he believed. He thought Christianity was wrong, and so he became one of its fiercest persecutors. But when Paul encountered Jesus, something beautiful happened. Jesus did not take away Paul’s zeal; he redirected it. The man who traveled from place to place persecuting Christians now traveled from place to place preaching Christ. The man who tried to destroy the Church became one of its greatest builders. He crossed countries, entered unfamiliar cities, endured rejection, imprisonment, beatings, and suffering—all because he wanted people to know Jesus. That same fire comes through in his letters. Paul says, “Stir into flame the gift of God.” He says, “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.”...
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Homily: December 2, 2024 Monday of the First Week in Advent (Banquet)

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 "I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven." Do you have a favorite saint who inspires you? How would you feel if you got to meet this saint in real, and had a meal together? In today’s Gospel text, Jesus describes the banquet in heaven. Imagine that glorious day when we will all recline at the heavenly banquet together with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and your favorite saint! All the saints, the martyrs, the prophets we have read about in the Old Testament and the apostles of Jesus will all be present too. How wonderful that will be! At the head of the banquet table we see Jesus, gloriously radiant, with the Father and the Holy Spirit united as one, and Mother Mary right beside them! That is just the heavenly banquet we can describe; I am sure the real thing will be much more wonderful. Every time we celebrate Holy Mass, we get a tiny glimpse, a foretaste of that heavenly b...
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Homily: April 24, 2023, Monday of the Third Week of Easter. (Angel Look)

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 "All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” St. Stephen, one of seven selected deacons in the early Christian community, was standing in trial before the Sanhedrin, the supreme rabbinic court in Jerusalem. He was being accused of blasphemy, for his powerful preaching in Jesus’ name. According to the Jewish authority, he had offended the law of Moses. Stephen knew the sentence for blasphemy was death. Yet he did not look downcast, nor fearful. Instead, his face was like an angel. What look is that? After vesting for mass, I would always look in the mirror to check, today I did too and checked my face, I definitely do not look like an angel at all. I have seen many whom I think look like angels. They were all little children. On Saturday, I had 3 baptisms and all those babies looked just like perfect precious angels. Innocent, pure, at peace. Even when they cried, they were still angelic. We were all like that whe...
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Homily: April 2, 2024, Tuesday in the Octave of Easter (Mary at the Tomb).

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 Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb, weeping. Today’s gospel begins by describing the emotional state of Mary. We can all visualize and identify with this scene. Mary Magdalene is very sad, to the point of experiencing deep emotional pain which triggers tears. This is love.  I recall when my papa died within a week of discovering his illness. It was unexpected, we were all unprepared. All my sisters wept on the day he died, and into the days after his burial. They cried again, very emotionally, when we visited his tomb thereafter and I recited the Office for the Dead. I, too, cried a lot at papa’s death. Love is a powerful emotion. It stirs our heart to feel the pain of loss, which works up our brain to trigger the release of tears, to help reduce the emotional pain. God gave us tears to help us manage our pain.  Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus, and before He entered Jerusalem, and at the garden of Gethsemane. His love for humanity stirred up deep emotional pain, s...
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Homily: Septemer 22, 2026 Tuesday of the Twenty Fifth week in Ordinary Time (The poor)

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“He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will himself also call and not be heard.” These words from the Book of Proverbs are very direct. They remind us that God expects us to hear the cry of the poor. And the reality is that the poor have always been among us. Jesus himself said, “The poor you will always have with you.” Wherever we live and wherever we travel, we encounter people in need. Poverty also has many faces. Someone may become poor because of the loss of a job, war, natural disaster, persecution, displacement, or circumstances completely beyond his or her control. Sometimes the poor person is someone without food or shelter. Sometimes it is a refugee or immigrant who has left everything behind and is trying to begin life again in a strange land. This week, the Catholic Church in the United States observes National Migration Week. It is a good opportunity for us to remember that our own state of Iowa has a long history of welcoming refugees and immigrants. And our parish ...
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Homily: September 27, 2026, Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary time (The Fair way)

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 “Thus says the Lord: You say, ‘The Lord’s way is not fair!’” I chose this phrase from our first reading for our reflection today because it sounds very similar to what we heard last Sunday in the first reading.  “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.” I think most of us, at some point in our lives, have said something similar to God. I know I have. “Lord, this is not fair.” “Why do I have to go through this?” “Why didn’t you answer this prayer?” “Why did you allow this to happen?” “I am trying to follow you. Could you not treat me a little better?” We may not say those words aloud, but sometimes they are deep within our hearts. So what exactly is God’s way? The second reading gives us an answer.  For centuries humanity wondered what God was like. Then Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of the Father, came among us and revealed the face of God. And St. Paul describes Jesus with these extraordinary words: “He did not regard equality with God something to...
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Homily: February 12-2024, Monday of the sixth week in Ordinary time (Preserverenace)

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“Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” A good friend of mine battled with addiction to drugs and alcohol for many years. Finally, he was able to give up his destructive habits and began walking with the Lord. Was it all smooth and easy? No. He faced many other struggles in his new life. Often, he was tempted to go back to his old ways, with thoughts that his life with drugs and alcohol was more carefree. He knew it was a lie. He then began to involve himself in various ministries in his parish church to serve the Lord. Was it all smooth and easy then? No. He experienced many disagreements and arguments within the ministries. Why is it that serving God seemed to make life more difficult? Shouldn’t we be rewarded with a good and easy life? If we look at Abraham, we see that he had to go through many trials and challenges in obeying God’s call. He did not have it easy. The apostl...
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