Homily: August 30, 2025, Saturday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Work Hard)

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 “Aspire to live a tranquil life, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.” 

This is exactly what I desire for my own life, a tranquil, serene, peaceful life. And I believe many of us long for the same too. St. Paul repeatedly encourages the Christian community to live in peace, to engage in meaningful work, and to live in harmony with one another, respecting a healthy privacy and space for others.

One common misunderstanding among the early Christians was about the Second Coming of Christ. Many believed that Christ’s return was imminent, so close that it would happen within their lifetime. Because of this anticipation, some thought that working to upkeep livelihood or planning for their children’s future were pointless.

And in some sense, it is practical. If you knew that everything you are working for would soon be useless, that your life would be totally transformed and all your property would be valueless, would you still work? Work for the sake of meeting material need would seem logically unnecessary, wouldn’t it?

At that time, the theology about the end of time was still developing. No one truly understood what Jesus really meant and many people took His words literally and expected His return to be immediate.

More than two thousand years later, we read Scripture with a broader perspective, and Bible scholars have now put everything Jesus taught in totality. We therefore now know that the end of time will not happen, Jesus will not return yet, until the Gospel has been preached to all nations.

So, what do we do while waiting? Do we then go ahead to enjoy life’s pleasures since it might be a long time away before end time?

No. Paul’s advice is still largely relevant to us today: “Aspire to live a tranquil life, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands.”

To live a life which is not disturbed by temptations to forget God, to work with our own hands and not expect others to work for our benefit, and work not for worldly gains, but to make effort at preaching the Gospel to where it has not been preached, so that we can participate in the mission of Christ, to speed up His coming again, and to all enter the Kingdom of God when the time is here.

Jesus said in John 9:4: “We have to do the works of the One who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.”

We are given another day, another chance. Let us aspire a tranquil life, rooted in God’s peace, while working hard for His Kingdom.

Amen.


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Homily: November 7, 2025, Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Knowledge)

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“The kingdom of God will be taken away from you  and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” We are now in harvesting season. Many months before this, we were planting and pruning, now we see the results, the fruits, the produce. Our two readings today are also about producing and harvesting fruits. In the first reading the vineyard produced wild grapes instead of good grapes. What went wrong? If the vineyard owner had done everything right, and yet the vineyard brought forth wild grapes, then the problem must have been the soil? Yet it was a land set on the fertile hillside. There is nothing the vineyard owner could do than to let it waste and be cursed. In the Gospel, the story is not about the soil which could not produce, but the tenants who refused to give the produce back to the vineyard owner. What went wrong? The produce must have been good, and the tenants might have become greedy, and wanted to keep all the harvest to themselves and even planned to kill to take ov...
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“This saying is hard; who can accept it?” “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” This weekend is the last of the five Sundays during which the Gospel readings were taken from chapter 6 of St. John, the Bread of Life discourse, exploring fully Jesus’ teachings on the Eucharist, beginning with the multiplication of loaves. Next week we will continue with the Gospel of Mark. So, what saying is hard to accept for the disciples? It is Jesus’ saying that His body is true bread, His blood is true drink and only those who eat and drink His body and blood will have eternal life with Him. Is it also hard for you to accept? There are many teachings in the Catholic Church which are hard to accept. And like many of the disciples who left Jesus and returned to their former way of life, even after seeing all His works and miracles, many present-day Catholics also leave the church because they could not accept the teachings. Sho...
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Homily: December 9, 2024, Solemnity of immaculate conception of Blessed Virgin Mary (Holy Family School Mass)

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 “As he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him." We heard this phrase in today’s second reading. It is such a wonderful affirmation for us! God planned for us to belong to Him even before the world began. Imagine that! Billions of years before today, God already had you in mind, your existence was in His plan. You did not exist by chance, you were not an accident and definitely not a mistake. You are God’s dream, God’s desire, God’s wish, God’s plan. Isn’t that amazing? Today, we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Just as God knew us before the foundation of the world, He also knew the Blessed Virgin Mary before she was born. He chose her for a special mission, to be the mother of His Son from the very beginning. This is truly wonderful! But what does "Immaculate Conception" mean? ‘Conception’ refers to the moment when a new life is conceived in the womb, the moment a human ...
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 We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of our beloved sister, Maria Dolores and to celebrate her passage from this world into the next. She suffered in her health for some time and is now released from those troubles. She is on her way to the heavenly kingdom. Within the same day of her death, her grandson Edgar Alonso was also called back to the Lord suddenly. This is a tough time for the Tovar family. No words can soothe your sorrows, no consolation can comfort your pain. Only God knows what you are going through and only He can grace you with the strength to embrace this time of sadness and help you go through it with faith. In the first reading taken from the book of Wisdom, we look at human suffering. In many cultures, suffering is seen as a punishment or curse, a lack of blessings. But for all of us who have faith in Jesus Christ, we know that suffering can be a saving grace. God did not cause the suffering, He allows it to happen. Therefore, it must have some good for...
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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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"Where is your brother Abel?" We are now in the fourth chapter of Genesis. Before this, we read about the first sin of mankind – disobedience - when Adam and Eve did what they were told not to do. They lived in a perfect world and had dominance over everything, but they were discontented and were tempted by greed. Sin did not stop there; it was passed on to the next generation. In this chapter, we see Cain committing a grave sin - he killed his brother Abel. He was discontented with God’s favor on Abel and was tempted by pride. As we continue through Genesis, we see sin perpetuating and spreading through humanity. The Lord had warned Cain that “sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.” Eve, Adam, Cain and every one of us are tempted by sin, yet we can be its master. The moment we let it enter our heart, and leave it unchecked, it will deepen its hold on us and enslave us. Jesus says, “Everyone who sins is a slave of sin.” (John 8:...
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