Homily: September 20, 2025, Saturday of the Twenty-Fourth week in Ordinary Time (Commandments)

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 “Keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In this month’s Catholic Mirror, Fr. Ron Rolheiser shared a story about a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. At the celebration, the husband said: “When we got married 50 years ago, we didn’t have much. But we had an unconscious trust that if we lived by the Ten Commandments and the laws of the Church, then things would turn out all right, and I think, they did.”

Fifty years of marriage is not just “all right”, many of you who are married would know, it is hard work. And truly, very often God’s grace is at work harder than the couple. So fifty years of marriage is a testimony to a life of faith and full of God’s grace. The Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses and the Israelites thousands of years ago are still relevant for us today, guiding us every step of our faith life.

The challenge is that human nature resists compliance and obedience to commands. We don’t like rules. The Ten Commandments are simple in words, but very difficult to live out fully in practice. Yet they are not optional, they are God’s blueprint for holiness.

When the rich young man asked Jesus, “What must I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus’ first response was: “Follow the commandments.” This is the foundation. If we keep the commandments faithfully, we will reach eternal life.

All it requires is our willingness, our deep acceptance of first, that God is God, the Almighty, the Judge of Life, the One to whom we must be united with, because if not God, it will be the evil one. There is no middle ground.

And second, a clear realization that ‘if not eternal life, it will be eternal death’. This too, there is no other world midway.

Following the ten commandments is our way to being in the same boat with Jesus, in the direction towards eternal life. Hop onboard and stay on course.

Amen.


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Homily: November 30,2025 First Sunday of Advent (Peace)

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 “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” Recently, I read a book titled “Breaking Ground” by Heidi Kühn, the 2023 World Food Prize laureate. This Californian woman transformed thousands of acres of land buried with landmines, in Croatia, Laos, Afghanistan, and other war-torn regions, and converted them into vineyards, fruit tree plantations, playgrounds, schools, and farmland. Millions of landmines were removed, and peace was established through agriculture. Throughout her book, she repeatedly mentioned the verse from Prophet Isaiah. Heidi is a mother of four children. When her youngest son was just a toddler in 1997, she felt called to begin this mission. Today, she has already raised and used over 2 billion dollars to bring flourishing life to where it was once a desolate and dangerous zone. As I was finishing the book, I thought to myself: If there were just a few more people like her, many more million mines could be removed, and mill...
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Homily: December 6, 2025, Saturday of the First Week of Advent (God's Voice)

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 “This is the way; walk in it,” whether you turn to the right or to the left. How wonderful it would be if God always spoke to us with this kind of clarity. So often in life we find ourselves stuck uncertain about the next step, unsure which direction to take, or confused about what God wants from us.  I remember times when I prayed earnestly to know God’s will whether for my own life or for the parish and I made decisions that seemed right, only to discover later that they were not where God was leading. And yes, in my frustration I asked God, “Why didn’t You show me the right way?”But the truth is: God is never silent. He speaks constantly. He speaks in the quiet sanctuary of our conscience that sacred inner place where His Spirit touches our soul.  The real challenge is not God’s silence but the noise around us and inside us. If we are always listening to the world, to our anxieties, to our distractions, we simply cannot hear Him. He speaks in Sacred Scripture every ti...
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Homily: December 9, 2025, Tuesday of the second week of Advent (Word of God)

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 “Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever.” This line from today’s first reading is quoted quite often to remind us of the power and permanence of God’s word. Everything in this world will fade away, grass withers, flowers wilt, seasons come and go, people live and die, nothing stays the same, nothing lasts forever. But the Word of God will never change, will never die, will never disappear. It stands firm, unchanging, eternal. God created the entire universe just with His words. The Gospel of John puts it very well in clear perspective: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And the Word was made flesh. The ‘Word’ refers to Jesus, the Son of God. ‘Word’ also refers to the Bible, the word of God. So every Catholic home should have a Bible. All of us should try to make it our personal companion in prayer. We all pray in different ways, but from the earliest days of the Church, Christians prayed with...
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Homily: August 10, 2025, Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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 “You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Do you like surprise visits? Some of us do. Recently, I went again to visit my sister and her family. Since the last visit, my 4-year-old nephew had been calling me almost daily and asking me to visit him again. So, this time, I told my sister to keep my trip a secret, I wanted to surprise the little boy. When he saw me finally, his eyes were wide open with disbelief, and his mouth too was wide open in surprise! I will never forget that look on his face, and the exuberant joy of the moment when I hugged and carried him. But not all of us like surprise visits, especially when the visitors come at the wrong time, and we are caught unprepared. When I was in high school, our principal, Fr. George, was very strict. He didn’t talk much, but he knew every student. Occasionally, he would walk along the school corridors, surveying every corner and if he caught any student misbehaving, he would carry ou...
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Homily: November 7, 2025, Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Knowledge)

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 “You yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another.” ‘Full of goodness and filled with knowledge’. What powerfully positive words from St. Paul. One of my greatest blessings is being born into a traditional Catholic family and raised by God-fearing parents. From an early age I learned about Jesus, memorized prayers, and was familiar with church matters and traditions. But do I fully know God? No, not even at this stage of my faith life. My soul knows Him intimately, but my human knowledge and intellect still have a lot to learn. My knowledge of Christ and Christianity remains incomplete. Some who join the Catholic Church later may know more about God, more about the faith, than many of us who have been in the Church all our lives. That is why we must continue to grow in our knowledge of God, understanding of Church, and deepen our practice of faith. Jesus said, “For the children of this world are more prudent in their generation than ...
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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 ...
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Homily: November 22, 2025, Saturday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time (The end).

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 “I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land.” These are the final words of Antiochus Epiphanes, the successor of Alexander the Great. If you have been following our daily readings, we first heard about him on Monday described as a “sinful offshoot.” He defiled the Temple of Jerusalem, persecuted the faithful Jews, and opposed the worship of the true God. Now, at the end of his life, Antiochus realizes his mistakes. He is filled with regret, bitterness, and sorrow. It’s a tragic end a man who once had so much power, wealth, and glory, yet dies far from home, spiritually empty and tormented by guilt. We’ve seen similar examples in the Bible and history people who made poor choices, turned away from God, and spent their last moments in deep regret. How different is this from the death of the saints, who met their final moments in peace and joy, having lived their lives faithfully. Life is short. When compared to the v...
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Homily: December 7, 2025, Second Sunday of Advent (Fruitfulness )

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 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” This is a stern and strong warning from John the Baptist. For some people, his words cause discomfort and threaten complacency. For those of us who are familiar with farming, we understand perfectly how this works. In my family farm back in Kerala, we had many fruit trees, mangoes, jackfruit, oranges, coconuts, and more. Each tree had a purpose; we planted it for its fruits or its other usefulness. If a tree was healthy and strong, but produced no fruit year after year, we would cut it down and plant another tree in its place. We didn’t keep any tree simply because it looked good. It was never good enough if it did not fulfil its purpose. It is the simple reality of farming. No fruit, no purpose, no reason to keep. The same is true with farm animals. A cow that has stopped producing milk cannot remain in the herd, it would be a waste of resources to feed and care for the cow if it did not do what...
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Homily: August 16, 2025, Saturday of the Nineteenth week in Ordinary Time (Obedience)

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 “Then the people promised Joshua, ‘We will serve the LORD, our God, and obey his voice.’” In today’s first reading, we heard many times how the Israelites promised solemnly to be obedient to God, to serve Him and Him alone. Yet we know the history, this chosen race of God ultimately failed to keep their promises.  Have you heard of the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers? They were a militant group in Sri Lanka, all their members had to undergo five years of tough and intense physical and mental training, ending with an oath ceremony. Every one of them had to promise to be loyal and faithful, to upkeep their mission even with their life. And you know what? They were indeed fiercely loyal to their leader, Prabhakaran, and totally dedicated to their mission. Many of them even took on the mission of suicide bombers without a beat of hesitation. Many of them died violently but the group continued to faithful to their oath. What about us? I recall some years ago when I was secretary to my bis...
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Homily: December 5, 2025, Friday of the First Week of Advent

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 “Do you believe that I can do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they said to him. We often place trust in people based on our experience with them, or simply because we need them to take on some tasks and responsibilities, we choose to trust them. Many times, when priests receive new assignments from the bishop, we would respond, “I don’t think I can do this.” And what would the bishop say? “Yes, you can.” My nieces and nephews would do the same. When they need a favor from me, they would be so encouraging and affirming, “Uncle, you can do it… don’t say no!” Jesus, however, is different. When Jesus asked the blind men, “Do you believe that I can do this?”, He was not teasing them, nor testing them. He was sincerely inviting them to be intentional in their faith in Him. He was inviting them to trust in His divine power. These men were blind and had never seen Jesus. But they had heard about Him. In their blindness, they would have imagined whatever they have heard. Their imagination of His compa...
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