Homily: October 21, 2025, Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Sin-Grace)

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 “Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more.”

Really? Yes, absolutely true. There is no doubt that sin is increasing in the world, at least in terms of modern technology. I make this observation based on what priests hear in the confessional.

One hundred years ago, people did not confess sins related to television. Thirty years ago, there were no sins involving the internet. Twenty years ago, we didn’t have sins connected to smartphones. Ten years ago, we didn’t have sins committed due to social media. And just a few years ago, no one mentioned sins related to artificial intelligence.

From time to time, I have encountered and had to ask the penitents to explain certain words they used in confession and which did not even exist a decade ago! They were new to me, but I am sure Jesus was not stumped like me.

Sins come in new forms, but the reality of sin remains the same.

Yet, St. Paul reminds us that as sin increases, grace overflows even more. Along with these new challenges, God gives us countless new opportunities to receive His grace. Look around the churches in Des Moines, there are so many options for us to choose, various timings and locations for confession, adoration, and holy hours, to cater to the needs of the peoples.

Pilgrimages, retreats, podcasts, online reflections… there are hundreds of digital platforms now available to help people encounter Scripture, learn the faith, and deepen their relationship with Christ.

Recently, some of our youth asked if they could start a St. Ambrose TikTok account. My first reaction was “no,” since I don’t even have a TikTok account myself. But when they explained that they wanted to evangelize and share the Gospel there, I agreed. And I thought how wonderful that even a platform the devil often uses to tempt people can become a space for grace.

God’s grace is everywhere. It overflows even in the places where certain persistent sin is prevalent. If we open our eyes and hearts, we will see His presence working powerfully through every new means of communication, and every social media platform.

Let us use all these tools, all these opportunities, to draw closer to God. Let us fill the digital world with grace, kindness, and truth. And when we stay close to Christ, His grace will overflow in our lives conquering every sin with His mercy and love.

Amen.


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Homily: June 2, 2026, Tuesday of the Nineth Week in Ordinary time (Get ready)

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 “Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.” This warning from St. Peter is important for our salvation. There is no doubt that all of us gathered here today, even if we are still struggling in their faith, within our hearts there is a deep longing for holiness. We want to grow to become more like Jesus. We want to be ready to meet him face to face and stand before God without spot or blemish, truly pure and without sin. In the past two months, I have had two encounters that deeply impacted me. The first was in a hospital emergency room. I had gone there to anoint a parishioner who was brought there. And then there was an elderly man talking to everyone around him loudly. When he saw me, he came over and said, “I need a blessing.” I said, “Of course.” But almost immediately he changed his mind and said, “No, I’m okay. I’ll pass this time.” The second encounter happened as I was just leaving a restaurant afte...
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First, congratulations to all of you for successfully completing middle school! Are you happy that you are graduating? I graduated from middle school in 1999. That was twenty-five years ago! We did not have a graduation ceremony like this because my school provided pre-K to grade 12 classes all on the same campus. So, we did not leave school, we just moved up to another grade, another class, but thankfully, our teachers organized something simple for us to celebrate that milestone. I remember during my school days, the hours in class seemed to pass very slowly, but now I look back, time seems to fly by with rocket speed! It will be the same for you, so enjoy being a student now, these could be the best times of your life! Here, you are the seniors of the school, soon, you will be freshmen in high school, you will be the juniors. You will again look up to the seniors and learn from them. In middle school, your teachers gave you a lot of attention and took care of you. When you go to hig...
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 “So death is at work in us, but life in you.” Profound words from St. Paul. Death was at work in his life, in other words, he was dying. Whatever he was doing at that time, it was causing his death sooner than later. But his dying was giving life to others. I grew up witnessing real models who died to themselves to give life to others. They were my parents. My papa worked hard from very early in the morning till late in the evening on our farm every day. There are no rest days for farmers because the crops need attention daily. My mother cooked all our daily meals, prepared from scratch, used firewood for cooking, there was no running water from taps, water had to be fetched from the river. You can imagine she would be cooking and washing non-stop from the moment she woke till she rested at night. Life wasn’t easy. They worked hard to provide for their seven children; they gave their life for us. They were dying a little each day while we were growing steadily. We, their children,...
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 “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” God loves the world, that means all of us. I once noticed a parishioner’s phone case which has on it these large letters boldly declaring: “I am a daughter of the Most High King…” Followed with smaller wordings: “…who is not moved by the world, for my God is with me and goes before me. I do not fear because I am His.” I thought to myself: wow, a great reminder every time we pick up our phones. We all need that. Every day we are bombarded by noise from all directions, telling us falsely who we should be and how we should live. The world tells us our worth depends on our success, our achievements, our appearance, our popularity and so on. Causing many to feel totally unworthy, and a failure. The worldly standard is not high, but it is false and misleading. Nobody’s real worth should be measured against external benchmarks. But today, on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, God reminds us of our true worth, based on our real iden...
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Homily: December, 22,2024, Fourth Sunday in Advent (Mother- Peace)

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 "His greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace." The prophecy of Micah proclaimed 700 years before the birth of Jesus, had already foretold the extent and essence of our Lord’s greatness – it shall reach to the ends of the earth, and He shall be peace. Now 2,700 years later, Christianity has indeed spread to every corner of the world and for everyone who truly knows and follows Christ, will experience His peace. Here we are, celebrating the Fourth Sunday of Advent, just days away from Christmas, are you at peace? Almost every society throughout the world is celebrating Christmas, albeit with commercial overtones, but is there peace around the world? During this holiday season, in the confessionals and from conversations, I hear the same issues brought up - stress, worries, anxieties about the preparations, the family gatherings, the expectations. Shopping, cleaning the house, buying and wrapping gifts, writing cards, getting new clothes - all these ta...
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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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“In the blood of calves, lambs, and goats, I find no pleasure.” Why does God find no pleasure in such blood sacrifices? What would please God? In the past, one of the parishes in my home diocese in India used to practice animal sacrifices in church. I do not know how it all started but I know how it all ended. In 1924, exactly one hundred years ago, the bishop at that time banned all animal sacrifices in our parishes. It was a huge decision and he faced strong opposition. Why? The parish church was dedicated to St. Anthony attracted many visitors from other states. People would go and offer animal sacrifices, in the hope of getting their petitions granted. The church would sell chickens outside the church, and when a devotee wanted to offer a sacrifice, they would cut the necks of the chickens, and sell it to the devotees for their sacrificial offertory. The parishioners who sold the chickens to the church made a lot of money and the church profited from the offertory as well. You can ...
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Homily: October 8, 2023, Twentyseventh sunday in ordinary time (wild grapes and bad tenants)

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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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Homily: June 22, 2024. Saturday of the eleventh week in Ordinary time (Don't worry).

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 "But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil." ‘Tomorrow will take care of itself’; do you trust that? But note the verse that came before it, ‘seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness’. When Pope John XXIII decided on the convocation of the Second Vatican Council, which was a huge historical event seeking to renew and restore the Church back to its roots, our late holy father had great difficulty falling asleep the night before the announcement to the whole church. He later told that he finally convinced himself this way: “Giovanni, why don’t you sleep? Is it the pope or the Holy Spirit that governs the Church? It’s the Holy Spirit, right? Well then, go to sleep, Giovanni!” and then he fell asleep and slept well.  If the Pope was able to entrust the work of the whole Universal Church to the Holy Spirit a...
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