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 time we open the Bible, He speaks anew. He speaks through the Church and her teachings. He speaks through the spiritual authorities and guides God places in our lives. The question is whether we have the humility to listen.

Today, let us ask for the grace to quiet our hearts, to welcome His gentle inspirations, and to walk faithfully in His way. Amen.


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Homily: August 15, 2026, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Sin-death)

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 “For since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead came also through man.” Sin and death are connected, but Christ has come to break that connection and give us life. In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul says, “The wages of sin is death.” Sin separates us from God, and God is the source of life.  God created Adam and Eve for life and friendship with him. But through their disobedience, sin entered the world, and with sin came death.  But when God prepared the world for the coming of his Son, he gave Mary a unique grace. From the first moment of her conception, she was preserved from original sin.  We can see Mary as the new Eve. Eve was created without sin, but she disobeyed God. Mary, by God's grace, responded differently. When the angel came to her, she said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Eve's disobedience was connected with humanity's fall. Mary's obedience opened the door for Christ, the Savi...
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Homily: July 18, 2026, Tuesday of the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Remember death)

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 “It is I who deal death and give life.” These words from our Responsorial Psalm today are actually not taken from the Book of Psalms. They come from the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32. They remind us of a fundamental truth of our faith: God is the author of life. Our life comes from God, belongs to God, and ultimately returns to God. This phrase beautifully connects our first reading and the Gospel today. In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel speaks against the prince of Tyre, a man who had become proud because of his success, wealth, wisdom, and accomplishments. And so the prophet reminds him of one simple reality: you are only a man, and you will die. There are certain realities in life that quickly reveal our limitations. An illness can make a powerful and independent person suddenly dependent on others. None of us can say, “I am too important to die,” or “I have accomplished enough that death cannot touch me.” Sirach 7:36 says  “In whatever you do, remember your last...
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Homily: August 14, 2026, Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe

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Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a saint whose life teaches us what it means to say a complete and generous “yes” to God. Most of us know the final and heroic chapter of his life. At Auschwitz concentration camp, a prisoner escaped, and as punishment, ten men were chosen to die by starvation. One of them cried out in anguish for his wife and children. Fr. Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward and said, “I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place.” His offer was accepted. He entered the starvation bunker with the other prisoners. But even there, he continued to be a priest. Instead of allowing that terrible place to be filled only with despair, he prayed with the prisoners, encouraged them, and helped prepare them to meet God. One by one they died. Maximilian survived longer than the others, and finally the guards killed him with a lethal injection. We know that St. Maximilian Kolbe is in heaven because the Church has canonized him. But I like to think that those p...
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Homily: February 25, 2025, Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time (Undisappointed Hope)

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 “Study the generations long past and understand; has anyone hoped in the Lord and been disappointed?”  I have read this passage many times before, but it struck me differently this time. The message of hope resonates so deeply with me since this year is the Jubilee Year of Hope.  Romans 5:5: “Hope does not disappoint us.” We are pilgrims of hope, our pilgrimage is a journey of hope, and we are assured that when we place our hope in the Lord, we will not be disappointed. Have you ever been disappointed? Probably yes. And that could be because we were hoping the Lord will meet our expectations. We placed our desires in your own ambitions, and hoped the Lord would satisfy us and please us, He probably did or didn’t. Well, that is not the hope of faith we are talking about here. The answer becomes clear when we study the generations that came before us. If I think about my own parents and grandparents, they lived devout and pious lives. Their only hope was in the Lord and Hi...
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Homily: August 11, 2026, Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Sweet as Honey)

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 “Feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you.” Ezekiel tells us, “I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.” Sweet as honey! Is that really how we experience the Word of God? For many of us, the Word of God can actually be very challenging. It corrects us, directs our conduct, and forms us in Christian discipline. Beginning with the Ten Commandments, we hear many “You shall nots.” Do not do this. Do not do that. Forgive your enemies. Love those who hurt you. Be faithful. Be honest. Carry your cross. Deny yourself. Sometimes God's Word may feel less like honey and more like medicine—something good for us, but not always pleasant to take. So was Ezekiel simply using beautiful symbolic language when he said that God's Word was sweet as honey? Our responsorial psalm today tells us the same thing: “In the way of your decrees I rejoice.” “How sweet to my taste is your promise!” And again, “The law of your mouth is to me more precious than thousan...
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Homily: May 11, 2026 Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter

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 “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me.” There is an often-used phrase in the Alpha program: “Alpha is designed to fail if the Holy Spirit does not show up.” This implies that since Alpha has not failed despite itself and continues to grow from 1977, the Holy Spirit is at work in the program. I think that is true not only for Alpha but for the Church and the whole Christian life. Church would have been totally destroyed, and the Christian life would have been completely crushed with so much internal struggle and trouble, external persecution and attacks, if we are without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, the Church would not survive, life would have ended, humanity would no longer exist. Yesterday, here in our parish, 25 young people received the sacrament of Confirmation. They confirmed their faith and received the fullness of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The first reading ...
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Homily: November 18, 2025, Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time (Courage)

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 “This is how he died, leaving in his death a model of courage and an unforgettable example of virtue not only for the young but for the whole nation.” Today’s first reading recounts the martyrdom of Eleazar, one of the most inspiring figures in the Old Testament. Listening to his story, especially how he died, gives us goosebumps.  A grand 90-year-old wise man was brutally tortured and killed because he refused to abandon his faith or eat what was forbidden by God’s law. He believed it was not worthy of his old age to give a poor example to the young. His heroic death thus gave courage to a whole generation. His story reminds me of another great model of unwavering faith.  St. Polycarp, the 80-year-old bishop of Smyrna. When he was brought before the Roman authorities and told to deny Christ, he said: “Eighty years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?” Then, with peace and courage, he accepted martyrdom by fire. The B...
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Homily: May 18, 2026, Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter (Holy Spirit )

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 “And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.” I have always wished to experience similar impact and intensity of the Holy Spirit. But I wonder if I wish because I need the gift of tongues in my ministry? Or I wish because I am interested in being part of the excitement? Being inflamed by the Holy Spirit does not always end up with these dramatic outward results. Yet it seems to be happening rather often in the conversion experiences of the early Christians and hardly in these later times. Perhaps we do not have the same deep hunger the early Christians had for the sacraments. In the face of persecution and uncertainty, knowing their lives were always on the line, their desire for the grace of God was thus very intense and strong. They also lived in a world with possibly less distractions, so the Gospel of Jesus could enter more deeply into their hearts. In contrast, we live now in a society where life has become c...
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Homily: January 11, 2026, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (Beloved)

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 “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” These words were spoken by God was not meant to be a private revelation. It was heard by everyone present on that day, all who witnessed Jesus being baptized by John.  These words were blessings from God, springing forth from His heart. Before Jesus preached a single sermon, before He healed anyone, before He suffered persecution and death, His Father in heaven proclaimed the Truth over Him: This is my beloved Son. Jesus lived His entire life grounded in that truth. He never struggled with His identity. He never doubted His mission on Earth. He knows who He is and why He has come. His purpose is to do the will of the Father, to reveal to the whole world who God is, to show to all generations how God loves and thus save all of humanity. Let us look again at where Jesus was baptized, the River Jordan. Its waters flows from near Mount Hermon, in between Lebanon and Syria, runs through fertile land, carrying nourishment for t...
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Homily: March 25, 2026, Soemnity of Annunciation (Full of Grace)

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Holy family school mass:   “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” Isn’t that a beautiful greeting? Before we go further on this, let me first ask you a fun fact, and let you think about the answer: Do you know why the Church fixed March 25th as the day we celebrate the Annunciation event? Not all the dates of feasts of the Church are historical dates. For example, we celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but we don’t actually know the exact date Jesus was born. The Church chose that date many centuries ago for a certain reason. Now let us link this to the Annunciation. Think about this: If December 25th is the day Jesus was born, when would He have been conceived in Mary’s womb? Nine months is the length of a normal pregnancy. So if we count backwards nine months from Christmas day, that will bring us to March 25th! And so on this date every year, we celebrate the day when the angel Gabriel came to Mary to announce Jesus’ coming, the moment Mary said Yes, and Jesus began...
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