Homily: January 26, 2026, Memorial of Saints Timothy and Titus, Bishops (Stir into Flame)

-

 “For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.”

This phrase was chosen by the universal church as the theme for the Year of the Priest (2009–2010). At that time, I was still a seminarian. And to see the phrase repeatedly throughout that year, it stayed with me. It has sunk so deep that it will never leave my heart and mind.

These words also take me back to my childhood.

When I was young, often during harvesting season for coffee and black pepper, my father would send me to the next village bringing sickles, axes, and tools that needed sharpening. There was a blacksmith in that village, who worked under a simple tent. He had a heap of charcoal with a wheel he turned with a foot pedal. As he pressed and released the pedal, air would rush to blow into the charcoal. Within minutes, the fire came alive. The charcoal glowed, and soon the sickles too turned a fiery red.

That glowing red signaled the readiness of the tools to be sharpened. The moment the blacksmith stopped pumping the pedal, the fire began to fade. The glow disappeared. The tools cooled. The metal was set. End of sharpening.

St. Paul’s words to Timothy paralleled the same situation. Timothy was already a bishop. He had already received the gift through the laying on of hands. And yet, Paul urges him: “Stir it into flame.” Keep the heat up. Do not let it cool. Do not let it fade. Do not allow the fire to die down.

Similarly, for us.

At our baptism and confirmation, we were anointed and sealed with the Holy Spirit. The fire of God was placed within us, to fuel us for mission. But that fire needs to be kept alive and burning. If we neglect it, it cools and becomes dormant, not gone, but inactive.

Faith must be stirred up.

Prayers, the sacraments, Scripture reading, and daily commitment are like the pedal that pumps air to stir up the flames.

If we stop, the fire cools.

Today, St. Paul gently reminds us: do not let the gift within you grow cold. Stir it into flame again. Return to prayer. Return to the sacraments. Return to stir up the passion for mission.

Amen.


Comments

Post a Comment

Read

Homily: December 7, 2025, Second Sunday of Advent (Fruitfulness )

-
 “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...
Read more

Homily: February 15, 2025 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Yes or No)

-
 “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” Every one of our Christian journey begins with a very simple thing: “Yes”. At baptism, the priest asks the parents or the candidates three questions: Do you renounce Satan? Do you reject sin? Do you reject all that leads you away from God? If the answer is Yes, Yes and Yes, then he asks three more questions to confirm our belief, the profession of our faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yes, Yes and Yes. And from that moment, we belong to God totally. Our new relationship with God, our new life as a Christian begins. Do we then live happily ever after? Realistically, this is where the struggle also begins. Growing up, I have said many “Yes’s” to God. Often, I have also said “No” to Him. But more often, My Yes’s were compromised, unaccomplished, unreliable. Often, they were conditional “Yes’s”. I negotiated and bargained with God, I procrastinated and made excuses. They would so...
Read more

Homily: September 24, 2025, Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time (Prayer)

-
 “At the time of the evening sacrifice, I, Ezra, rose in my wretchedness, and with cloak and mantle torn I fell on my knees, stretching out my hands to the LORD, my God.” How do you pray? Today’s first reading gives us a beautiful description of how priest Ezra prayed. He considered himself ‘wretched’, totally unworthy of God and His mercy. This expressed his deep reverence for the vast greatness and graciousness of God. He fell on his knees with outstretched arms. This expressed his total surrender, obedience and submission to the ultimate good and perfect will of God. Ezra’s humble prayer disposition is beautiful. He prayed with a deep, sincere, and remorseful heart, laid bare before God, bearing the guilt of his people, yet completely appreciative and grateful for God’s forgiveness. He offered this prayer after the completion and dedication of the rebuilt Temple. The broken temple now rebuilt signified a reconciled relationship with God. Now the Israelites can worship in God’s h...
Read more

Homily: February 22, 2025 Feast of the chair of St. Peter.

-
 “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”  Our Lord founded the Church and handed over its growth and development into the future, to Peter. Note that the disciple is Simon, but the pope is Peter. Thus, this appointment to build the church, an appointment so solid like a rock, will be so strong and firm that not even hell could ever overcome it. Simon Peter was not perfect; he had his human weaknesses. It is written that he had cowardly denied Jesus three times, and at one point, Jesus even rebuked him, “Get behind me, Satan” (Matthew 16:23). Christian Tradition also tells that during the time of persecution in Rome, he had tried to escape and flee from Rome. The story continued that on his way along the road outside the city, he met our Lord Jesus where he asked, “Quo vadis, Domine?” - “Where are you going Lord?” To which our Lord replied, “Romam eo iterum crucifigī” – “I a...
Read more

Homily: February 14, Fifth Saturday in Ordinary Time (Causing to sin)

-
 “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” Today’s first reading takes us back to the time of King Jeroboam. He was afraid that his people would keep going to Jerusalem and finally lose their loyalty to him, thus he made two golden calves and told the people: “Here is your god.” Jeroboam committed two serious sins. First, he created false gods. Second, he led others into sin, to worship what was lifeless and false, and to believe that this false god brought them out of Egypt. Are those two golden calves evil? If you go to parts of North India, you will see random cows roaming freely on the roads. Any car driving near must stop and give way to these cows, even if it meant waiting some time for them to slowly move out of the way. Causing harm or injury to a cow will lead to serious legal consequences. In fact, if you slaughter a cow, you might end up in prison. because cows are considered sacred in the Hi...
Read more

Homily: February 10, 2025 Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary time (Good)

-
 "God Saw How Good It Was." I love to read the story of creation, to visualize how it all started, the see our origin, the source of our being. God, in His infinite love, created the world to express His goodness, and made humanity the crown of His creation, to reflect His perfection. His expression was good. His reflection was good. Everything He created was good because each of His creation had a purpose for existence, a place in the world, a special relationship with Him. There was unique beauty in each, and harmony as a whole. His grace was in everything. He could see it. It was truly good. We know that as the story continued, the beauty and perfection were shattered soon after, by the sin of man, God’s masterpiece of all His created beings. Superficially, we see that God’s creation was destroyed. However, if we look around the world today, we can still see glimpses of the original goodness. A newborn baby. A full bloom flower. A bright rising sun. We can see how good it ...
Read more

Homily: May 20, 2024, Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.

-
“The man called his wife Eve because she became the mother of all the living.” According to the book of Genesis, we are all children of Eve, the first woman. This first woman fell easily into temptation and became disobedient to God. Looking at ourselves, aren’t we the same? We are generally easily tempted and fall into sin. We seem to contain deep rebellion in us and so we tend to be disobedient. We see the same trend of disobedience through all the biblical stories. We are just like our first mother of the earth. God, the creator of the first man and woman, has a plan of redemption. In the fullness of time, He got ready the second Eve, to prepare for the second Adam’s coming. Mary, is like Eve in every way including being born without original sin. She was subject to temptations the same, but the difference is Mary overcame all temptations and remained consistently obedient to God, even all the way along the painful road to Calvary right till at the foot of the cross.  God’s seco...
Read more

Homily: December 12, 2025, Feast of the Our Lady of Guadalupe

-
 “Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah.” Today we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of the Americas, the Mother who draws near to her children with tenderness and mercy. In the Gospel, we see Mary going in haste to the hill country to help Elizabeth. That was 2,000 years ago. Yet 500 years ago, Mary again traveled to a hill the hill of Tepeyac, to meet a poor, humble indigenous man, Juan Diego, and to entrust him with a mission that seemed completely impossible: “Build me a church here.” Juan Diego was a recent convert, just learning the faith. How could he possibly accomplish such a task? But this is how Mary works. She always chooses the lowly, the simple, the overlooked because she knows that when we say “yes” with humility, God does the rest. Her words to Juan Diego are among the most comforting Mary has ever spoken. Here are just a few: • “My son, I love you. I desire you to know who I am. I am the ever-Virgin Ma...
Read more

Homily: August 15, 2024, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

-
 “For he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed.” Indeed, two thousand years since then, over a billion Catholics and millions of Orthodox Christians continue to call her blessed. Blessed is she who said yes to God to be the mother of God’s Son, blessed is she who conceived and birthed the Savior into the world, blessed is she who cared for and raised the Messiah for all of us, blessed is she who watched in pain and stayed with her son as He died on the cross, blessed is she who accepted to be the mother of the church. Today, the whole Catholic church, every diocese in the world, is celebrating the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We celebrate this feast every year, and we already know it is to commemorate the belief that Mary was taken straight up to heaven, body and soul, because she lived and died sinless. What makes Mary so important to the Church? The Church honors her with many titles, because she ...
Read more

Homily: February 13, 2022, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

-
 In the first reading we heard, “Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.” And then it continued with, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.” It is very clear, isn’t it? That those who turns away from God will be cursed and those who trusts in God will be blessed. The gospel reading today is known as the beatitudes, in which our Lord Jesus also spelled out the curses and the blessings. But it seems much harder to accept what Jesus is teaching here. I too struggle with this. Let us try to understand it together. We have been told that we came from God, and after this life, we will go back to God. For a long time, I questioned the rationale. Why create me to throw me into this difficult life just to bring me back to Him again? Why not just keep me with Him from the beginning and save me the trouble of going through this life? This earthly life is not easy. I w...
Read more