Homily: January 9, 2026, Friday after Epiphany (Healing)

-

 “Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom and cured every disease among the people.”

Healing was a central part of Jesus’ public ministry. Wherever He went, He healed: bodily diseases, emotional wounds, and spiritual disturbances. He restored dignity, hope, and life, to whoever believed and wanted it.

I must admit, many times while visiting people in hospitals or nursing homes, I have wished that I too had the gift of healing. Standing before someone who was suffering, I just wished I could simply touch them and make them well, like Jesus did, and end the sadness of their loved ones.

But I can’t. I don’t have such a gift. But some people do.

This past week, I was away at the SEEK Conference in Columbus, Ohio. It was an incredible experience. Tens of thousands of people were there to encounter Jesus and I am sure they did.

Two young women from our parish probably did, on a very personal level. They met a priest there. Well, there were more than 500 priests present, and they met this particular priest who made an impact. During their conversation with him, the priest looked at one of them and simply asked, “Do you have shoulder pain?”

Coincident or not, she indeed had been suffering from chronic pain in the shoulder for some time. He prayed over her, and instantly, she was healed of her pain!

Then he turned to the other young woman and asked, “Are you a nurse?” When she said yes, he told her that she had a gift of healing and that God would use her to bring healing to others.

She did not ask for healing. She did not ask for a blessing. Yet God reached out to her exactly where she was.

And truly, Jesus desires to heal us, often even before we ask. Just as He healed the leper and made him clean, He longs to heal us today. He wants to make us whole and free us to live a full life.

Like the leper in the Gospel, let our prayer be simple and trusting:

• Jesus, if You wish, You can restore my health.

• Jesus, if You wish, You can heal my wounds.

• Jesus, if You wish, You can mend my brokenness.

• Jesus, if You wish, You can fill my emptiness.

Healing does not always happen the way we expect it, yet always in God’s time. Yet, to be able to carry our crosses with hope is itself a grace. And to be graced by God, is itself a privilege and blessing.

So while we pray and ask for healing with confidence, we also ask for the grace to accept God’s will. Jesus wants to heal us, but more so, He wants us to follow the will of His Father. Amen.


Comments

Post a Comment

Read

Homily: Janaury 11, 2025 Saturday after Epiphany (Increase-Decrease)

-
 "He must increase; I must decrease." From this very simple statement, we can very clearly see the attitude of John the Baptist towards his mission - humility. John was a fearless man, he was not at all afraid of the Jewish authorities and preached courageously what he believed he was sent to do, he stood resolutely for truth and justice, not at all bothered about the cost or consequence. Nothing could stop him from speaking the truth. Yet, this aggressive preacher from the wilderness was humble, modest and meek when he acknowledges the presence of the Messiah. He recognized that his work, his purpose, his existence was done and must give way to the Lord. Tradition tells us that John the Baptist lived an ascetic life before his public ministry — a life of pure simplicity and total detachment, right down to the food he ate. Such a life demands complete abandonment of self and dedication to the mission. He lived with only one purpose – to accomplish the mission he was born for ...
Read more

Homily: December 28, 2025, Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (Dreams)

-
 “The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.’” As a young man, Joseph must have had beautiful dreams about his future family. He could have imagined a helpful and capable wife, children playing around the house and growing up to be well respected people in the community, a vision of a stable and peaceful life. When he got engaged to Mary, it seemed like his dreams would become reality soon. Many of us, married or not, can identify with the dreams that Joseph could have had. Yet like Joseph, the realities of our lives would have unfolded quite differently from how we have dreamt it. Joseph’s family life turned out totally unlike his own dreams, yet he continued to dream, now with God’s will revealed and God’s plan unfolding in the reality of his life. The hardship he went through in Bethlehem, with the birth of Jesus, did not end there. Today’s Gospel shows another unexpected cha...
Read more

Homily: September 3, 2025, Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time (Healing Hands)

-
Holy Family School Mass Homily.   “At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.” In today’s Gospel, we hear about Jesus healing many people with different diseases. The passage begins with the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, who was very sick in bed with a very high fever. She was not merely resting, in fact her fever was so bad that she was unable to get out of bed. I am guessing it could be 103 or 104 degrees! Normally, if we get such a high fever, it would take us days to recover with strong medication. But when Jesus visited Peter’s mother-in-law, He simply stood over her, rebuked the fever, that means He scolded the fever, and it left her!  Instantly, she was well again and was able to get up and serve Jesus and His disciples. Wow! Jesus is the King of the Universe, He has power over everything in the world, if you would only believe in Him and trust Him. Even today, Jesus continues ...
Read more

Homily: August 20, 2024, Tuesday of the Twentieth week in Ordinary time (Detachment).

-
 “It is I who deal death and give life.” This is our response to the first reading today. God gave a warning to the king of Tyre, about his impending death. The king had accumulated so much wealth and power that he considered himself supreme and like a god. He felt so highly of himself that he forgot he was only a human and could never escape death. Only God could deal death and give life. Only by recognizing our own frailty can we see God’s supremacy over our life and death. A few months ago, one of my first cousins passed away at the age of 49 after battling multiple myeloma. She was survived by her loving husband and two children. Among the cousins who are still relatively young, she was the first to pass on. We were shocked and saddened by her passing. A few days later, I had a group call with my siblings, and we were talking about it. One of my sisters asked, “Who will be the first one among us to pass away?” I immediately replied, “I’m not ready.” My oldest sister then said, ...
Read more

Homily: August 21, 2024, Wednesday of the twentieth week in Ordinary time (Holy family school Mass )

-
“For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep.” At the end of the first reading, in which the prophet Ezekiel spoke to the people on behalf of God, saying that God will look after and tend His sheep Himself, that means He will never leave His precious sheep to anybody else. How many of you have pets at home? Do you love them and care for them? If you were going away for a long, long vacation, would you leave your pets with me to care for them? I used to have a pet cow when I was a little boy in India. Her name was Mannikutti. She was a newly born calf when she was first given to me. Every day after school, I would go to her, talk to her, feed her, clean her and just spend time with her. I love her very much! I would know if she was sick, just by the way she ate her food. And she would respond to me happily whenever I talked to her. And I was always very happy spending time with her. I know her very well because I am always with her, observing her and taking ca...
Read more

Homily: September 27, 2025, Saturday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary time (SVDP)

-
 “But I will be for her an encircling wall of fire, says the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst.” This is such an assuring powerful message from God, from today’s first reading. Our God is fiercely protective of us, His beloved creation. I am sure some of us may have personally experienced God’s protective love, His wall of fire encircling us, defending, guarding, sheltering us from harm and hurt that may destroy our souls. His goal is to save humanity, and in response, in line with His love for us, we are called to be His hands and feet, to extend His protective love towards others. Today we celebrate the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, a saint who made God’s love visible in concrete ways. He fed, clothed and sheltered the very deprived and forgotten people, especially the imprisoned slaves with generous charity, providing for their very basic needs of a human person. His mission continues, through Vincentian priests, sisters, brothers, and lay members who serve the in nearl...
Read more

Homily: August 3, 2025, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Saints-Heaven )

-
 “If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” What does it mean to ‘seek what is above’? There’s no doubt that ‘what is above’ is ‘where Christ is seated at the right hand of God’. St. Paul was writing about heaven. In other words, Paul is asking us to think about heaven, about eternity, and to set our minds and hearts to reach it. Let me ask you: When was the last time you thought seriously about heaven? Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. From the catholic perspective, we might say that everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to be a saint. Both are ironic. Without death, there can be no heaven. And only saints can enter heaven. Heaven is ‘saint-land’. Now, let us consider the context of today’s second reading. St. Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians while he was imprisoned in Rome. At the very beginning of this letter, he said that he was ...
Read more

Homily: June 15, 2025 Soemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

-
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...
Read more

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

-
 “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 ...
Read more

Homily: August 22, 2023, Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

-
 "But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."  Are we people who aim to be first in all matters? Be forewarned, because according to Jesus, those who are powerful in the eyes of this world will be considered least in the kingdom of heaven. But those who humble themselves here on earth will be great in the kingdom of heaven.  Gideon is a perfect example. In today’s first reading, we hear how modestly humble was Gideon’s appraisal of himself, when he was called by God for mission, he said, “My family is the lowliest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father's house.” Yet, among all the Judges who ruled Israel for about 400 years, Gideon’s story is well-detailed and documented in sacred scripture. There were other Judges whose stories were hardly even mentioned in the scriptures like Gideon’s. I recommend all of you to read the Book of Judges, chapters 6 to 8, to learn more about Gideon. God chose people like Gideon, who are humble, as h...
Read more