Homily: march 15, 2026, Fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday)

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 “Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand, anointed David in the presence of his brothers; and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David.”

This is one of the most powerful scenes in the Old Testament. A young shepherd boy was suddenly anointed the king of Israel – the least-expected to be king material, yet God chose him.

David did not come from any royal line. There were no kings before in his family. He was young, tender in experience, and in the eyes of the world, he didn’t look promising as compared to his older brothers. The prophet Samuel saw more potential in David’s older brothers, yet God chose him.

God reminded Samuel: “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance, but the LORD looks into the heart.”

God saw something in David’s heart which made him the perfect king for God, something no one else could see.

Dear catechumens and candidates, in just twenty-one days, you will be fully initiated into the Catholic faith during Easter Vigil. You will be receiving your Baptism, Confirmation, and first Holy Eucharist. Some of you have already been baptized, so you will complete your initiation with confirmation and holy communion.

During the same celebration, you will also be anointed with Sacred Chrism by Bishop Joensen, the same way David was anointed by prophet Samuel.

God has chosen you.

He has already looked into your hearts and seen what no one else could see. He knows your heart, your desire to be His child, to belong to Him. And He wants you.

And just as the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David, the same Spirit will also come upon you.

And our God is a generous giver; He does not give in small measures. He will give you His Spirit in abundance, fully, completely, totally.

Through the Holy Spirit you will receive spiritual gifts, through which you will produce spiritual fruits: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

David’s life changed completely after his anointing. From shepherding sheep, he will thereafter lead God’s people, God’s nation, from strength to strength. In all his works, he will give glory to God who chose him.

When the Church anoints you at your baptism and confirmation, you will be anointed priest, prophet, and king. From then on, you have a mission: to witness to Christ and His Gospel in the world. You will give glory to God through your life. This is the mission of all of us who are baptized.

Years ago, on the day of my ordination, my bishop laid hands on me and anointed me a priest. Honestly, I did not feel anything extraordinary at that moment – no sudden rush of emotion, nothing dramatic, nothing different.

But as the days, months and years passed, I look back and can see clearly how the Holy Spirit has been working in me and through me, gently, quietly but surely. I can see now how the Holy Spirit nurtured strength, resilience and patience in me.

We are not accidents. God has chosen each one of us for a purpose. He has placed us in this world, in our situations, so that through the way we live, others may see Him.

Thus St. Paul tells us in today’s second reading: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”

And children of light live differently, we live in truth, goodness, and faith, no longer in darkness. 

And with our hearts open to the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, we can light up the world where it is needed. 

Will you carry the light of Christ to others, to where there is still darkness, to where Christ wants to reach? I pray you will say yes! Amen.


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Homily: March 9, 2026, Monday of the Third week in Lent (prophet -Accepted )

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 “No prophet is accepted in his own native place.” I have experienced this personally many times. Years ago, when I was newly ordained and was about to preach at a relative’s wedding, my oldest sister, lacking confidence with my ability, whispered to me, “Make sure you do a good job.” I whispered back, “Why don’t you do the preaching!” Last year I went to my nephew’s First Holy Communion. The parish priest asked if I could give the homily, and I happily agreed. The night before the Mass, my second sister came to my room and questioned me, “Do you really want to do the homily? People expect a good one for this occasion.” She worried I would do poorly. And my third sister who lives in Ireland, keeps sending me videos of popular preachers - like Fr. Mike Schmitz and Bishop Barron. She probably hopes I will learn to preach like them. My siblings grew up with me at home, and they know me well from young. However, they were not with me in my seminary life and have not witnessed my growth...
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Homily: March 13, 2026, Friday of the third Week in Lent (Trees)

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 “I am like a verdant cypress tree - because of me you bear fruit.” These words from today’s first reading from the prophet Hosea caught my attention, especially because of the image of trees. From a very young age, I enjoyed exploring nature - plants, trees, and animals. I learned a lot about nature not from books, but from my father and grandfather. They knew the forest very well and built their home in the forest. They taught me how to recognize different trees from their smell, structure, strength, and usefulness. In those days, none of the trees mentioned in the Bible grew in our part of India, so they triggered my curiosity. I remember wondering about the story of Adam and Eve hiding themselves with fig leaves. I asked my grandfather, “What kind of leaves are fig leaves?” My grandfather had no idea. He simply said, “Maybe something big like teak tree leaves!” And there were no gyms in our village, so if you want to build some muscles, you must find other ways. My mother saw t...
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Homily: March 3, 2026, Tuesday of the Second Week in Lent (Talk-Walk)

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 "The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.” It is commonly said that ‘talk is cheap’. It is very easy to say what is right, what is good, what is impressive. But it is not easy to walk the talk, to live out what we speak about. In today’s Gospel, we understood that the scribes and the Pharisees talked a lot. Their position gave them the right to teach the law of Moses. But their ways did not match up. Jesus too taught a lot. But what gave power to Jesus’ teaching was not any official title He held. It was His integrity. His words and His works matched. His walk and His talk matched. He was authentic. What about us? As parents, teachers, priests, leaders, elders – we speak and teach often. People hear us but they are also watching us. Finally, especially children, they model us. They may hear us, but effectively, they follow what they see us do. The powe...
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Homily: February 27, 2026Friday of the First Week in Lent (Salvation)

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 “Since he has turned away from all the sins that he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.” In the spiritual tradition of the Church, we often talk about the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, hell. Death is certain for each one of us. We will all die one day.  Judgment is also certain. It is part of our encounter with God. He is the ultimate Judge. Then the final destination. It is not heaven and hell, it is heaven or hell. Each of us will have the freedom to choose. Do you think everyone will choose heaven? Many do not want hell, but that does not mean they want heaven. Choosing heaven means choosing God, choosing His will. This is where we all failed. Everyone has sinned. But in today’s first reading, the prophet Ezekiel gives all of us a great big hope: our past does not have the final word. The hope is that if a person turns away from sin, if they repent and choose what is right, they shall live - repent and believe in the Gospel! Many people, myself ...
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Homily: March 8, 2026, Third sunday of Lent (Jesus Thirsts)

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 “Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’” Many of us would remember that Jesus said on the cross, “I thirst.” These two words carried a deep message. It meant so much to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who reflected deeply on it all through her missionary life. St. John Paul II also referred to it often in his spiritual reflections. Our Lord Jesus on the cross, in His dying breath, said: “I thirst.” Surely, He wasn’t asking for a drink. He was thirsting for something else. But this thirst of Jesus did not begin only when He was on the cross. We see it already here in today’s Gospel, when He met the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus’ thirst is real. Yes, He was physically thirsty when He was at the well. But there was something deeper. Jesus thirsts for souls. Not to consume, but to commune. He wants so much to be a big part of our lives, and for us to be totally in His life, eternal life. We are created in His image and likeness. God did not need to our existence to complete Him. He is ...
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Homily: December 28, 2025, Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (Dreams)

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 “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...
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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 6, 2026, Friday of the second monday in Lent (Cruelty- Salvation )

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 “They then sat down to their meal.” This scene from today’s first reading really hit me. Joseph’s brothers had just stripped him of his robe, thrown him into an empty cistern, and abandoned him, knowing well that would kill him. And what did they do after that cruel deed? Scripture says: they sat down to eat their meal. It is shocking. Their brother is suffering nearby, crying for help, yet they felt nothing, they calmly continued their day, with a meal, like nothing unusual happened. That behavior made an already cruel act more evil. When I read this passage, it reminded me of a scene from the movie ‘The Passion of the Christ’. In that film, Jesus spent the night in a dungeon in the house of the high priest. He was captured, trapped, waiting for death. The detail of this scene is not found in the Bible, but was vividly described by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich from her mystical visions. And truly, there is a dungeon behind what is believed to be Caiaphas’s house in Jerusalem, ...
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Homily: December 2, 2025, Tuesday of the First Week of Advent (Knowledge)

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“There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;  for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,  as water covers the sea.” How beautiful this promise is, the entire earth filled with the knowledge of the Lord as water covers the sea. Imagine a world where every heart, every home, every nation is filled with the knowledge of God. What a different world that would be. Knowledge is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. But this knowledge does not simply mean information it means truly knowing God: knowing His heart, His will, His love, His commandments. This is the very purpose of human life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1721 teaches: God placed us in the world to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him, and so to come to Paradise. And notice the order: Know> Love> Serve. We cannot love someone we do not know, and we cannot serve someone we do not love. So how do we know God? The Psalm tells us:  “Be still and know that I am God” (Psal...
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