Homily: September 19, 2026, Saturday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Generous God)

-

 “They are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”

We hear this parable during the harvest season, so the image of seed and harvest is very familiar to us.

Once, a farmer friend gave me a ride in his combine during harvest. He showed me the GPS system they use for both planting and harvesting. It was fascinating. The system could tell him what kind of seed had been planted in a particular area and how many bushels of corn were harvested from each acre. All that information would help him decide what seed to plant and where to plant it the following year in order to get a better yield.

Seed is expensive. So naturally, farmers want to make sure that good seed is planted in good soil where it can produce a good harvest.

But the farmer in today’s Gospel seems almost wasteful! He throws the seed everywhere—on the path, on rocky ground, among thorns, and finally on good soil. He knows that some of the seed will never produce anything, and yet he continues to sow generously.

That tells us something beautiful about God.

God never gives up on us.

We are the soil, and God continues to sow his Word into our hearts. Sometimes our hearts may be hard like the path. Sometimes they may be rocky because of stubbornness, anger, or unwillingness to change. Sometimes our hearts may be filled with the thorns of worries, temptations, possessions, and distractions that choke the Word of God.

Yet God continues to sow.

He is always hopeful that the hard soil will become soft, that the rocks will be removed, and that the thorns will be cleared away.

And God’s Word is more available to us today than ever before. We have the Bible in our homes. We have it on our phones. We hear the Scriptures every time we come to Mass. The seed is everywhere. God is constantly sowing.

The question is: What kind of soil am I giving God?

If we simply open our hearts, listen to his Word, and allow it to take root in us, God can produce a harvest far greater than we imagine.

Jesus tells us that those who receive the Word “with a generous and good heart” will bear fruit through perseverance.

May we be that good soil, so that the Word God generously sows in us may produce a rich harvest—thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.


Comments

Post a Comment

Read

Homily: September 15, 2025, Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows (Entrustment)

-
 “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” This arrangement, spoken from the Cross, may look like a simple and practical arrangement for the care of His surviving mother, but truly, it carries a deeper and profound truth. It is one of the ‘seven last words of Jesus’. Quite naturally and obviously, He entrusted the care of His beloved Mother to someone reliable and obedient. He gave her to John. And at the same time, He also entrusted the continued nurturing of John, His beloved disciple, to His Mother. Jesus had no earthly possessions which will wither and end to leave behind. What He left, as a lasting forever legacy to His disciples and as a gift of eternity to all believers to come, was the institution of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper. Now from the Cross, He is giving to the whole of humanity something personal: His own Mother,  whom He took His human flesh and blood from when she carried Him in her womb. Why John the beloved ap...
Read more

Homily: September 15, 2026, Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.

-
 “And you yourself a sword will pierce.” Today, September 15, the Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. We remember the sufferings Mary experienced throughout her life, especially as the Mother of Jesus. Traditionally, the Church remembers seven sorrows of Mary: the prophecy of Simeon; the flight into Egypt; the loss of the child Jesus in the Temple; Mary meeting Jesus on the way to Calvary; Jesus dying on the Cross; Mary receiving the body of Jesus into her arms. and finally, the burial of Jesus. What does this feast teach us? First, it teaches us that sorrow is part of human life. None of us can go through life without experiencing suffering, disappointment, loss, or grief. But Mary teaches us something even deeper: suffering does not mean that God has stopped loving us. Mary was loved by God in a unique way. She was full of grace and chosen to be the Mother of his Son. Yet being close to God did not protect her from suffering. She stood beneath the Cross and watche...
Read more

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

-
 “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...
Read more

Homily: September 14, 2026, Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (Look at the Cross)

-
 “If anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will live.” The Israelites had sinned against God, but when they repented, God gave them a very simple way to be healed: look at the bronze serpent and live. They did not have to accomplish some extraordinary task. They simply had to look with faith. Today, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we are given the same invitation: Look at the Cross. Do not turn away from it. Look at the crucified Christ. See His wounds. See His sacrifice. And above all, see the love of God. Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” Naturally, we like beautiful images of Jesus—the Good Shepherd, the Sacred Heart, the risen Christ. But there is no Christianity without the Cross. The Cross reminds us how much God loves us. It teaches us that suffering is not meaningless. It reminds us that Jesus entered into our suff...
Read more

Homily: September 4, 2026, Friday of the Twenty second Week in Ordinary Time (Do not Judge)

-
 “Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes.” It is very difficult to live without judging others. Knowingly or unknowingly, we often judge people based on what we see, especially those who are different from us. But we are all different. Our life situations are different, our ideas are different, and the ways we were raised are different. There is a beautiful saying often attributed to Philo of Alexandria: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.” How true that is. We often do not know what another person is carrying in his or her heart. Jesus also tells us, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” So how do we overcome a judgmental attitude? One way is by becoming more empathetic. Instead of immediately judging someone, we can try to know the person, listen to their story, and understand why they may think or act differently from us. St. Paul reminds us today that the final judgment belongs to God. God knows what is ...
Read more

Homily: February 22-2026, First Sunday of Lent (Angles)

-
 As I was preparing this homily, I first thought of preaching about the three temptations of Jesus. Then I changed my mind and thought of focusing on the first reading, and then perhaps the second reading. I couldn’t get the right inspiration, so I went through the readings several times over the past days. Finally, I noticed one phrase which stayed with me quietly but firmly: “The devil left Him, and angels came and ministered to Him.” It was a reassuring resolution to an intense build-up of temptations. Jesus had fasted forty days. He endured hunger, thirst, solitary living and silence. At the end of it when he was at his weakest, tempting offers to satisfy His possible needs and wants were presented to Him. He was at His weakest, physically, but he was also at His strongest, spiritually. As He overcame the temptations and defeated the devil, heaven responded - not with applause, but with accompaniment. Angels came to minister to Him. We see the same later in the Gospel of Luke. ...
Read more

Homily: July 31, 2026, Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time (Rejection)

-
 “Where did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. The people who listened to Jesus were astonished at His wisdom, they knew that such words had to come from God but instead of praising God for it, they took offense at Jesus for preaching it. Their narrow mindedness refused to accept that a carpenter’s son could deliver God’s speech. They rejected His wisdom, and they rejected Him. In reality, they had rejected God. Their pridefulness and severe lack of faith prevented them from acknowledging what God was doing in their midst. God came amongst them, to be with them, but they did not want God to come to them that way. They had their own idea of how God should be presented to them and had their own expectations of how the Messiah should speak and act. The same happened to Jeremiah. He preached and warned the people about the consequences of the their sins, but instead of paying attention and recognizing their faults, they questioned and condemned him, “You must be put ...
Read more

Homily: June 1, 2026 Monday of the Nineth Week in Ordinary Time (Grow in Virtues)

-
 “Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue.” Many of us, including myself, would be happy if we could just live every day without committing any serious sin. And to be able to just live out the basic life of a faithful – pray daily and receive the sacraments regularly – that should be enough and would be good with God. But St. Peter is challenging us to grow, go beyond the minimum, he says: “Supplement your faith with virtue.”  Faith, like health, cannot be stagnant. The basic daily meals may not be enough to keep us healthy and strong enough to meet growing needs, we may need supplements to add nourishment and nutrients. Faith too needs to grow and bear fruit, so supplement it with virtue. What are the virtues to add on? Cardinal virtues are prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. Theological virtues are faith, hope, and charity. Just avoiding sin is not enough, we need to pack in virtues to be strong. We must bear fruit with our faith. The Christian life ...
Read more

Homily: March 24, 2022, Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

-
 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters.” Jesus’ message is so clear. We cannot follow Jesus partially. If we are not following him whole heartedly, we are not his followers. Today is the 20th day of Lent, not counting Sundays. We are halfway through. Do you remember what you decided you will do specially for these 40 days of Lent? Are you keeping up to it? While we are trying hard to grow stronger spiritually, the devils are working harder to keep us down. I wonder who is in the lead at this halfway mark? In my childhood years, only rich children in my village could afford to own bikes. When I was in the 5th grade, my older brother and I decided to collect wild nutmeg flowers from the nearby forest to sell, so that we can afford to buy a bike.  We would wake up very early in the morning and run to the forest to search and collect as many as possible. Many children from other villages were doing the same so whoever got there first ...
Read more

Homily: May 11, 2026 Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter

-
 “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 ...
Read more