Homily: October 3, 2026, Saturday of the Twenty Sixth Week in Ordinary Time (God Restores)

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 “Thus the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his earlier ones.”

This beautiful phrase comes from our first reading today, from the very last chapter of the Book of Job.

The Book of Job is part of the wisdom literature of the Bible. Job is presented as a righteous man who loses almost everything—his possessions, his children, his health, and even the understanding and support of those around him. The great question running through the book is: Why does a good person suffer? Where is God when everything seems to be lost?

Interestingly, the Book of Job does not give us a simple answer to the mystery of suffering. Instead, it invites us to trust in God even when we cannot understand his ways.

And today, at the end of the story, we see something beautiful: God restores Job.

“Thus the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his earlier ones.”

This reminds us of the restoring power of God. God can restore what seems broken. God can bring hope after despair, joy after sorrow, and new beginnings after painful endings.

But as Christians, we know that God's ultimate restoration is not simply receiving back on earth everything we have lost. There are things we lose in this life that may never be restored to us here. There are wounds that remain. There are people we love whom we will not see again in this earthly life.

Our ultimate restoration is heaven.

And that connects beautifully with today's Gospel. The disciples return to Jesus filled with excitement. They say, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name!”

That was an extraordinary accomplishment. Yet Jesus tells them:

“Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

Jesus is reminding them: Do not allow even your greatest earthly accomplishments to become your greatest joy. Your greatest joy is that you belong to God. Your greatest joy is that heaven is your destination.

We spend so much of our lives worrying about what we have gained and what we have lost—our successes and failures, our health, possessions, relationships, disappointments, and achievements.

But all these things are temporary.

At the end of our lives, the most important question will not be, How much did I accomplish? How much did I possess? How successful was I?

The most important thing is that our names are written in heaven.

So when something is lost, let us trust in God's restoring power. When life does not turn out as we expected, let us trust him. And even when God does not restore something in the way we desire here on earth, let us remember that he has promised us something infinitely greater.

Let us keep our eyes fixed on heaven and on what our loving God has prepared for us.

Because in the end, our greatest blessing is not what God gives us here on earth. Our greatest blessing is God himself—and eternal life with him.


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Homily: September 27, 2026, Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary time (The Fair way)

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 “Thus says the Lord: You say, ‘The Lord’s way is not fair!’” I chose this phrase from our first reading for our reflection today because it sounds very similar to what we heard last Sunday in the first reading.  “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.” I think most of us, at some point in our lives, have said something similar to God. I know I have. “Lord, this is not fair.” “Why do I have to go through this?” “Why didn’t you answer this prayer?” “Why did you allow this to happen?” “I am trying to follow you. Could you not treat me a little better?” We may not say those words aloud, but sometimes they are deep within our hearts. So what exactly is God’s way? The second reading gives us an answer.  For centuries humanity wondered what God was like. Then Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of the Father, came among us and revealed the face of God. And St. Paul describes Jesus with these extraordinary words: “He did not regard equality with God something to...
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Homily: September 21, 2026, Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and evangelist (Follow me)

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 “Follow me.” On this feast of St. Matthew, we hear Matthew’s own account of his calling. Jesus saw him sitting at the customs post and said just two words: “Follow me.” And Matthew gets up and follows him. No second thought. No long discernment. No plan for the future. Maybe Matthew had been waiting for a moment like this—a chance to begin again. Matthew was a tax collector, considered a sinner and hated by his own people because he worked for the occupying power. Yet Jesus looked at this man whom others rejected and saw an apostle. That should give every one of us hope. God can change people. God does not wait until we are perfect before he calls us. Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” We are all sinners. We all have weaknesses, habits, failures, and things in our lives that need to change. And there may be people around us struggling with addictions or trapped in sinful situations. Sometimes we may even wonder whether a person can ev...
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Homily: April 2, 2024, Tuesday in the Octave of Easter (Mary at the Tomb).

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 Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb, weeping. Today’s gospel begins by describing the emotional state of Mary. We can all visualize and identify with this scene. Mary Magdalene is very sad, to the point of experiencing deep emotional pain which triggers tears. This is love.  I recall when my papa died within a week of discovering his illness. It was unexpected, we were all unprepared. All my sisters wept on the day he died, and into the days after his burial. They cried again, very emotionally, when we visited his tomb thereafter and I recited the Office for the Dead. I, too, cried a lot at papa’s death. Love is a powerful emotion. It stirs our heart to feel the pain of loss, which works up our brain to trigger the release of tears, to help reduce the emotional pain. God gave us tears to help us manage our pain.  Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus, and before He entered Jerusalem, and at the garden of Gethsemane. His love for humanity stirred up deep emotional pain, s...
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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: September 19, 2026, Saturday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Generous God)

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 “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 s...
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Homily: July 31, 2022, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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The rich man in Jesus’s parable asked himself, “What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?” Isn’t that a good problem to have? To have so much in abundance, more than what he can keep or need. How would you advise this rich man? Maybe some of you might suggest to him, “Give the extra to someone who has nothing.” On Friday, I harvested a handful of nice eggplants from my garden. I was very happy with the produce, and I had the same question as the rich man: what should I do with them? But my harvest was not much, not enough to cook and share with my brother priests in the house and I don’t have time this weekend to cook it. I definitely did not want to store it. Finally, I gave it to a friend. She was happy and I was very simply pleased. Even though it was a small harvest of eggplants, I had to think and make a good decision about it. Can you imagine someone with a huge harvest like the rich man or someone with a lot of possessions and property and money…they must be ...
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Homily: June 21, 2025, Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time (Sufficient Grace)

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 “Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’” This sentence in today’s first reading is one of the most well-known and quoted lines in the New Testament. There are many interpretations about what could be the “thorn in the flesh” which St. Paul referred to and asked for the Lord to remove for him. No one knows for sure, and no one needs to know exactly. What we do know is that it was something Paul believed the “angel of Satan” was sent to torment him. It was so bad for him that he wished and prayed for the Lord to take away from him. But Jesus did no, and told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Jesus is telling us the same: “My grace is sufficient for you.” Are you struggling terribly? Do you feel greatly tormented? Are you facing huge troubles? Do you feel like there is no way out? If you are crying out to the Lord like St. Paul, know that you are not alone. God’s silence is not absence. He is with y...
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Homily: March 7, 2022, Monday of the First Week of Lent.

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  “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am Holy”. Both the first and Gospel readings today presented a ‘to-do’ and ‘not-to-do’ list. Some are really tough tasks. Can we ever accomplish them? Is it possible for us to be holy? We all know that at the sacrament of reconciliation, it is Jesus Himself who is sitting at the confessional, listening to the confessions. And the sacred privilege for me as a priest, is that I get to see as God sees and hear as God hears. And what does God see and hear? He doesn’t see our failures. He sees our brokenness. He doesn’t hear our sins. He hears our desire to be good. And God wants to help us. He reaches out to us, pouring out His graces. We desire to be holy and God desires the same. In that moment of reconciliation, in that meeting of desires, we become holy. And I, the priest who witnesses that sacred moment, also become holy. The very first step to becoming holy is to desire holiness. To desire becoming what God wants us to be, to be like Him, to...
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Homily: July 11, 2026, Saturday of the Fourteeth Week in Ordinary Time (Sinfulness)

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"Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" When the prophet Isaiah had this profound vision of heaven and stood before the Lord, these were the first words that came from his lips. He became deeply aware of his own unworthiness in the presence of God's holiness. I once heard a beautiful definition of prayer: "When we stand before the Creator as creatures with humility, that becomes prayer." I have never forgotten those words. A few years ago, during a retreat, the retreat director said that the first thing we should do when we come before God in prayer is to acknowledge our sinfulness. That awareness reminds us of who we are and who God is. We are limited, weak, and sinful; God is holy, loving, and merciful. Our prayers become more effective when they are offered with humility. None of us is worthy of God's love, yet He continues to love us unconditionall...
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Homily: October 24, 2024, Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Know God )

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 "…that you…may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." I love this passage very much. In my native language, it is expressed even more beautifully, and I have cherished it in my heart since young. Can we ever fully comprehend the love of God? I don’t think we can ever grasp even a fraction of it. His love is immensely wide, long, high and deep, it surpasses all knowledge and understanding, beyond our imagination. How do we even begin to understand something so vast?  Let’s look at how today’s first reading started: "I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named." To kneel before God is probably one of the first and best way to start to know Him. It is said that St. Thomas Aquinas learned more theology on his knees than from books. And Blessed Archbishop F...
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