Homily: October 6, 2026, Tuesday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary time( Zealous Catholic)

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“You heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.”

Whenever I read the letters of St. Paul, one thing that strikes me is his zeal. Paul never did anything halfway. Before his conversion, he was completely committed to what he believed. He thought Christianity was wrong, and so he became one of its fiercest persecutors.

But when Paul encountered Jesus, something beautiful happened. Jesus did not take away Paul’s zeal; he redirected it.

The man who traveled from place to place persecuting Christians now traveled from place to place preaching Christ. The man who tried to destroy the Church became one of its greatest builders. He crossed countries, entered unfamiliar cities, endured rejection, imprisonment, beatings, and suffering—all because he wanted people to know Jesus.

That same fire comes through in his letters. Paul says, “Stir into flame the gift of God.” He says, “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.” And again, “Do not grow slack in zeal; be fervent in spirit.”

I have sometimes noticed this same zeal in people who convert to the Catholic faith. They discover the Eucharist, Confession, Scripture, the saints, and the beauty of the Church, and they become excited about things that those of us who have been Catholic all our lives can easily take for granted. Sometimes a new Catholic knows the faith better and practices it more intentionally than someone who has been Catholic for fifty years.

Perhaps that is the invitation for us today: Have we lost some of our zeal?

We may never travel across continents like St. Paul. But we can have his fire. We can be intentional about prayer. We can love the Mass. We can speak about Christ without embarrassment. We can serve others generously. We can refuse to live our faith halfway.

St. Paul reminds us that Christianity is not simply something we belong to. It is Someone we have encountered. And when we truly encounter Christ, there should be a little fire in our hearts.

May the Lord stir that fire into flame again today.


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Homily: October 4, 2026, Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (No Anxiety)

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

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Homily: October 5, 2026, Monday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time (Repay you on my way back)

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 “If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.” This is one of the beautiful lines from today’s Gospel.  We can easily see Jesus as the Good Samaritan. Humanity was wounded by sin, and Jesus came to rescue us. He lifted us up, cared for our wounds, and brought us to the inn. And we can see the inn as the Church—a place where wounded people are brought to be healed, cared for, and loved. But then Jesus gives the innkeeper two coins and says, “Take care of him.” Perhaps we can see ourselves as that innkeeper. Jesus has entrusted people to our care. And we might imagine those two coins as the two great commandments: Love God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. The first coin is love of God. God deserves the first place in our lives—our heart, our time, our attention, our will. So let us intentionally live our lives trying to please God. Then comes the secon...
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Homily: May 23, 2026, Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter (Scripture is enough)

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 “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.” Once I walked into our youth Bible study, and they were discussing the Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish apocalyptic text traditionally connected to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. They asked me questions about it. I had read it myself when I was their age, mostly out of curiosity, but honestly, I do not remember much of its content. There are also several other apocryphal writings, like the Gospel of James, the Gospel of Thomas, and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. But the Church never considered them inspired Scripture, because many of them were written decades after the death of the last Apostle, St. John. Public Revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle. Sometimes I also wish the Bible had more details about Jesus’ infancy and His hidden life. But St. John reminds us today that the world its...
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Homily: October 18, 2022. Tuesday of the twenty-ninth week in Ordinary time (Feast of St. Luke)

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“Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you.” This sounds fine to me because I am not fussy with food and am happy to eat anything offered. I can’t think of any food that I will not eat. And it helps a lot in my ministry, especially in this parish since I get invited to homes of various cultures and different cuisine. So far, I do enjoy Eritrean, Burmese, Laotian, Sudanese, Mexican and of course, American food. Yes, it is easy to feed me but very difficult to slim me down. But why did Jesus give such a specific instruction to His disciples regarding eating and drinking? It may look simple for us, but it was challenging to His disciples. They were Jews and the Jewish law laid out very strict food practices and prohibitions. And now they were being sent out to Gentile villages to preach to them. They were to live in Gentile homes and eat as they eat, drink as they drink. The disciples probably had never done anything like that before. Can you imagine the cultural sho...
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Homily: July 21, 2026, Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Forgiveness)

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 In today's Gospel, Jesus says, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”  These words invite us to ask an important question: What is the will of our heavenly Father for us? Jesus gives the answer in other passages of the Gospel. He says, “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect,” and “Be holy, for your heavenly Father is holy.” God's will is not simply that we avoid sin, but more that we become holy. The Christian life is not merely about avoiding evil; it is really about growing in virtue and becoming more like our heavenly Father each day, in what we think, say and do. Today's readings point us to one of the most difficult yet most beautiful virtues of Christian discipleship - forgiveness. In the first reading we heard, “Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin... who does not persist in anger forever.” In the Responsorial Psalm we prayed, “You have for...
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Homily: June 2, 2023, Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Fruitless fig tree).

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"When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves…” A fig tree with leaves usually indicates the presence of ripe fruits since the fruits appear before the leaves. Therefore, a tree full of leaves should have many ripe fruits, but not this tree which Jesus approached in today’s Gospel by St. Mark. It had many leaves but no fruit at all. What was wrong with this fig tree? Did Jesus’ curse cause the tree to wither the next day, or was it a prophecy? This incident is highly symbolic. The fig tree is mentioned about thirty times in the Old Testament, and about twenty-seven times in the New Testament. In the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve used fig leaves to cover up their nudity, an attempt to hide their sin of disobedience and rebellion. And now in this Gospel, St. Mark mentions the fig tree event right before the cleansing of the temple event. What is the parallel? The temple in Jerusalem was a remarkably beautiful building. Though it was a grand structure fit for the highest worship t...
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Homily: May 24, 2024, Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time (Don't complain).

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"Do not complain, brothers and sisters, about one another, that you may not be judged… Indeed, we call blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord." I really wish we had more scripture texts by St. James the Apostle. His short epistle is full of wisdom. He was the earliest among the apostles to receive martyrdom, which is why he did not get to write much. Look at today’s reading and you can see how much he understood the human condition and was able to preach effectively with relevance to people’s lives. His advice for his listeners in those days is still applicable and very relevant for us in our time. We still struggle with the same issues even after 2,000 years. Do not complain but count every blessing! That is my constant reminder for myself. Although most of the time, I just needed to vent my anger and frustrations to someone who understands, yet I would always regret it after complaining. Thank ...
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