Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Every time the first scripture reading for our liturgy it taken from the book of Wisdom, we want to sit back and let the words sink in. This is because Wisdom addresses the deepest longings of the human soul. Right at the outset, though, let me provide a caution. Today’s first reading is an excerpt from Wisdom Chapters 1 & 2. Out of the forty verses that make up these two chapters, on ly four verses are read today. I strongly recommend, then, that this week we take the time to reflect on Chapters 1 and 2 in their entirety. I am choosing to focus on two thoughts that are contained in our very short reading and connect them to the gospel reading and a practical implication in my third point.
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
How interesting that Jesus says to the disciples, “Let us cross over to the other side” (Mk 4:35). I wonder if this was a naïve suggestion. By the end of the storm, Jesus had something very significant to say to the disciples. He said, "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?" (Mk 4:40) It seems to me that Jesus was not merely proposing that disciples cross over to the other side of the lake but cross over to the other side in following Jesus. I call it “the other side of faith”. Jesus was really calling his disciples to follow him more closely, more radically, and more faithfully. As Jesus’ ministry progressed, they would need it.
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
(This homily was published three years ago but I am republishing it with some edits for greater relevance).
Freddie Figgers is an inventor, an entrepreneur, and a telecoms millionaire. His present net worth is close to a billion dollars. This story is not about him but the people who are responsible for his success – Nathan Figgers, a maintenance worker and his wife, Betty Mae Figgers, a farm worker. They picked up Freddie near a dumpster when he was two days old. He had been abandoned as a newborn baby in Quincy, North Florida.
When Freddie was eight years old, he asked his father about the circumstances of his birth. Nathan was straightforward and blunt. He said, “Listen I'm going to shoot it to you straight, Fred. When you were two days old, your biological mother threw you away, and me and Betty Mae, we didn't want to send you through foster care, and we adopted you. You are my son." Freddy became distraught and overwhelmed. When his father told him the truth, Freddie said, “OK I'm trash.” Nathan grabbed his shoulder and said, “Listen, don't you ever let that bother you."
The Solemnity of Corpus Christi
At the core of our Catholic faith is the belief in the real presence of Christ - body, soul, and divinity - in the Eucharistic Bread and Wine. Take this belief out of Catholicism and you have a totally different religion. The sacramental life would be different. Our worship would be different. The prayers we say and the songs we sing would be different. How we move about and conduct ourselves in church would be different. Even church architecture would be different.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
At a funeral a few years back, the family wanted me to share something the deceased man wrote. His name was Dennis. I would like begin my homily with his words.
“It is good to slow down and see the beauty in life
I don’t think most people ever do!
There is truly something sacred in everything in life.
And only a quiet mind can see the beauty
and try not to capture it, contain it, put into words, ideas, theories etc.
Man is surrounded in love
but can never slow down enough to see the beauty.
If he did, he would never kill again,
nor would he destroy the planet with his greed.
Beauty, love, the sacred can never be contained by man’s attempt to seek it.
It can come only to the person who can receive it,
quietly, effortlessly, simply.
For the self can never contain that which is immeasurable – the sacred.”
Pentecost Sunday
This weekend was also the First Holy Communion in the parish. I do not remember another time when First Holy Communion fell on the Feast of the Pentecost. I was wondering how I would bring Pentecost and the Eucharist together for our children. So, I had someone bring Halo to Church for the homily. (Halo is my new six-month-old Maltese puppy). I told the kids, that I will be leaving for India in two weeks. I know that I am going but she does not. There is no way for me to explain it to her. I will miss her greatly and I am sure she will miss me too. I also have this thought that she might forget me. I have a plan. I am going to leave this T-shirt with her. This shirt has my scent on it. It’s my way of letting her know that I have not abandoned her. In and through this T-shirt she can feel my presence.
Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord
Think about one time in your life when you were in total awe but also became aware of the magnitude of the day. Perhaps it was walking down the aisle the day you got married, or holding your first-born for the first time, or holding the diploma after graduation, or receiving the appointment letter to a job you really wanted. I think of the day my parents left for home after they dropped me at the seminary. I was only seventeen-and-a-half years old. There was a little turmoil in my heart. But then, as the train pulled away from the train station, a sense of awe and sense of calm took over me. I saw it as a sign that indeed God was calling me to the priesthood. I remember becoming aware of an immense responsibility. The experience is still engrained in my brain.
Sixth Sunday of Easter
As you heard today’s scripture reading (or follow it in the missal) did you notice a word stand out? Between the second reading and the gospel, “love” is found eighteen times – nine times in the second reading and nine times in the gospel reading. Apart from today’s reading themselves, there is no denying that love is central to the Christian story. Without the primacy of the knowledge and experience of God’s love and the call to love others in the same way that God loves, Christianity falls apart.
Fifth Sunday of Easter
What is your faith about? What is at the core of your religion? If someone in an elevator asks you explain your belief system, how would you respond?
Among the many themes that today’s scripture readings inspire, I would like to focus on these words from the first letter of St. John: “And his commandment is this: We should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us” (1 Jn 3:23). In so many ways, it seems to me that John gives us our elevator speech. I call this "core Christianity."
Fourth Sunday of Easter
In India, the head priest of parish is called “parish priest”, and his associate is called “assistant parish priest”. In the US, the title for the head priest is “Pastor.” In India, it is the Protestants who call their leaders Pastor. I am torn between the two titles. Parish Priest feels more Catholic. But I also like Pastor because it is more consistent with the New Testament concept of Christian leadership. It is more in line with the way Jesus describes his life and ministry. In today’s gospel reading Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd” (Jn 10:11).
Third Sunday of Easter
I was invited to the 5th grade classroom at our school to talk about the life of a priest. As you know, today’s 5th graders are not the same when I was a 5th grader. They asked me some very intelligent and thought-provoking questions. For example, they asked me, “How did you know that God called you to be a priest?” They also asked me, “What is the best part of being a priest?” I said to them, “I love it that much of my life is dedicated to doing good. I bring Jesus to people when they are ill. I am with families when someone is dying. I prepare young people to get married and have a family. I help people when they are in need. I talk with people when they seek spiritual guidance. I bring God closer to people and people closer to God. I love it!” There was a smile on these kid’s faces as I finished my conversation.
Second Sunday of Easter (Sunday of Divine Mercy)
It would not be an overstatement to say that Jesus revolutionized religion. First, it is unheard of that an all-powerful God would endure betrayals and insults, undergo beating and bruising, tolerate false accusations and judgments, and subject himself to a shameful death of criminals, all to redeem a sinful humanity. What kind of religion is a religion that worships a God hanging on a cross?
Second, Jesus did something equally revolutionary after his resurrection. Jesus revolutionized mercy. Today’s gospel reading reveals God’s intentions. Jesus took the power that belongs to God alone – the power to forgive sins – and shared it with other human beings. Forgiveness is God’s prerogative, but Jesus shared it with his disciples when he said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive and forgiven them and whose sins you retain are retained.” It would be reasonable to say then, that Jesus revolutionized ‘mercy’.
Easter Sunday The Resurrection of the Lord
A question has always plagued my mind. If the birth of Jesus, his life, his death and resurrection was indeed meant to be the turning point in human history, then why is the world still a mess? What really is the implication of the death and resurrection of Jesus? We are here in Church, celebrating Easter! But in various parts of the world violence is still raging, wars are still being fought, children are still dying of hunger, human life is still being unconscionably destroyed, creation is being destroyed by our endless consumerism, and we are yet to understand that all human persons are created equal. Don’t get me wrong. I am not being pessimistic. I am not looking at the glass half-empty. I am not oblivious to the presence of immense goodness in the world. But I question why the stubbornness and hate that killed Jesus still prevails today. Earth could be like heaven. So why is it not? Why did that first Easter not usher in the promised new creation?
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
We are entering Holy Week. On the one hand, Holy Week commemorates the story of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection. However, if we look deeper, it is also our story. Holy week and the story of Jesus, as we heard it in the reading of the passion, recounts the stark realities of the human condition. Within the story we find intense suffering, intrigue, malice, prejudice, hatred, betrayal, bribery, corruption, violence, and murder. But Intertwined in this story is also the life of a man who transformed that tragic story into a story of love, forgiveness, peace and human redemption. He did so by becoming the “suffering servant” of God – a concept introduced to us both in the first and second readings.
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Today’s gospel reading is a fascinating passage, and it calls for some exegesis. I am going to depart from my regular structure of a three-points-homily and reflect on the deeper meaning of today’s gospel.
Fourth Sunday of Lent
Each day, we are writing page of a book, which at end of our lives could be called, “The Chronicles of (Your Name).” I have wondered this week what my chronicle will read like. What will yours read like?
Third Sunday of Lent
Scripture Readings (Year A Reading for Sunday Scrutinies for Catechumens)
This homily is based on Year A Readings for Mass with Catechumens who celebrate the Scrutinies
I have only one niece. And she loves being my ‘only’ niece. She is now married and has two children. When she was about three years old I would often ask her how much she loved me. When she was mad with me, she would hold her two little fingers just a little apart and show me that’s how little she loved me. Most of the time she would open her arms and say, “This much.” One time, I asked her, “Only that much?” She stretched a little more and said, “This much.” This went on for about four or five times until she could not stretch more without hurting. Of course, I just picked her up and covered her with as much love as possible. That is one time in my life when love – pure, simple, and innocent yet overpowering, overwhelming and indescribable totally overcame me.
First Sunday of Lent
To the modern mind, stories like the story of Noah in today’s first reading present more questions than answers. How could God destroy all of creation? After all, it was God’s creation! Is God not a compassionate God? If sin had become so pervasive and oppressive, could God have not sent Jesus then?
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Think about it! We are the fortunate survivors of a pandemic that killed about 7 million people! You remember the COVID quarantine? It affected every aspect of human life – social, economic, religious, family, and educational. Now just imagine a quarantine that would last a lifetime! Perhaps, that gives us an insight into the fate of lepers in the Old Testament and Jesus’ time.
The Epiphany of the Lord
I took this picture of the sunrise on December 21, winter solstice of 2023. The brilliant glowing light of the sun gradually dispelled the darkness of that longest night of the year. Some claim that the choice of December 25 as Christmas Day has to do with the winter solstice. The gradual increase of daylight beginning with the winter solstice is symbolic of the coming of Christ. It connects us with the first reading from Isaiah:
“Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples;
but upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory” (Is 60:1-3).
On the Feast of the Epiphany, I invite you to reflect with me on the Epiphany of Jesus, the Light.