Homilies

Homily for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinal Time, November 13th, 2022

Last Sunday we found out that people like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who have been dead for thousands of years, are alive and well in God’s endless embrace. Likewise, we were overjoyed to learn that all our loved ones are alive to God for he is the God not of the dead but of the living. In other words, death, our worst and most feared enemy, has no power to snatch anyone from God’s loving hand. Quite the contrary, death places the names of all those who have died marked with the sign of faith, into God’s book of Life. And today, Jesus urges us to persevere so tha

Homilies

Homily for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinal Time, November 6th, 2022

Today’s readings are tailor-made to strengthen our faith in the resurrection. It must be our conviction that this life on earth is only the first chapter of a life that will never end, that cannot end for those who love God and are the objects of his love. When he was near death, he said, "It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him" 2 Maccabees 7:14 I would like to strengthen our faith by sharing with you, briefly, the story of a wonderful woman whom I know. She is the mother of four boys and two girls. Like eve

Homilies

Homily for the 31st Sunday in Ordinal Time, October 30th, 2022

In a way, Zaccheus had it much easier than we. He knew viscerally that something was amiss; that’s why he had decided to go and see who Jesus was. He was so determined to see Jesus that he disregarded decorum by running and by climbing a sycamore tree just like a playful kid. It might be much more complicated for us. We might spot a Zaccheus or two among our acquaintances, but chances are, we do not see ourselves as a modern-day Zaccheus. Now, if we do not see ourselves as a Zaccheus, we are missing out on the lasting joy that Jesus can bring into our life. Zac

Homilies

Homily for the 30th Sunday in Ordinal Time, October 23rd, 2022

Today is World Mission Sunday. We pray for the missionaries in distant mission lands and our brothers and sisters whom they serve, and support them financially by putting some money in that pink envelope we picked up last Sunday. Having done all that, would we be good for another year, until the next World Mission Sunday? In our Country, the sad fact is that few in the hierarchy and among the faithful remember the crucial truth “that the Church is by its very nature missionary.” (Vatican II). This bold, sweeping statement, written nearly 60 years ago, has yet to

Homilies

Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinal Time, October 16th, 2022

Today, Jesus teaches us “The necessity (for them) to pray always without becoming weary.” Luke 18:1 Psychology 101 tells us that, in case of repeated failure, the desired outcome cannot be attained unless the stimulus is reinforced by some success. This concept seems evidenced in our modern, fast-paced world of instant gratification as so many people grow weary and stop praying unless they get quickly what they want. But I think that Jesus is trying to delve into the very core of prayer: Prayer as a vital necessity equal to air, food, water, and anything else w

Homilies

Homily for the 28th Sunday in Ordinal Time, October 9th, 2022

At least a couple of times a year we find this miracle with which we are so familiar. We know that it is about the need for showing gratitude for what Jesus does in our life and about His desire to be thanked by us. However, if we remember that the original setting for just about any passage of the Gospel is Eucharistic, we might discover a new way of looking at this miracle and benefit from it when, in the past, we might have turned to the next page a bit too quickly. We soon discover a story that fits well any corner of the world, any situation of pain, in an

Homilies

Homily for the 27th Sunday in Ordinal Time, October 2nd, 2022

In the Our Father we learned to pray: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” A better translation would be: Do not subject us to the test. I have yet to find a single person on the face of the earth who likes to take tests, and exams. They can all be unforeseeable, unpredictable, and unpleasant. The prophet Habakkuk (1:2-3; 2:2-4) knew a thing or two about the tests of life and how they can weigh us down, even crush us at times: How long, O LORD? I cry for help, but you do not listen! I cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not intervene. 3 Why

Homilies

Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinal Time, September 25th, 2022

When Jesus told this story of the rich man and Lazarus, his audience must have cringed in disbelief and shock. The reason was simple: his contemporaries were convinced that prosperity was clearly God’s reward for a good life and, vice versa: they thought that a miserable life in straits and poverty was the result of dissolute living. Hence, what is the message of Life that Jesus wants to convey to us by retelling this shocking story? One thing is for sure: that no one of us here present lives the caricature life of decadence and self-indulgence described in t

Homilies

Homily for the 25th Sunday in Ordinal Time, September 18th, 2022

I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Luke 16:9 What could possibly be the meaning of such an obscure phrase? Evidently both back then and nowadays, dishonest, and heartless people are not heeding Jesus’ advice. They are totally focused on making money in any possible way, unmindful of how many people’s lives they might destroy in the process. In today’s gospel passage we are confronted by an unusual way of creating a relationship with others. We receive a strange sugges

Homilies

Homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinal Time, September 11th, 2022

Today’s readings, obviously, deal with losses: how we handle our losses vis-à-vis how God handles his losses. Personally, my heart breaks whenever I see on TV the anguished faces of those struck suddenly by natural calamities, or fire. Perhaps clenching a few pictures in their hands, they face the camera and say something like: “We lost everything. This is all we have left of our life.” What we feel in similar circumstances is compounded by our ability to do very little to help them. We feel almost as powerless as when we are confronted with a mother who has just