Homilies

Homily for the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time, June 16, 2024

Yet we are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:8  I don’t know how you feel about this personal statement from St. Paul.    Do you find it odd for people to wish to die so that they could be at home with our heavenly Father forever?    Or do you find it rather dark and off-putting?  No matter how we take it, I think that for a healthy person to wish to be at home with Daddy in heaven rather than keep living on this earth indicates that he/she is firmly convinced that

Homilies

Homily for the 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time, June 9, 2024

Today’s gospel passage mentions what is needed, in Jesus’ eyes, to turn a house into a home. Jesus came home with his disciples. Mark 3:20 Jesus and his disciples had been on a mission to preach the good news of God’s Kingdom in many villages and towns. At home, in Capernaum, they were in urgent need of recovering and re-energizing themselves before the next mission. However, the crowds had even more pressing needs: massive needs for healing, for freedom from demonic possessions and the comfort of the good news. Rumors that Jesus was all spent and that he and hi

Homilies

Homily for the Feast of Corpus Christi, June 2, 2024

It is patently clear that the word “blood” is the most revealing word in all three readings of this liturgy. We immediately associate blood with life; while we recoil from the sight of spilled blood as, right away, it conjures up the specter of a violent death. The significance and the message conveyed by blood are evident in the sealing of the covenant between the community (the twelve tribes of Israel represented by the twelve pillars) and Yahweh God (Exodus 224:3-8). The sprinkling with blood indicates that, through a covenant, the community commits itself to

Homilies

Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, May 26, 2024

The feast of the Most Holy Trinity is providential in more ways than one.  The statement I am about to make about it might sound outlandish and preposterous: this feast is providential because a good number of believers tend to reduce God to a manageable size which would make our brand of religiosity convenient and God somewhat “controllable.”  Let us put this unwise thought to rest right away: Our God is in heaven; whatever God wills is done. Psalm 115:3  Already in the Old Testament, Moses tried to get the Israelites to cease attempting to comp

Homilies

Homily for Pentecost, May 19, 2024

Fierce attacks have been, and are, directed mostly against the Catholic Church by those who are hellbent on replacing reality, nature, truth, decency, and common sense with crazy ideologies inspired by the prince of darkness.  Satan’s minions know that the Catholic Church might be the last standing bulwark of morality based on natural law and on the Gospel.  Hence, it should not be surprising that often we get upset, deeply concerned, and even become apprehensive and frightened just watching the news.    Regardless of the issue of the day

Homilies

Homily for Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, May 12, 2024

The Ascension of the Lord Jesus is a Solemnity because for Jesus, as Head of the Body, it marks the crowning of his complete triumph over all our enemies, death included, and his full glorification by the Father. As far as we, members of the Body are concerned, this Solemnity comprises all that the Risen Lord said and did after his Resurrection to prepare all his disciples, across the millennia, to abide in him, to relate to him and to hope in him until their full glorification in heaven by the Father. From the evening of Easter Sunay and for a period of forty day

Homilies

Homily for The Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 5, 2024

As I prepared this homily, I realized that all three readings are building on last Sunday’s readings by insisting on the vital importance of loving.    I became thoroughly scared, with an awful knot in my stomach, because it was difficult for me to come up with verifiable evidence of loving not in word or speech but in deed and truth. (cf. 1 John 3: 18)  You might want to check your love level and see if you get the same feeling I got.  Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God.  (cf. 1 John 4: 7)  This ques

Homilies

Homily for The Fifth Sunday of Easter, April 28, 2024

Here is an official invitation to get a spiritual tune-up. “Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.” John 15:4 It is about daily life lived while being supernaturally grafted to Christ, the way a branch is naturally attached to its vine. Hence, we shall assess our spiritual condition in relation to Jesus as the Vine. The worst-case scenario is the one of those among us who are barely alive, who are on “spiritual life-support.” This can happen for t

Homilies

Homily for The Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 21, 2024

"I am the Good Shepherd.” This simple, yet most powerful statement, reveals the uniqueness of Jesus’ shepherding. Compelled by the realism imposed by life itself, we do not want to dwell on the fact that in countries where there are real shepherds, they raise sheep for profit. The most benevolent aspect of such profit is usually wool and milk. But eventually, sheep would have to be sold and butchered for human consumption. From what Jesus tells us about himself, we can list the following aspects of the Good Shepherd’s mission. He is so devoid of self-interest t

Homilies

Homily for The Third Sunday of Easter, April 14, 2024

Almost every day the news media bring into our living rooms immediate images of harrowing pain, hardships, and death from our country and from other parts of the world.  We love Jesus too much to be able to turn away from those horrible scenes unfazed, unaffected.   The most painful aspect of our empathy for these unfortunate people must be our powerlessness to do something tangible and concrete to alleviate their suffering besides our thoughts and prayers, and the occasional donation.  Today’s readings underscore a very comforting truth: