Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We have seen images of the earth taken from space. From up there, the world looks very different from down here. There is even that Bette Midler hit, “From a Distance.” But even more inspiring for me is the sketch of the crucified Christ by John of the Cross. This is the sketch that inspired Salvador Dali’s “The crucifixion of Christ.” Since I wrote my homily last week, a thought has been ruminating in my mind – that there are two world views: one from down here and one from the cross. Things look different from up there. Everything has to look different from up there. Otherwise, the cross has no meaning.
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
I have titled my homily, “The Good, The Bad, and The Paradox.’ As I read today’s gospel, I see three parts. The first part goes really well. The second half goes really bad. In the third part, we have a paradox. In my three points for today’s homily, I would like to focus on “the good, the bad, and the paradox”.
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
The details in the story of the healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment in today’s gospel (Mk 7:31-37) are truly interesting. We can either read this healing as another one of Jesus’ healings or pay attention to these details and discover the deeper realities at in play. Lets take the latter approach
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
There is a common phrase these days, “I believe in God but not in organized religion.” Or, I have heard people say, “I am a spiritual person but not religious.” More and more people are finding this to be an attractive alternative.
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Finally, after four weekends, we have reached the end the Bread of Life discourse. We could only wish that the discourse ended well. But it does not. It ends letting the readers know that many of Jesus’ disciples “returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (Jn 6:66).
John’s conclusion to the Bread of Life discourse is not merely a conclusion to the discourse. It the end of this section of John and the beginning of a new. Now the plot thickens. The dice is thrown. People will make choices regarding Jesus. That choice will disrupt life. That choice will determine eternity.
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This is the fourth week of our reflection on the Bread of Life discourse. In my introductory homily, I remember saying that there is a movement in the discourse – from physical bread, to the more spiritual Bread of Life, to the Bread of Life as flesh, and then back again to the realism of true food. The Bread of Life discourse begins with physical bread and ends with Jesus saying, “My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink”(Jn 6:55).
That the bread and wine at every Eucharist is truly the body of blood of Jesus is one of the most challenging beliefs of Catholic doctrine. Perhaps, we can find some consolation in the fact that we are not alone in our difficulty. In the early church, John’s community dealt with the same issue. Last week we reflected on Jesus’ words, “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51). The people were quick to ask, “"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" (Jn 6:52).
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” That is the question I am dealing with today. How can the bread of life be body and blood? Is the bread and wine at Mass indeed the Body and Blood of Christ? How does mere bread and wine become the real presence of Christ?
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We are in the third week of the five-week-series on the Bread of Life discourse. We began two weeks back with the multiplication of loaves. Last week, Jesus invited people to transcend the barley loaves and “work for the bread that endures up to eternal life” (Jn 6:27) - the Bread of Life.” In today’s gospel reading, there is yet another transition – from Bread of life to “flesh”. Jesus says, “…the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51).
Today, I would like to reflect on this transition from bread to “flesh.” Here are my three points.
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We are in the second week of our five-week series of the Bread of Life discourse. We began with the multiplication of loaves last Sunday. Today, Jesus takes us beyond the multiplication to “the food that endure to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you" (Jn 6:27). The multiplied loaves was also given by the Son of Man. But there is something different about “the food that endures up to eternal life.”
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
(This Sunday am beginning a five-week series of homilies. For the next five weeks we will hear from the Bread of Life discourse in the gospel of John. Since the name of our Family of Parishes is "Bread of Life/Pan de Vida" Family of Parishes, across all the five churches, I will focus on this Eucharistic theme and draw some practical implications as a Family of Parishes).
The parallels between the stories of the multiplication of bread in today first reading from 2 Kgs 4:42-44 and the gospel of John 6:1-15 are truly stunning, especially since the two books were written about 650 years apart. 2 Kings was written around 550 BC and the gospel of John was written around 95-100 AD.
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Emotions are an important part of human life. Sometimes when I come before God or even celebrate Mass, I am not looking for greater understanding, or an increase in my faith, or an answer to my questions, or an answer to a prayer, or forgiveness of sins. Sometimes, my need is purely emotional. I just want to feel God’s presence. I understand that faith is not mere emotions and emotions are not the most reliable test of faith, but sometimes my spiritual need IS emotional.
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
They call him “God’s influencer,” and the “patron saint of the internet.” I am talking about Carlo Acutis. He was merely fifteen years old. He was born on May 3, 1991, in London, England and died of leukemia on October 12, 2006. In 2020, Pope Francis beatified him in Assisi, and very recently cleared his way for canonization in 2025 during the upcoming Jubilee year. He is hailed as the first millennial saint.
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Right at the outset, I would like to create the link between the first reading and the gospel reading, because it gives us the theme for reflection. God says to Ezekiel, “I am sending you to the Israelites…. Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you” (Ez 2:2-5). The gospel reading has Jesus among his own people and God’s words to Ezekiel comes true yet again. Even though Mark ends his gospel by saying that Jesus “… was amazed at their lack of faith” (Mk 6:6), the passage seems to indicate that people were refusing to believe even though they had seen “mighty deeds brought about by his [Jesus’] hands. The people were being, as God said to Ezekiel, “hard of face and obstinate of heart.”
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.