Homily Archives 2007

• Christ The King - We bring the Church’s liturgical year to an end with a flourish. We remember the dearly departed since it is the month of November, we remember all the wonderful gifts ( both successes and crosses) as we celebrate with a flourish the feast of Christ the King. In doing this, we look with hope for a new tomorrow, one of Grace and Dreams and Visions.
   
• Thirty Third Sunday - Our readings today are an Advent before Advent. In advent, we will hear John the Baptist say, “prepare ye the way of the Lord & you know the “every mountain and every valley” bit. Today we are also called to be prepared. The Day of Lord is at hand. It will be a day of judgment, terror and torment for the unjust. But for the righteous, it will be a judgment day when justice will finally be done. The problem is we wonder to which group we belong. Will we be like stubble and burnt up, or will the Sun of righteousness bring healing in its wings?
   
• Thirty Second Sunday - Personally I have been trying to live this all my life with a greater or lesser degree of success. “All things on this earth have been given to me by God. And so I pray Psalm 8:  When I consider the heavens the work of your hands, the moon and the stars which you have made, what are we humans that you keep us in mind, mortals that you care for us?
   
• Thirty First Sunday - “Lord you love everything that exists.” John Paul II on the 4th March 1979 at the beginning of his pontificate wrote these awesome words in the encyclical Redemptoris Hominis. “You are a unique, irreplaceable, unrepeatable representation of the face of God to your people.”
   
• Thirtieth Sunday - Like the prayer of the Publican is the one of faith: since the Lord hears the cry of the poor, we will bless the Lord at all times. It is with this courage, like Paul we live out our Christian lives to the full. Like Paul we will pour out our Christian Life as a sacrifice, as a libation - to the praise and honour of a God who has loved us from before all time.
   
• Twenty Eighth Sunday - Gratitude as we know from experience is a blessing both from the one who shows it and the one who accepts it. It supports, encourages and empowers the one who has done the good act
   
• Twenty Seventh Sunday - Paul tells us to be unashamed of the Gospel. There is a price to pay. Jesus was nailed to the cross. Paul is in prison. Timothy will suffer. Everything that is worth anything comes with a price.
   
• Twenty Sixth Sunday - Some of us have very little but we hoard and protect it as if our lives depended on it. In fact we do not possess these “treasures”, they possess. And in that sense we are the Rich Man in the parable today. And in that sense we are those that Amos called: “those in luxury, lying upon beds of ivory, anointing themselves with the best oils, drinking wine from bowls.
   
• Twenty Fifth Sunday - It is true that we must be doing something, and something tangible. But it is important to realise that we can follow the example of Jesus who spent the night in prayer before any major decision.
   
• Twenty Fourth Sunday - “When he saw the son, The Father ran out to meet him”.
   
• Twenty Third Sunday - “Give me a wise heart”.
• For Grownups
• For Children
   
• Twenty Second Sunday - “Humility leads to Trusting in God”.
   
• Twenty First Sunday - The Salvation of God is open to everyone, even those we consider the undesirables. It seems to gall us a lot that we have tried so hard. We come for Mass on Sundays, we go to confession regularly, we are there helping at every Parish Bazaar, we put in our weekly collection envelopes.
   
• Twentieth Sunday - And so the argument and strife goes on. And this is only one of the issues. The sad thing is that both are well intentioned, and very generous and hard working. But they are also very stubborn and will not give in. And so standing up for RIGHT, CORRECT, JUST ...
   
• Nineteenth Sunday - If you needed two words to summarize today’s message from the readings, they would : faith and faithfulness. Faithfulness being the fruit or result of faith.
   
• Eighteenth Sunday - In our gospel, we hear Jesus speaking in the same vein. Here is a rich man who has success and wealth. And he dream dreams and plans to carve his name in stone and buildings. The emphasis has shifted a little. Here Jesus speaks about how unpredictable our life is. We are here to day and gone tomorrow. Actually, many of us even though we do not have the riches of the man in the Gospel, still plan and dream like him.
   
• Seventeenth Sunday - Ask and you will receive. Lord teach us to pray. Today, I went to the library to get something on prayer. It was not a major library - just the one in a small religious house. There was a shelf with almost 200 books on prayer. Where do I start? So I returned to Abraham in our first reading and Jesus in the Gospels. Three qualities struck in the two accounts on prayers.
   
• Sixteenth Sunday - Our readings are connected with the theme of hospitality and welcome. Abraham welcomes Strangers, Paul speaks of including (welcoming) the Gentiles, Martha welcomes Jesus to her house.
   
• Fifteenth Sunday - The Story of the Good Samaritan is probably the best known Parable after the Parable of the Prodigal son. In fact the “good samaritan” has become a part of the English language as a person who helps those in need. Our familiarity with this parable may perhaps cause us to misunderstand or even miss the shock, the drama and the bitter contrast intended by Jesus when he told this parable. In today’s world it would be like ...
   
• Fourteenth Sunday - What do we celebrate and where do we find our joy: The Disciples come back full of joy. They declare the wonderful things that they have accomplished. They boast that even the demons submitted to them. Jesus however, tells them, they should celebrate and find their joy in the fact that their names are in the Book of Life, rather than in the miracles they have accomplished.
   
• Thirteenth Sunday - There is a sports company called Nike. The motto of the company is “Just do it.” Those words seem to best sum up the message of our Scripture readings this Sunday.
   
• Corpus Christi - There are three wonderful stories in our readings which are connected with the Eucharist ...
   
• Trinity Sunday - Therefore, one is the divinity, the power, and the substance of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but three are the persons or hypostases distinguished from one another by their proper characteristics, which are all in the order of relation; hence in God everything is one, except where the opposition of the relation dictates otherwise.
   
• Pentecost Sunday - So then as the Angels said to the Apostles - what are we waiting for... we must get up and proclaim. We must get up and go forth. We must as the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus rise up at that late hour and hurry back those 11 kilometres and more to tell of the great things the Lord has done for us.
   
• Fifth Sunday of Easter - Because of their faith and their constancy, the believers are promised eternal life. This vision of hope for the future is seen in our second reading from the Book of Revelation. It is the same hope that was given to the People of God in the old Testament through the prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah. For us in our time, the Visions of the future is God’s promise of a creation of a new world.
   
• Fourth Sunday of Easter - Nowadays we have other factors that get in the way of listening to Jesus. First there is the attraction of the secular world: Eat drink and be merry. The immediate pleasures get in the way of the promise of eternal life. Secondly, our minds and ears are so full of noise: I-pods and cell phones, 24 hour sports channel and politics, these tend to get in the way of “being still and knowing that our Lord is God and there is no other.” Thirdly: The line between good and evil is blurred, we have lost our moral sense and prophets who show us the right path are scorned and ignored as they were in the Old Testament.
   
• Third Sunday of Easter - On this Second Sunday of Easter, one cannot help but be drawn to the Story of Thomas. He stands defiant. I will not believe unless I put my finger into the holes made by the nails. He stands contrite. "My Lord and my God." However, in that attraction to Thomas, we may fail to see that the Second Sunday of Easter is almost like Christmas or a Birthday. There are gifts galore.
   
• Second Sunday of Easter - On this Second Sunday of Easter, one cannot help but be drawn to the Story of Thomas. He stands defiant. I will not believe unless I put my finger into the holes made by the nails. He stands contrite. "My Lord and my God." However, in that attraction to Thomas, we may fail to see that the Second Sunday of Easter is almost like Christmas or a Birthday. There are gifts galore.
   
• The Road to Emmaus - As we look at the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus, we see a pattern of our own lives as we live it out in 2007.  First there are two Disciples and they are leaving Jerusalem. This is not just a physical place, a spot in geography. It is symbolic. This is the beginning of our Church. This is where Jesus was lost in the temple, this is where Jesus healed the man who was ill for 38 years, this is where Jesus drove the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, this is the place over which Jesus wept. This is the place where Jesus celebrated his last supper, giving us the Eucharist and the Priesthood.
   
• Easter Sunday - Like Peter and the Apostles, we want Jesus to come in a perfect package. We want him to cure the lame and blind and deaf. We want him to cure the sick, especially our families if they have cancer, Alzheimers, Parkinsons or some crippling sickness. But Jesus has a sense of humour he does not come in the way we expect him. He is the God of Surprises. We would have expected him when he rose from the dead...
   
• Good Friday - God calls the suffering Servant his friend. This Friend is Jesus Christ who died for us on the Cross. As a servant, Jesus was obedient and as St. Paul says, "obedient unto death." As a friend, Jesus loved God and all of us very much, so much that he was willing to do anything for us.
   
• Holy Thursday - Holy Thursday is not so much a Word to be heard, but a mystery to be experienced. I "see" the reluctance of Peter to have his feet washed, and relate to my own experience of those areas in myself.
   
• Fourth Sunday in Lent - Theme: The Lost and Found - The Elder Son became angry and refused to go in. He was filled with bitterness. It seemed so unfair. He had worked like a slave, he had kept every one of his father’s commands. And this is the result !
   
• Third Sunday in Lent - Theme: Be on your guard. I know that there are still some monarchists around. They will stand at attention to “God save the Queen” When it comes to the Queen, there is a certain protocol. You do not speak, unless she addresses you. You absolutely, emphatically, definitely do not touch the Queen.
   
• Second Sunday in Lent - Theme: Jesus was transfigured. The Temptations and the Transfiguration. We begin Lent with these two Events in the life of Christ. We can relate to Temptations and sin, we have been there and done that. The story of the transfiguration seems to be a different story. This is not an every day experience for us and hence it is beyond the grasp of both our understanding and imagination.
   
• First Sunday in Lent - Jesus is faced with temptation - “When I am faced with temptation, the first thing I check is my physical health. The second thing I do is to share these problems with my spiritual father. Thirdly, I trust in the Lord who constantly said, “Fear not.” or “Be not afraid.”
   
• Seventh Sunday - Our readings today open up a whole set of practical and theological questions that cannot even be listed let alone answered during this homily. We have David whose life has been endangered on at least four different occasions.
• Sixth Sunday - Theme: Blessed are you..
• Version 1
• Version 2
   
• Fifth Sunday - When Isaiah says that he is not worthy because he is a sinner, or Moses says that he keeps on stammering and stuttering and hence they are unsuitable, God takes the initiative and removes their impediments!
   
• Holy Family - Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, and we ask our blessings on our own families and those who have supported us in our journey of faith. Each one of us has a personal experience of family. For me it was my father and mother, and brothers. It is still a happy family. I did not consider it a full family, because I did not have any sisters. But the family also included the extended members of grandmother, aunts and uncles.
   
• Christmas Day - May your hearts be filled with God's pure joy, May your gatherings be filled with laughter, May hour home be filled with God's great love, May His gifts of peace and love be yours to treasure this Christmas. Wishing you peace and joy.Holy Family - Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, and we ask our blessings on our own families and those who have supported us in our journey of faith.
   
• Third Sunday in Advent - And so John gives us a challenge: “he who has two shirts give it to him who has none. Such a simple, practical thing. But it is not something that we are familiar with, some something we are used to - and it makes us a little jittery. It is a challenge to risk, a challenge to be insecure, a challenge to live simply, a challenge to go against the Season of Excess...
   
• Second Sunday in Advent - John the Baptist takes centre stage on the second and third Sunday of Advent. He has a supporting cast of St. Paul and usually one of the prophets. His message is the same. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”
   
• First Sunday in Advent - But we are here on this First Sunday in Advent, with grim reminder that we should be ALERT, be on guard against the dissolution of life, drunkenness and dissipation. Jesus has just spoken about the destruction of Jerusalem at the very beginning of this chapter.