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:

Homilies

Homily for The Second Sunday of Easter, April 7, 2024

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." John 20:19  The first thing that might strike us as relevant in this passage from today’s gospel could be that the doors of the Upper Room were locked.  Yet also in this environment of defeatism, fear and failure, the Risen Lord says: "Peace be with you."  It is a greeting repeated more than once and, thus, becoming almost an order given to convince u

Homilies

Homily for Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024

The book of Genesis tells us that, at the end of each creation day, the Lord God, stepped back to admire his handiwork and declared it “good.” However, at the end of the sixth day in which he created male and female human beings, stepping back, the Lord God declared his masterpiece “very good.” This must have been the reason why, St. Irenaeus (130-202), bishop of Lyon, wrote this famous phrase: “Man fully alive is the glory of God.” St. Irenaeus knew that to give the glory due to our Creator God, as disciples of Christ, we ought to live our ordinary, daily life,