He taught them with authority (Mk 1:21-28)
4th Sunday in Ordinary time – Year B
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Varieties of Authority
I don’t know if you have watched those old black-and-white fast moving films from the time of the Second World War. Often they show Adolf Hitler addressing large crowds of people. Hitler always spoke with much authority. This has been caricatured by Charlie Chaplin in his The Great Dictator of 1940. Recently, I came upon the acceptance speech of Mother Teresa when she was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in 1979. She too speaks with much authority. But she begins her speech with the prayer for peace attributed to St Francis of Assisi: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace!”
So, it seems that there are different types of authority. There […]
Author: selvam
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Sermon – Year B Homily: Repent and Believe!
3rd Sunday in Ordinary time – Year B
Repent and Believe in the Good News
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Little Johnny was basically a good boy. But he had this problem with his temper. He had his bouts of anger that surprised everyone. His mother used to tell him, “Johnny, you are making it difficult for people to love you.”
So, on the New Year day, he made a resolution: “I am not going to get angry anymore.” He went to the back garden, piled together a heap of earth, put a cross over the heap, and wrote on the cross, RIP. His mother and sister were wondering what Johnny was trying to do. Johnny solemnly declared, “This is the grave of the old Johnny. Mum, today I am […]
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Sermon – Year B Homily – Come and you will See
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B
They went… and stay with him (Jn 1:35-42)
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What is the core of Christianity? I asked myself this question after being a Christian for almost forty years. Better late than never!
Is the core of Christianity, being good? My mother always told me to be good. “If you behave well, God will love you!” She said. This was a way my mother convinced me – I convinced myself – to follow Christian morality. Is Christian morality, enshrined in the Ten Commandments, the core of Christianity? At a particular stage in life I realized that Christianity is not merely a moral system. Morality is only one aspect of it. And, Christian morality is not based on just obeying rules, […]
Sermon for the 2nd Sunday in Advent – Year B Homily
2nd Sunday of Advent – Year B
John the Baptist: the one who knew his space
One of the persons that the Liturgy of the Word during the season of Advent draws our attention to is John the Baptist. Evangelist Mark presents John the Baptist as a person who resisted the temptation to be more than himself (in fact all the Gospels): “In the course of his preaching John the Baptist said, ‘After me is coming someone who is more powerful than me, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’ (Mk 1:7, 8). From the narrative of Mark, there are three qualities that stand out in John the Baptist: his […]
1st Sunday of Advent – Year B Homily: Integration
Waiting for the Lord: from rigidity and chaos to integration
1st Sunday of Advent – Year B
In some of our institutions in Asia and Africa we have watchmen or security personnel. I am talking about the day-watchmen particularly those who mind the gates, not the night-watchmen, who are actually paid to sleep in our properties! (The only night-watchman I have ever come across who we knew was not sleeping at night actually went mad after doing his job so conscientiously for three months.) In any case, I think, there are three types of watchmen – sorry for not being gender-sensitive here, since I have also come across security women these days! There are the rigid ones; there are the chaotic ones; and then the integrated ones. The rigid ones prefer to stand […]