My yoke is easy and my burden light
While talking to young people, it is not rare to hear this sort of expression: “Oh, I cannot engage in premarital relationship, just because I am a Christian.” The subtext of this line is a perception that Christianity restricts me, it controls me, it is a burden! If some pastors of the Church have given the followers of Christ such an image of Christianity, it is a pity really!
Joy of the Gospel:
Surely, Pope Francis would not like to burden the followers of Christ with the nitty-gritty details of moral casuistry. The Pope said in an interview during the first year of his pontificate (Sept 2013): “The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The Church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed […]
Sunday Sermons
Sunday Sermons and Homilies
Sermon for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Homily
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
Discipleship (Mt 10: 37-42)
We continue to listen to the “Missionary Instructions” of Jesus (Mt 10) addressed to his apostles as he sends them out on their mission to the Jewish villages. These instructions also capture elements of discipleship that feature more explicitly in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. There are two important themes, that are related to each other, that emerge in the gospel of text of today. The first part is an invitation to surrender, and the second part is a promise of reward. Let us reflect on these two themes.
An Invitation to Surrender
Discipleship is marked by a sense of clinging to something beyond ourselves. To be able to cling to the master, the disciple has to go through a process of self-emptying. That is […]
Sermon for 5th Sunday of Easter – Year A Homily
5th Sunday of Easter – Year A
Service at Table and Service of the Word (Acts 6:1-7)
In the first reading of today we have an interesting story of conflict resolution in the early church. Earlier in the Acts of the Apostles we read (Acts 4:32-35): “The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, as everything they owned was held in common.”
Soon, this ideal communal life was threatened by selfishness of individuals and clannish mentality among groups (see Acts 5). In Chapter 6, as we heard in the first reading of today, we have a story of neglect of the minority group in the access to the resources of the community. Hebrews, of course, being the majority in the community in Jerusalem, and […]
Sermon for 2nd Sunday of Easter – Homily
From a Communitarian faith to a Personal Experience of Jesus
Today, as we conclude the octave of Easter – eight day celebration of this great feast – the Gospel passage of today concludes the series of events that we heard read on the morning of Easter, eight days ago. John 20: 1-10 was the Gospel of the liturgy of the Easter morning. It narrated to us how Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, found it empty and came to tell the apostles. On hearing this Peter and the Beloved disciple ran to the tomb, they saw the empty tomb and the linen; and the Beloved Disciple believed in the resurrection. The following section of the gospel of John (20:11-18), the one about Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene was read during liturgy on Tuesday. Today we heard read the remaining sections […]
Sermon for 1st Sunday in Lent – Year A Homily
Temptations: The Journey through the Wilderness
We say that the Season of Lent lasts forty days, as the Latin word, ‘Quadragesima” suggests. When I was a young seminarian – sceptical as I was – I took the calendar and wanted to make sure for myself if there were indeed 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. To my surprise, I found there are actually 47 days. I had reasons to be sceptical, after all! So I had a question for the teacher of liturgy, who, of course, was taken by surprise. Later he came up with a meaningful explanation: even on Sundays in Lent, we celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord, and hence they are not counted as days of fasting and penance. So Lent does have forty weekdays of fasting and penance!
‘Forty’ is symbolic of a generation, a […]