Sermon for 1st Sunday in Lent – Year C Homily

March 8, 2025March 8, 2025 selvam Year C

The 3Ps: Pleasure, Possessions, Power!

1st Sunday in Lent – Cycle C
We say 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 (including Easter). I had reasons to be sceptical, after all! So I had a question for the teacher of liturgy, who himself was taken by surprise. Later he came up with a meaningful explanation: even on Sundays in Lent, we celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord, as we do every Sunday; and hence they are not counted as days of fasting and penance. So Lent does have forty weekdays […]

Sermon for 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C Homily

February 21, 2025February 21, 2025 selvam Year C

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
Christian Perfection is Compassion

Recently, I led a team of colleagues from our college on a benchmarking visit to another Catholic-led University. We were amazed at the way the university grounds were so clean. In our conversation with the Vice Chancellor, we asked him what the secret was. He spoke about the founding Vice Chancellor of that institution who would pick up pieces of rubbish, if any, as he walked up and down the corridors and the lawns. Eventually, everyone – staff and students – started to pick up the wrappers and pieces of paper around, and they also stopped throwing them around. By and by the university community got into a culture of cleanliness that is so impressive to this day. In the beginning days, […]

Sermon for 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Homily

January 18, 2025 selvam Year C

God is here: There is abundance! (Jn 2:1-11)
What I have always admired in African weddings is the spirit of abundance! There would be a lot of noise, plenty of food, and overflowing drinks. Of course, singing and dancing would not be wanting. In the first wedding I ever attended in Africa, I requested a drink – I do not remember if it was a bottle of beer or a ‘soda’! As I kept enjoying the spectacle that was going on all around us, and trying to engage in a conversation with my neighbour, I had finished my drink. At one point, as I turned round I saw a new, full, opened bottle of the same brand of drink that I had just finished. This time I slowed down my drinking pace. Meals were served. After the meal I managed […]

Sermon for Epiphany

January 3, 2025January 4, 2025 selvam Year B

Epiphany: God is made visible!
(Mt 2:1-12)
Watch a Video Reflection by Selvam on the Journey of the Magi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2hI1Maf8-M
In most cultures, one of the games that children play is “hide and seek”, with many variants – tag, sardines, or hidey (in Scotland). There is a lot of fun in finding hidden objects and people! God seems to play ‘hide and seek’ with human beings.
Isaiah cries out, “Oh God of Israel, you are a God who lies hidden” (Is 45:15). And the Psalmist prays, “It is your face Oh Lord that I seek, hide not your face from me” (Ps 27:8b,9). This was the situation of the old dispensation. But suddenly there is a surprise in the history of salvation. God is made visible in the form of a little babe.
Today’s feast, my dear […]

Sermon for Christmas – Homily Year A, B, C.

December 25, 2024 selvam Year A

And the Word became flesh (Jn 1:14)
Christmas – Liturgy of the Day
The language of God
A young man was intrigued by this question: what language does God speak? He asked people around, what is the language of God? And no one was able to offer him a satisfactory answer. So the young man undertook a journey going in search of the answer to his all important question. His first stop was a village. He asked the people there: what language does God speak? None of them could answer the question. “But,” they said, “there is a holy man who lives on the hill outside our village who perhaps has the answer to your question.” So the young man went to the holy man. Holy, for sure, he was. And the man said, “Look around you. See the beauty of creation: […]