How real is your God?
I once had a spiritual director who was fond of asking the question: “What is your God like?” She would then challenge me to go even deeper as she would continue to ask: “What does God feel like for you? What does He smell like? What does He taste like? What does He look like? What does He sound like for you?” Initially these questions seemed silly, and even difficult to answer. Eventually they opened up for me a whole new way of perceiving God. For instance, if you were to ask me: “What does God smell like for you?” I might say something like: “He smells like the fragrance of a cool evening in a hilly area after some showers; the air is fresh; there is a […]
Sunday Sermons
Sunday Sermons and Homilies
Sermon for 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Homily
To understand the impact of ‘persistent worrying’ here is an illustration. Take a pen in hand and hold it with two fingers. Would it be difficult? Not yet? Keep holding it for five minutes. What happens? The pen is becoming heavier, cumbersome, and the centre of your attention. Keep holding it for ten minutes. What is it like? It is unbearable and heavy. You just want to get rid of it. Yes, it is easy to get rid of the pen. But we find it so difficult to get rid of our worries. They hurt, we still hold on to them.
In the gospel text of today, as we continue to listen to his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us: do not worry. Be free!
What is worry? It is the mental process of rumination about a negative experience. It is a […]
Sermon for 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C Homily
Love, Forgiveness, Salvation (Lk 7:36-50)
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Situating ourselves within the Gospel of Luke
During this liturgical year, our gospel readings come from the Gospel of Luke. The public ministry of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke begins in Chapter 4 (vv.14-30) with the proclamation of his mission statement using the words of prophet Isaiah, in the synagogue at Nazareth. “Good News to the Poor”, was his motto. Jesus seems to give a very broad meaning to the word ‘poor’. In Chapters 4 to 6 of Luke, Jesus has been curing the sick and the possessed, being kind to women (Lk 4:38-39), feeding the hungry (Lk 6:1-3), giving hope to the hopeless (Lk 6:17f) and forgiving sinners (Lk 5:20). Yes, sinners too lack something – forgiveness and salvation. (See Lk 7:22 for a concise summary). Meanwhile the Pharisees and […]
Sermon for 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C Homily
Life to the Full (Lk 7:11-17)
10th Sunday in Ordinary Time
After the Season of Lent and the great festivities that followed we are now resuming the Ordinary Time of the Year. We resume from where we had left just before the Ash Wednesday, hence, this Sunday is the 10th Sunday in Cycle C. We will go on in this sequence, listening to the Gospel of Luke, until the Feast of Christ the King.
The first reading and the gospel text of today narrate to us two stories of raising young men from the dead – one by Prophet Elijah and the other by Jesus. There is a similarity between the two stories, namely, both the dead men were young sons of widows. But there are also dissimilarities between the stories. It is important to notice one basic difference that highlights the […]
Sermon for 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Homily
Year of Mercy – Reflection for 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (31 Jan 2016)
(Disclaimer: The following lines are product of pure imagination!)
Mr Pius is a good Christian.
He goes to church even on week days.
He reads the Bible very regularly.
He says all his long prayers very diligently –
even if often he would say them rather hurriedly.
He is an educated man, and he reads even the documents of the Church.
He is aware of the current debates that are going on in the Church.
He is in-charge of the formation of laity in his parish.
He has his positions clear:
The interpretation of the traditional teaching of the Church should not be watered down –
Not even in the name of mercy!
He believes that God is a just judge.
He will punish the wicked in time.
They will be condemned […]