Pentecost – Feast of the Holy Spirit

May 18, 2018May 19, 2018 selvam Year B

come holy spirit 2 Pentecost: The Feast of the Holy Spirit
The reflection below consists of some straight-forward points. For some of my other sermons for this feast and on the Holy Spirit, click on the links below:

Feast of Pentecost as a celebration of unity in diversity
The Holy Spirit as the God of Surprises
A Reflection on the Holy Spirit within the Trinity
A personal experience of the Trinity

Who is the Holy Spirit?
Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the Trinity who mediates the experience of God in Jesus. Since the enactment of the paschal mystery in the passion, death and resurrection of the Jesus, the Holy Spirit is actively present when a believer has an experience of the Risen Lord. Often this experience may be in the context of the community.
This is what we […]

Sermon for Cycle A – 28th Sunday Homily: C’mon and Celebrate

October 10, 2017October 12, 2017 selvam Year A

celebrations_food_192596_tnb “My banquet is all prepared”: Come on and Celebrate!
Speaking about food and cultures: an African lady, who used to work for an ethnic Indian family in East Africa, once told me: “You Indians take so much time to cook, but you eat it all so quickly.” As an Indian, I had never thought of that! Come to think of it, it seems so true. Our women spend most of their day cooking – despite the grinding machines and ‘mixies’ these days! Traditionally and even now in most Indian families people squatted on the floor while eating, and used their fingers. Both these factors could be accelerating the speed of eating. Yet, in the Indian culture, people sit and talk for long before and after the actual hurried eating. In most cultures a meal is […]

Sermon for 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Homily

September 28, 2017September 29, 2017 selvam Year A

download LOVE
It is said that at the time of Jesus the rabbis could count up to 613 commandments contained in the Law: 365 were prohibitions (don’t do this!) and 248 were prescriptive (do this!). Some of the rabbis considered all these commandments to be equally important, while others continued to debate to identify the most important commandment. That is why the Pharisees and Sadducees had reasons to ask Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment of the Law?” even if their intention was only to put Jesus to the test. Apparently Jesus gives an answer that is similar to those given by some of the rabbis. For instance, there is a story about one rabbi Hillel, who lived a few years before Jesus. A ‘pagan’ went to rabbi Hillel and challenged him, “I will believe in the value of Torah, if you […]

Sermon for 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Homily

February 23, 2017February 24, 2017 selvam Year A

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 […]

Sermon for 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C Homily

June 9, 2016June 10, 2016 selvam Year C

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 […]