The Christian in Dialogue (Mt 18:15-20)
Faced with an enemy or an unjust aggressor, an animal has basically three possible responses (3 F’s): Flight, Fight and Freeze. Faced with an unpleasant situation we humans too have the these options. What do you do when we come across situations we don’t like in the street, or even in our parish community? But we humans have a fourth option: dialogue. We can use our gift of reason to appeal to others’ reason. We can appeal to the goodness of the heart of others. This presupposes a basic trust in the goodness of human nature itself, namely, that others are capable of reasoning and feeling just as I do.
In the gospel passage, Jesus tells us how we could be dealing with unchristian attitude and behaviour in our communities. It is interesting to note that, in the text […]
Sunday Sermons
Sunday Sermons and Homilies
Sermon for Cycle A – 21st Sunday Homily: Who is Jesus?
But you, who do you say I am? (Mt 16:13-20)
21 Sunday – Year A
In my mother tongue, Tamil, while speaking about great people, speakers and writers often refer to: “the Buddha, Jesus and Gandhi”. These three persons are mentioned as a matter of fact in the same breath. We Christians may feel proud that even non-Christians refer to Jesus as a great man. Looking at it at a deeper level, this expression may not reflect the authentic experience of Jesus.
Who then is Jesus for you? Is he merely a great man? The gospel text of today once again invites us to reflect on this question.
This event – of Jesus asking his disciples – “Who do people say the Son of man is?” and “But you, who do […]
Sermon for 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Homily
Jesus insults a Canaanite Woman (Mt 15:21-28)
Thanks to our easy means of communication and fast means of travel today, many of us enjoy the privilege of constantly coming in contact with people and places that are new to us, that are strange to us, that are different from our own. The Word of God today invites us to examine our attitude towards ‘strangers’ in the light of Jesus’ own mission to the nations. Do we still look at others in terms of in-group and out-group categories?
Jesus, being a man of his culture, also had to refine his own attitude towards the “out-group”. And this ability of Jesus to learn even from a woman of the “out-group”, and his openness to discern the will of His Father through this woman, would determine the […]
Sermon for 19th Sunday: Elijah Encounters God
“After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.”
The gospel text of today – the 19th Sunday in Cycle A – narrates to us how the disciples encounter Jesus walking on the water. The first reading narrates to us how Elijah encounters the Lord God in a “whispering sound” or as NRSV has it, “a sound of sheer silence,” on Mt Horeb. What would it mean for us?
The first question to ask is: what state is Elijah in before the encounter? As soon as Elijah reaches the cave on Horeb, before the encounter, Yahweh asks him, “Why are you here, Elijah?” (1Kg 18:9). Why would the all-knowing God ask a mere mortal such a question? Can’t he see where is Elijah, and what he is doing? And why he […]
Sermon for 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Homily
When you are one with Jesus, you do what he does!
The gospel narrative of the 18th Sunday in Cycle A is about feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish. The story in the gospel reading of today is what follows immediately after that feeding. To understand the meaning of the reading of today, we need to ask an intriguing question: in whose hands did the miracle of the loaves really take place? What do I mean? Did Jesus take the loaves and the fish, put a veil around them or ask the people to close their eyes, and say the magic words, ‘Abracadabra’ (by the way, this is Aramaic – the mother-tongue of Jesus, the equivalent of the Indian version, ‘zee-boom-bah’), pull away the veil, and behold, an […]