Blessed are you…
In October 2000, I had the privilege of visiting the home village of the late Julius Nyerere, the father of the nation of Tanzania. We were visiting the grave of this great Catholic, now a Servant of God and whose process of beatification is still in progress. In this dusty little village – Butiama, not far from Lake Victoria – world’s great leaders had gathered a year earlier to lay to rest the remains of the first president of Tanzania. It was an awesome experience to note that an African president had spent his early days and the final days in this remote simple location: with no drive, no gates, no green lawn, no mansions. As I stood praying at his grave, admiring the simplicity of the surrounding, I had this thought come over me: here lies a man who lived the Beatitudes!
Jesus, the new Moses
The gospel reading […]
Year A
Year A Sunday Sermons
Sermon for Cycle A – 7th Sunday Homily
“You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Mt 5:48
Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp to be opened. It was basically a forced labour camp. Today it is open to the public. In this memorial site there are different churches and also a synagogue that have been built. What impressed me most during my visit to the memorial site last summer was the Church of Reconciliation. The peculiarity of this church is that its structure has no right angles. The irregular shape is a symbolic protest against the orderly layout of the camp in which all the buildings are set in perfect array. As I was leaving the memorial site, I thought, an exaggerated sense of order could be a sign of neurosis. And it could be life-threatening.
In the gospel passage of today, as Jesus continues his ‘Sermon on the Mount,’ he reiterates, “You must […]
Sermon for Cycle A – 8th Sunday Homily
Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof (Cf. Mt 6:34)
Here in Nairobi, I stay in a community which provides facilities and programmes for youth trainings and retreats. When I was in this community six years ago, we created a labyrinth in the premises. A labyrinth is a maze-like structure in which people walk prayerfully, and often experience peace and tranquillity. The labyrinth that we have constructed is a type of a prayer garden – you go through one entrance, walk all the way to the centre, and then you make your way out of the labyrinth through another path, finally exiting not far from where you entered. As people walk through these winding ways there are stations to stop by, where they are invited to do some simple symbolic actions in a prayerful way. When I wrote the instructions for these stations, little did […]
Sermon for Cycle A – 9th Sunday Homily
It is not those who say to me, Lord, Lord… (Mt 7:21)
“Undeniably, those who wilfully shut out God from their hearts and try to dodge religious questions are not following the dictates of their consciences, and hence are not free of blame; yet believers themselves frequently bear some responsibility for this situation. For, taken as a whole, atheism is not a spontaneous development but stems from a variety of causes, including a critical reaction against religious beliefs, and in some places against the Christian religion in particular. Hence believers can have more than a little to do with the birth of atheism. To the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion” (Gaudium et Spes, no.19).
This was a […]
Sermon for Cycle A – 20th Sunday Homily: Good News to the Nations
Good News to the Nations (Mt 15:21-28)
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
It so happens that I write this from Nairobi, where I am on transit. I travelled fromIndiaa few days ago, and tomorrow I will be travelling to London. Memories of my days inIndiaare still fresh in my mind, even as I closely watch the current riots in the United Kingdomwith some anxiety. 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. The Word of God today invites to examine our attitude towards ‘strangers’ in the light of Jesus’ own mission to the nations.
The current riots of London do not seem to have any explicit racial connotation, but the role of the inability of people to accept strangers and the unwillingness of strangers to feel at home […]