Monday, June 16, 2025 - Homily

 

Monday, June 16, 2025 - How often have you gone beyond the call of duty? Will you do so today?

To read the texts click on the texts: 2 Cor 6:1-10; Mt 5:38-42

The text of today contains the fifth antithesis. In it, Jesus not only affirms the thrust of the Law in opposing unlimited revenge, but also calls for a rejection of the principle of retaliatory violence as well.. In the five examples that follow (being struck in the face, being sued in court, being requisitioned into short-term compulsory service, giving to beggars and lending to borrowers) the one point being made is to place the needs of others before one’s own needs. The disciple of Jesus is called to go beyond the call of the Law and do more than it requires.

It is so easy for us to be reactors. If someone does something to hurt us, we think that it is “natural” for us to want to do something to hurt him or her in return. In the text of today, Jesus is calling us to be actors and not reactors and to do what we do because we think it is right and just and not as a reaction to someone else’s action.

Sunday, June 15, 2025 - Homily

 

Sunday, June 15, 2025 - Oneness in Difference and Difference in Oneness

To read the texts click on the texts: Prov 8:22-31; Rom 5:1-5; Jn 16:12-15

Trinity Sunday might also be termed Mystery Sunday. This is because the focus on this Sunday is solely on God, and God is a mystery. He meaning of a mystery is that there is something about it that we can know, but there is also a great deal about if that we do not and can never know. We can also know who God is through the revelation that Jesus Christ has made as Paul points out in the second reading of today. However, even as we do know something about God it is always important to realize that God will continue to remain a mystery and that there is a great deal that we do not and can never know about God because our minds are too finite to know the Infinite God. Much as we try to understand and define who God is, we keep in mind that we will always fall short. As a matter of fact, the more we try to understand the more we realize that we simply do not know. This does not deter us. Rather it makes us keep wondering about the mystery of God. We as Christians are fortunate that God has been revealed to us in a unique manner in the person, mission, death and resurrection of Jesus and that much of what we know of God, is through the revelation that Jesus has made.

The first reading from the Book of Proverbs includes part of this revelation when it introduces Wisdom as both part of the ordering of the created universe and its delight. Just as creation is both intrinsic to God and an expression, delight is intrinsic to the relationship within the Trinity as well as its effect. The reason for the choice of this reading is to show that Jesus as Wisdom is both the love and delight of God. Toward the end of her life, Julian of Norwich penned this short but profound exchange which can be regarded as a summary of the first reading: “Would you know your Lord’s meaning?” she asks. “Know it well, love was God’s meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did Love show you? Love. Why did Love show it? For love.” God is love and only love.

This is also the love that Paul speaks of in the second reading of today when he tells the Romans and us that God’s love has been poured into our hearts because of Jesus Christ and the Spirit that Jesus gives. This love made manifest on the Cross by Jesus Christ is a love through which a new relationship is established between God and the whole of creation. It is a love that is unconditional and given freely and a love which helps us to endure all and any kind of trial and tribulation.

The ability to undergo trials is because the Spirit that Jesus promised his disciple and gave is a life giving Spirit. It is not something given at a moment in time but continuously and constantly. The gift of the Spirit ensures that those who believe in Jesus will not be left alone but will always have help and assistance. It is an indication that God’s presence in Jesus will be with the community of disciples always. This constant presence of the Spirit of God made manifest in Jesus is an indication that God is not for the Christian one who is merely Creator, but also Redeemer and Sustainer. God is Father, Son and Spirit and Almighty God, Word made flesh and Comforter. God is past, present and future. God was, is and will be. God is all and in all.

Even as this eternal presence of God with us and for us is true, it is also true that three persons in one God indicates community, unity and inclusiveness. God does not exist in isolated individualism but in a community of relationships. In other words, God is not a loner or a recluse. This means that a Christian in search of Godliness must shun every tendency to isolationism and individualism. God is found in one’s heart but also in community and in relationships. Since God is present in the now and in the world, it is right and fitting to find God in all things and all things in him. Thus, the ideal Christian spirituality is not that of flight from the world away from contact with other people and society but an immersion into the world with a view to transforming sorrow to joy, injustice to justice, negatives to positives, darkness to light and death to life. It is a spirituality which seeks to transform fear into love.

Since love is Universal, there is no one who is outside the kingdom of God.

We are all connected and interconnected. Yet, though the Trinity is united it also embraces diversity. We are not required to be the same. We can be different and yet united, we can be different and yet one, we can be different and yet integrated. We are asked each of us to offer our unique gifts for the good of the community. There is unity even in diversity. There is oneness even in difference. There are three persons yet one God.

Saturday, June 14, 2025 - Homily

 

Saturday, June 14, 2025 - When you say, “YES” do you mean YES?

To read the texts click on the texts: 2 Cor 5:14-21; Mt 5:33-37

The fourth of the six antitheses is completely a Matthean composition. There is no precedence for the absolute prohibition of oaths in Judaism. Rather, an oath invoked God to guarantee the truth of what was being sworn or promised, or to punish the one taking the oath if he was not faithful to his word.

The Matthean Jesus here rules out oaths completely. He rejects not only false and unnecessary oaths, but also any attempt to bolster one’s statement claim to truth beyond the bare statement of it. It is a demand for truthfulness in everything that one says.

If we are convinced that we are telling the truth as we see it, there may not be any need for us to either raise our voices when making our point or to swear or even to call others to witness what we have said.

Friday, June 13, 2025 - Homily

 

Friday, June 13, 2025 - Will you bother less about your “doing” and focus more on your “being”? How?

To read the texts click on the texts: 2 Cor 4:7-15; Mt 5:27-32

The text of today contains the second (5:27-30) and third (5:31-32) of the six antitheses (5:21-48), which appear in the Sermon on the Mount immediately after the theme. All six while addressing various aspects of the law move the focus away from the letter to the spirit. Each of the six begins similarly i.e. with a juxtaposition of what was said (by God through Moses) and what is now being said (by Jesus to his disciples).

In this pericope, Jesus reaffirms the prohibition against adultery (Ex 20:14), but goes beyond i.e. to the intention of the heart.

The third antithesis about divorce is related to the earlier one about adultery in subject matter. Deut 24:1-4 assumes the legitimacy of divorce, and in Jewish tradition divorce was relatively easy to obtain. Jesus, however, prohibits divorce. Matthew alone adds the exception clause, not found in Mark 10:2-9 which here is more original and reflects the position of the historical Jesus.

There is sometimes in our understanding of Christianity too much emphasis on what constitutes and does not constitute sin, and on how far we can go before we commit sin. The real question we must ask is how far we must go in love.

Thursday, June 12, 2025 - Homily

 

Thursday, June 12, 2025 - Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest - We can be united even in our diversity

To read the texts click on the texts: Isa 6:1-4,8; Heb2:10-18; Jn 17:1-2,9-14-20

The feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Eternal High Priest was instituted in 2013, to remind us of the High priesthood of Jesus Christ and the effect of that priesthood on the whole world. John tells us succinctly of the purpose of God’s sending his Son into our world “‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:16-17). This is why God chose the name Jesus for his name because the name means “God saves” (Mt 1:21). God in Jesus is Saviour.

Besides being Saviour, he is also high priest., When he spread his arms on the cross, he did it to embrace the whole word. Paul explains this well when he says to the Corinthians, “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us” (2 Cor 5:19).

The Gospel reading chosen for the feast is from the latter of the Priestly prayer of Jesus in Jn 17. In these last verses, Jesus prays for his disciples and for us who will believe because of the disciples’ word. If the content of this party of the prayer can be summarized in one word, it would be Oneness, Harmony, Unity, Union. Just as the Father, Son and Spirit are distinct yet united, so are we called to that Unity even in diversity. We do not need to eb uniform to be united., We can be separate and distinct and yet we can be united. We can be of different colours and creeds, we can be of different nationalities and backgrounds and yet we can be one united humanity.

In our world which is torn because of division and strife, we pray that the feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest will be an occasion to come together as one family of humans and be united even in our diversity.