Friday, September 5, 2025 - Homily

 

Friday, September 5, 2025 - Are you afraid of change? Why?

To read the texts click on the texts: Col 1:15-20; Lk 5:33-39

In Luke, this episode about fasting continues from the previous one (5,27-32) in which after the call of Levi (5,27-28), Jesus eats in Levi’s house along with tax collectors and others. This table fellowship leads the Pharisees to murmur. Jesus responds with a common proverb about only the sick needing a physician and then emphasises that he has come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance (5, 31 – 32). Luke omits Mark’s introduction, which informs us that John’s disciples’ and the Pharisees were fasting, and thus allows the conversation of the previous scene to continue. In response to the comment that John’s disciples like those of the Pharisees fast and pray, Jesus responds with a metaphor of a wedding feast and the inappropriateness of the guests fasting while the wedding is in process and the bridegroom is with them. While in Mark the new or unshrunk cloth is sought to be sewn onto an old garment; in Luke the cloth is first torn from a new garment and then sought to be put onto an old garment. In Luke the destructive effect of tearing the new garment is highlighted. Lk 5,39 is exclusive to Luke and brings out the closed attitude of those who do not want the new. They prefer to stick to the old because they feel comfortable with it and are not willing to change or see things from a new perspective. They insist that the old is good.

It is not always easy to accept change. We prefer to do things the old way and feel comfortable when things remain the same. We must realise that the only thing that is permanent is change and we must get used to it. While we need not change just for the sake of changing, we must be open and receptive to change and be ready to change when we have to.

Thursday, September 4, 2025 - Homily

 

Be grateful

Thursday, September 4, 2025 - What do you think Jesus is calling you to today? Will you answer his call?

To read the texts click on the texts: Col 1:9-14; Lk 5:1-11

The call of the first disciples in the Gospel of Luke is different from the other Synoptic Gospels. While in Matthew and Mark Jesus calls to them when he was passing by the Sea of Galilee, here he is in Simon’s boat. While there are similarities between this account in Luke and the account of the miraculous catch in John 21, 1-4, there are also differences. The most striking difference is that Luke uses the story here as the setting for Simon’s call to follow Jesus, whereas John uses it to show that Peter was reconciled with the risen Jesus after having denied him. While in John, Jesus is not in the boat but on the shore, here in Luke he is in the boat. In John there is only one boat, that in which the disciples are, here there are many boats. The nets in Luke are beginning to break, but John explicitly mentions that despite the large haul, the nets did not break.

The point that Luke seems to make is that following Jesus on his way will entail a completely different life style, will call for a different set of priorities. Where Simon and the others were focusing on fish (material, temporary, passing things), Jesus calls them to focus on people (spiritual, permanent, things that last).

The beginning of my monthly address to the students of Grade 10 and Std ...

Wednesday, September 3, 2025 - Homily

 

Wednesday, September 3, 2025 - Will you find the time today, “to be”, so that “your doing” will be more efficacious? How?

To read the texts click on the texts: Col 1:1-8; Lk 4:38-44

The reading of today allows us to encounter a Jesus who was busy day and night “doing” and yet a Jesus who would manage to find the time “to be”.

The first of the three scenes that form part of this section deals with the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. Since in Luke this healing takes place before the call of the first disciples, he does not mention Andrew, James and John as Mark does (Mk 1,29). He also probably uses this healing to prepare for the call of Peter, which he narrates in 5,1-11.

In the second scene, Luke depicts a Jesus who would heal people at all times of the day or night. While the demons use the title “Son of God” to identify Jesus, Luke himself informs the readers that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. Luke seems to have taken the silencing function from Mark because it is not clear in his Gospel as it is in Mark, why Jesus would not allow the demons to speak.

 

In the third and final scene of this section, Luke portrays a Jesus who would find time to commune with his Father. He portrays a man of action and yet a man of prayer, though he does not explicitly state here that Jesus prayed. Though the crowds want to prevent Jesus from leaving, Jesus is clear that he must go on to other places as well, for the kingdom belongs to all.

This Jesus is the one who challenges us today to be men and women who derive our strength “to do” from “the one who is and will always be”.

Tuesday, September 2, 2025 - Homily

 

Tuesday, September 2, 2025 - Will your actions speak louder than your words today? How?

To read the texts click on the texts: 1 Thess 5:1-6,9-11; Lk 4:31-37

Immediately after leaving the synagogue, Jesus works a miracle. This miracle is the healing of a man possessed by a demon, thus putting into action immediately the manifesto he had spoken about.

This exorcism is the first of the four exorcisms in the Gospel of Luke. The unclean spirit refers to Jesus here as Jesus of Nazareth and as the Holy one of God, which is a title Luke has taken from Mark, since it does not appear again in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus exorcises the demon with a command.

It is interesting to note that the people who witnessed the miracle refer to it not as an action but as a teaching simply because there was never a separation between the words and deeds of Jesus, there was never a separation between what Jesus said and did.