Tag Archives: 2011 Catholic Homily

Nov 19 2011

Is Christ really the King of my Life?

Homily for the solemnity of Christ the King 

November 20, 2011

Last week I went to garage sales around Bendigo area in Australia. I was struck by the many things people can acquire only to realize later on that they don’t actually need them. So they would want to get rid of them. It is good though because there are people  also out there who need those things. In fact I got a couple of things which I really need to have…one is my golden watch I am wearing now for the price  of $3, would you believe it.

Why am I telling you all this? What does it have to do with our solemnity of Christ the King?

The feast of Christ the King is established in 1925 to counteract the growing trend of atheism and secularism at the time. Yet these trends are still here in our day and age. Together with these trends is the rise of materialism. It is true that not a few people think that material things can satisfy all our longings. It is sad that for many, Christ is no longer the KING in their lives. It is an unfortunate fact that even for us, we tend to show more allegiance on something else but CHRIST himself. We have this other ‘king’ or ‘kings’ in our lives, whom we devoted more time, more energy, or more money than we do to our REAL king in Heaven.

Our Gospel today, tells us of Christ, our real KING who would come in the clouds and judge us according to how we serve him as our REAL KING, and on how we serve God in our fellow human beings around us. Jesus would recount for us how we fed the hungry, how we quenched the thirsty, how we clothe the naked, how we welcomed the stranger and on how we visit the sick and imprisoned.

But there is an interesting point in our gospel that makes me reflect how must I strive to be worthy of heaven when Jesus comes again. Both sides, i.e. the sheep and the goats, asked Jesus same question: ‘Lord when? When did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, etc?’ It seems like they didn’t know at all. It appears that they were not aware what they have done or what they have not done.

It is because their attitude towards the needy is already part of their nature. If things are already natural for us, most of the times if not always, we take things for granted. We don’t pay much attention on what we are doing. We don’t make such a big deal for it. This is indeed a call for us now: if we have not developed it yet, to create an attitude of caring, loving, serving and giving towards our brothers and sisters in need, and make it a part of our nature. I  have met some people whose heart is naturally inclined to help people that they don’t care how much would it cost them as long as they can help the needy. Of course, we have to do this in freedom. So we can also do the opposite, but in  the end of our lives we just can’t help but face the bad consequences of our neglect and omission.

Our celebration of Christ the King therefore calls us to make Christ the center of our life again. We can do this by letting go of  those other ‘king’ or ‘kings’ in our lives whom we swore allegiance to. If we put Christ as the driving force of our lives, we find out that all those things we think we need are not they lose their value but rather they just fade into the background.

Today we pray with humility that God would make it part of our human nature the values of the kingdom of God: the value of loving and caring service to our needy brothers and sisters and to live out these values by using the means and the resources that we are lucky to have and possess.

All for the greater glory of God. Amen. 

Nov 12 2011

Homily on the Parable of the Talents

Homily for 33rd Sunday in Ordinary time 2011 (Year A)

There was a young Filipino guy who was born from a very poor family. At a young age, he was forced to work to support his mother and all his 5 siblings after his father left the family for another woman. He worked in the dangerous streets of General Santos City in the Philippines selling breads and other bakery goods. But he realized that he had something more to offer to the world than just being a street vendor. He discovered he had a passion for boxing. He worked for it, nurtured it with his incredible speed and the amazing power of his left hand. To cut the long story short, through boxing he earned the name not only for himself or for his family but also to all Filipinos everywhere in the world. Because of his firm determination to develop what he’s got, Emmanuel or Manny Pacquiao as he is popularly known, is now one of the inspiring figures in the Philippines. Because of his absolute determination, he becomes the only boxer  in the world to earn world titles in eight weight divisions. Aside from that he is now one of the billionaires in the Philippines. In fact tomorrow he is playing again in Las Vegas against a Mexican boxer. But one thing that struck me of him, is that despite his overwhelming wealth, he  doesn’t forget who puts him to where is now…Just before every match he had, he would stay on one corner of the ring, makes the sign of the cross. And every after match, he would have a holy mass said in the hotel  where he stays, to thank God for  what he had done.

Why am I telling you all these?

Because our gospel today invites us to make use of our talents and abilities according to what God has given us. Like Manny Pacquiao, we all have something more to offer to the world. Each one of us has something not to be kept for ourselves but to share it and invest it. As in our gospel today, the master entrusts his servant a certain capital to develop. Isn’t it an amazing thing, that God entrusts us of certain skills, talents, abilities to develop? And if we examine carefully our gospel, the master punished the third servant NOT because he misused his talents, but because he didn’t do anything about it. He didn’t invest it. Yes, God wants us to make use of what we have and on what we are here for. In the end he doesn’t expect us to be PERFECT in using it. He just wants us to make GOOD use of it, whatever it might be. This is  therefore a point for our self-examination.

How to make use of our TALENT?

I would suggest the word TALENT as an acronym.

First T- TRY. There is no harm in trying they say. Sometimes we are afraid to try because we think we might fail. We just have to take time for it. Jesus would tell us the same thing today in the person of the Master, ‘INVEST it while ‘I’m gone.’

Second A- Accept. Whatever talent we have, God gives us that because he knows that we are capable of developing it. We just have to accept this. The opposite attitude to this is envy. We envy  other people’s success because they have something which we don’t have. God want us to be who we are, not to be who we are not.

Third L- Love it. It is very important to love our skills. The athletes, the successful people did not just become successful overnight. Because they love what they have, they developed it, by making sacrifices, discipline, and self-control. They are willing to sacrifice for love of who they are and for who they can become.

Fourth E- Engage. Engage with people. We must share our talents. Not one person here or in the whole world can  honestly claim, that he or she has got all the talents God can give. This is so  because we need each other. We need to engage with each other and grow together.

Fifth N- Nurture it. We need to train ourselves, to practice, to do every possible way we can to make the best of our talents. We can nurture it through our relationships with others…not to become the JACK of all trades but a Master of None.

Sixth letter is  T- the most important one, THANK GOD for his gifts to us, for entrusting us his riches.  Yesterday, I watched the News of Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas as he prepared for his fight tomorrow, he had a bible study with his whole entourage and he said words to this effect: “Sometimes if we are very successful in life, we tend to forget God, we tend not to thank him for his help. But in all our successes and even failures in life, He is always there, with us.”

So, as we continue the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, let’s pray that God moves us to discover our unique, individual and personal talents. Let’s us also pray that he would help us to TRY, ACCEPT, LOVE, ENGAGE NURTURE, and TRUST Him by THANKING HIM for his trust on us. Amen.

Jul 9 2011

Reflection for 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

15th Sunday of the year

A middle-aged woman walked into the slums of a large city. She had two dollars in her purse, had no income, and no place to stay. All she had was deep conviction that God was calling her to doing something for the poor in that area. And she felt certain that, if the call was really from God, that he would provide all that was needed. She was convinced later that it was God calling her to do something special, thus she declared, ““I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith.”

That woman was Mother Teresa. She founded the  Religious Order called  Missionaries of Charity, whose mission was to care for “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” To date her legacy continues to flourish and cherished by many having over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries in the world.

Friends, Mother Teresa is one of  the many ‘heroes’ of our Christian faith, who had really listened to the word of God, accepted it, embraced it, nurtured it. We know, that because of her willingness and openness to the word of God, she bore fruit a hundredfold. It was just because she accepted the word of God with an open heart, trusting that God will really provide whatever she needs in her mission to care for all people, regardless of color, race, religion, status, etc. She listened to the pleading of a dying person hanging on the cross, ‘I thirst.’ For her, this is the Word of God, and truly is. She listened to the word God faithfully and now we believe she is in  the company with the saints in heaven.

Our Gospel today  tells us of a parable of a God as a sower who  is sowing seeds on his field. This is a rather unusual gospel since here, Jesus explained the meaning of the parable, unlike the other parables in the gospels when the audience are expected to figure out what the parable means.

We know and our experience can affirm this, that God speaks to us in many and varied ways. Sometimes it’s hard to take in. Sometimes, it’s do-able, and sometimes impossible. Sometimes we might say, “God must be crazy,” if he wants us to do this or  to do that. But no, it is not the issue for God. The real issue is in us, on how we take in his words. As Jesus explained in the gospel, it depends on our disposition, on our attitude towards the word of God. True, we can say, “Oh it’s the only the saintly people who can take the word of God, with an open heart, with total trust and absolute acceptance.” Yes, it is difficult for us, but it is not impossible.

Furthermore, in our day and age, it is a big challenge to listen to the word of God very well. We have ‘google’ to answer our questions. We have shops to go to and to buy our needs and wants. We have places to go and enjoy and break the monotony of life. We have PC, i-phone, ipad, ipod, that would break our boredom by listening to music or whatever. So, what else do we need? Or we say, “I couldn’t hear God speaking to me or anything.” Yes, maybe because of all the different voices and noise in the world that hinder us from listening to God. Yet, no matter how loud the voice and noise of the world today, God’s voice always prevails. And we can tell this. No matter how rich we are, no matter how updated we are in terms of modern technologies, no matter how famous we are, no matter how safe we are, at the end of the day, especially when alone, we feel this inner longing, craving for something deeper and meaningful, we feel certain emptiness within.

This is for me God, calling us to a deeper union with him, to a personal relationship with him. He continually calls us everyday. He always speaks out his word to us everyday, in every aspect of our lives, in whatever we do, wherever we go, whoever we are. Whether we listen to it with open heart, or we play deaf to it, it always leaves something in us, as Isaiah would tell us today in the First Reading, “As the rain and the snow come from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth…so also with the word of God…”

How to listen the voice of God today amidst the different voices and noise in the world? Few Practical hints: 1. Get a Bible, read it not all at once as in a novel, but reflect on certain passage. 2. Spend some time with a good friend and talk about what’s happening in your life. 3. Reflect on your life’s experiences, go to a retreat or a recollection. 4. Review your life’s priorities. 5. Go to Church, and be one with the community, listening to God speaking in, through and on behalf of the assembly. 6. Develop a daily meditation on the Scriptures, or spiritual reading. 7. Read the Lives of the Saints.

There are just but few of the million other ways and means through which God speaks to us. Like Mother Teresa, we are invited to listen to God speaking to us in and through our unique, personal and individual circumstances, capacities and abilities. Likewise, we are also called to reflect on our attitude, our disposition towards God’s call for us. Let this be our prayer today. And if we accept God’s word with an open heart and respond to it faithfully, according to His will, we can be assured that He will be our guide, our counselor, our best friend, our provider, etc. Mother’ Teresa’s life is a concrete testimony of this faithful response to the word of God.