Mary sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak
16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Lk 10:38-42)
One of the realities that we notice in urban life today, across the globe, is speed. Speed. Having spent my recent years in cities like London and Nairobi, I feel sucked into speed. I get into a car every morning and rush to work. Every evening I get back into the car and drive – either cursing the slow driver in front of me or being pushed from behind by a driver who is in a hurry. While in office, I read emails from people who want replies today! Others want a report immediately. Still others let you know of meetings and programmes just now. Meanwhile I want to multitask: producing an article for publication, preparing my lessons, answering phone calls, and replying […]
Sunday Sermons
Sunday Sermons and Homilies
Sermon for 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Cycle C Homily
Start off now, I am sending you out…
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Lk 10:1-12, 17-20)
A few years ago, a priest wrote a short reflection in the Diocesan Newsletter of the Archdiocese of Nairobi, Kenya. The reflection was entitled, “Away with Motorcars and Aeroplanes”. The point that he was trying to make in that provocative reflection was that early missionaries had to walk long distances on foot; some others used mules or horses for their journey. They had to use ships to cross oceans. It was much slower in terms of speed, but their message was deeper and far-reaching because of their earnestness and passion. Since many missionaries had to walk they had personal contact with the people; and wherever they stopped over in the course of […]
Sermon for 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C Homily
Follow the Kingdom with a Single-Minded Devotion
There are several films on Jesus. Each movie has its own take on the life and message of Jesus as narrated by the Gospels and, sometimes also, using extra-biblical sources. One of my own favourite films on Jesus is Jesus of Nazareth, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, and produced by Rai-Uno, the Italian TV Channel. In fact, it was originally produced as a TV serial in1977, and later distributed in film form in different languages.
There is one particular scene in that film, that is worth recalling here in the context of the gospel text of today. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” they say. Even with the limitation of words in comparison to image, let me attempt to describe the scene: one evening, Jesus and his […]
Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Trinity – Cycle C Homily
Feast of the Holy Trinity – Year C
Three Persons in One: The God of relationship
Social scientists these days are pointing out the increase of spirituality in the contemporary world, a spirituality that is not only distinct but often separate from institutional religion. According to one author, spirituality refers to individual and personal experiences that are related to “a search for meaning, for unity, for connectedness, for transcendence, and for the highest of human potential.” This spirituality may or may not include belief in a personal God. Some of the people, who follow this path of spirituality-outside-religion, consider ‘god’ in terms of an energy or a universal soul. What could be lacking in such a position is the belief in God who is a person!
The feast of today, once again reminds us […]
Sermon for Pentecost – Cycle C Homily
Are we ready to be surprised by God, the Spirit?
Feast of Pentecost
Positive Psychology (PP), an approach in psychology, focuses on ingredients of human wellbeing and happiness. For instance, PP has a list of 24 character strengths and 6 core virtues that are said to play an important role in human wellbeing. This ‘catalogue of sanities’ – as they call it – is nothing but a list of the cardinal virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit (similar to Gal 5:21-22; Eph 4:2-3). PP has a questionnaire to measure individual’s level of these character strengths. An interesting finding is that, in the present global population, ‘humility’ is one of the less developed character strengths. Some time last year I took the test and I must ‘humbly’ confess that humility featured as the least developed character strength even for […]