The God who offers me a second chance
3rd Sunday of Lent (Lk 13:1-9)
Is the God you believe in, a coach or a referee? What does a coach do, for instance, in the context of football? He trains his team before the match. He is there during the struggle of his team. He may not play the game, but he encourages, gives directions. He may shout at the players, but only for their own good. Generally, the coach is concerned with the quality of the game and how well individuals and the team have played it.
On the other hand, the referee expects you to know the rules of the game and just to obey. He is not concerned with the results of the game. For him, a good team is that which has obeyed the rules – blindly.
Do you feel your […]
Sunday Sermons
Sunday Sermons and Homilies
Sermon for the 2nd Sunday in Lent – Cycle C Homily
Towards an experience of Jesus
For almost five years I was privileged to live at the foot of Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa. Every morning we looked up with a great expectation if the snow-capped peak would show itself. When it did, my day would begin by spending a few minutes just admiring its grandeur. For the Chagga people of Tanzania, who live around Kilimanjaro, this once a volcanic crater is the abode of God: ‘Kilima cha Ruah’ – as they called it! Mountains are seen as locations of God-experience in many traditional cultures, and in many of the world religions. It is not by chance then that one of the classical works of St Johnof the Cross is called, The Ascent of Mount Carmel (1579); and more recently, Thomas Merton entitles his autobiography as, The Seven-Storey Mountain (1948).
The […]
Sermon for 1st Sunday in Lent – Year C Homily
The 3Ps: Pleasure, Possessions, Power!
1st Sunday in Lent – Cycle C
We say the Season of Lent lasts forty days, as the Latin word, ‘Quadragesima” suggests. When I was a young seminarian – sceptical as I was – I took the calendar and wanted to make sure for myself if there were indeed 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. To my surprise, I found there are actually 47 days. I had reasons to be sceptical, after all! So I had a question for the teacher of liturgy, who, of course, was taken by surprise. Later he came up with a meaningful explanation: even on Sundays in Lent, we celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord, as we do every Sunday; and hence they are not counted as days of fasting and penance. So Lent does have forty weekdays […]
Sermon for 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C Homily
8th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
When it comes to conversion, it is I first!
In one of his daily sermons (on 19 May 2017), Pope Francis said, some people “use rigidness to cover weaknesses, sins, personality flaws, and they use rigidness to rank themselves above others.” The Pope suggested that people who are rigid about their faith tend to live double lives. On another occasion, the Pope said, concealed by rigidity there is always something else! That’s why Jesus uses the word ‘hypocrites!’ “They appear good because they follow the Law; but behind there is something that does not make them good. Either they’re bad, hypocrites or they are sick. They suffer!” he said.
In this context, someone recently drew my attention to the results of a research carried out by the Harvard B-School […]
Sermon for 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C Homily
How Happy Are You… (Lk 6:17-26)
6th Sunday in Ordinary
A few years ago, on a Saturday in February I was travelling from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam. My companion on this 1000 kilometre journey was a priest. Both of us had sermons to preach the next day. At one point during the journey, the priest friend asked me, “Selvam, have you by chance looked up at the gospel text for tomorrow?” “Oh yes, it is the Beatitudes from Luke,” I said. And he seemed to be sure of himself as he said, “Oh… the Sermon on the Mount!” My immediate reply was, “No, not really! In fact, it is a sermon from the plains!”
Often when we look at Gospel texts we easily say: oh yes, I know it. For instance, […]