The King on a Donkey en route to Die
Today we begin the week of weeks in the liturgical calendar: the Holy Week. Today we begin the commemoration of the high points in the history of salvation: the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus – the Paschal Mystery. Today we accompany Jesus on his solemn entry into Jerusalem where he will suffer, die and rise again. And this day is a day of contradictions.
The King on a Donkey’s Back: Jesus is on his final journey to Jerusalem. It is going to be a solemn entry, almost as a King is about to enter to take possession of his capital. And the procession begins at the Mount of Olives – the mount that is be the stage for the ultimate Day of the Lord (according to Zechariah 14:3-4), the day of […]
Sunday Sermons
Sunday Sermons and Homilies
Sermon for Cycle A – 3rd Sunday of Lent
The Living Water
3rd Sunday in Lent – Cycle A
As I have pointed out in my reflection of last week, during the first two Sundays of Lent every year we have the same themes. The gospel text of the 1stSunday of Lent is always about the temptations of Jesus – from the three synoptic Gospels according to the three year cycle. Similarly, the 2nd Sunday of Lent invites us to reflect on the story of Transfiguration. The remaining three Sundays before the Palm Sunday in Cycle A are special. The gospel passages are taken from the Gospel of John and they develop three central themes of our experience of Jesus that are particularly important for the catechumens – those adults who are preparing to be baptised during Easter:
Jesus, the Living Water (Jn 4: the Samaritan woman) – 3rd Sunday of Lent
Jesus, the Light […]
Sermon for Cycle A – 2nd Sunday Homily
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
Finding our space in the Universe:
The Life Journey of John the Baptist (Jn 1:29-34)
Christmastide is now over and retailers have special Sales. Because, retailers hate ordinary time. They try to make even ordinary time into something special. Hence the reduced prices!
In the liturgical calendar, we are back to the ordinary time. But even in our gospel reading there is an attempt to make the liturgy of today special too. Perhaps it is just to remind us that every Eucharistic celebration is special! As we are in Year A, we should have been listening to the Gospel of Matthew. But our gospel text for today came from the Gospel of John, as is the case every year on the 2nd Sunday […]
Sermon for 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Homily
27th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)
“We have done no more than our duty” (Lk 17:5-10)
The Spirituality of Daily life
In the late 1990’s, CNN, the American news channel, ran an ad in the print media that made a deep impression on me: not necessarily to watch CNN – which, of course, I do sometimes, but about the spirituality of daily life. The two page ad had this large truck in the foreground which was on fire. At one of the corners of the photograph there was this elderly person who was throwing a bucket of water on the blazing truck in an attempt to put off the fire. And the caption read: “History is not made by kings and presidents; but by ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”
The Liturgy of the Word on this 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time invites us to reflect on the sacredness […]
Sermon for 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C Homily
Seek the Things that are in Heaven
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Lk 12:13-21)
The story that I used in my sermon last week, I was told, was very appropriate. So, again I begin with a story from Tony de Mello:
“What stone?” asked the sage.
“Last night I was told in a dream that if I went to the outskirts of the village at dusk, a sage would give me a stone that would make me rich forever.”
The sage rummaged in his sack and, pulling out a stone, he said, “Your dream probably referred to this one. I found it in the forest yesterday. Here, it’s yours if you want it.”
The man gazed at the stone in wonder. It was the largest diamond in the world—the size of a man’s head.
All night he tossed about in bed. At break of day he woke […]