Eucharist: Mystery of Incarnation Enacted
Why did Jesus use bread and wine – mere objects of food – to institute the Eucharist? I offer two possible reflections on this mystery.
The enactment of the Mystery of Incarnation: In the gospel of today, in the discourse that follows the multiplication of loaves Jesus would say,
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51).
As we know, this passage has clear allusion to the Eucharist. Earlier in the same passage Jesus compares the Eucharist to the manna that the people of Israel ate in the desert (Jn 6:49-50). Though Jesus says analogically, Eucharist is bread that came down from heaven we know that the Eucharist does not fall from the skies as […]
Sunday Sermons
Sunday Sermons and Homilies
Sermon for 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C Homily
Who do you say I am?
Who am I? This is the question that we all start asking consciously right from the age of reason. But it has its beginnings perhaps even earlier, as infants when we are weaned and begin to walk, becoming independent and separate from the mother. This identity question becomes even more acute during adolescence at the threshold of becoming adults. I am not too sure what it could mean for the elderly. As I live through my 40’s I see certain serenity come over me as I ask myself: Who am I? The feeling about that question is unlike it was in my teens and twenties, and even in my thirties.
In answering the question of ‘who am I’ we rely on the help of others. Basically we define ourselves […]
Sermon for 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B: Version 2
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B
Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me (Mk 10: 47)
The gospel story of this Sunday has many meaningful aspects for meditation. For another version of my reflection on this gospel story <<CLICK HERE>>.
In the reflection below I focus on this powerful prayer: “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me”, which is also referred to as the “Jesus Prayer”. The devotion of using this prayer in contemplative practice originated in Egypt in the 3rd Century CE among the earliest groups of Christian monks popularly known as “Desert Fathers and Mothers”. It simply consisted in repeating continuously a version of this prayer: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.” It was for the purpose of this prayer […]
Sermon for 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B Homily
Feeding the Soul: “Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever” (Jn 6:58)
Walking down the high streets of our cities today, you wonder, how our contemporary culture is so much obsessed with the human body. Even those traditional commercial establishments that catered to our basic needs for food, clothing and medicine have taken different forms. Grocery shops are giving way to restaurants, tailors are being replaced by designer clothes, and medical stores are adding on beauty products. What amazes me is the bourgeoning industry of body care and cosmetics. From the toes of our feet to the hair of the head, we spend so much of our resources to care for our bodies. The care of skin, hair and nails is no more just a luxury for the rich. Spas and Jacuzzi are […]
Sermon for 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B Homily
“He… began to send them out” (Mk 6:7)
It was Pope Paul VI who began to speak about new approaches in evangelization, in his post-synodal exhortation: Evangelization in the Modern World (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1975). This was to be an adequate “response to the new challenges that the contemporary world creates for the mission of the Church.” Pope John Paul II began to explicitly use the term, “New Evangelization” and to advocate it very energetically in his writings, speeches and pilgrimages. Following his footsteps, Pope Benedict, and now Pope Francis continue to do the same.
What is happening all over the world, I think, as a response to this call of the Popes, is a new impetus in evangelization that […]