Sermon for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Homily

June 28, 2023June 30, 2023 selvam Year A

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
Discipleship (Mt 10: 37-42)

We continue to listen to the “Missionary Instructions” of Jesus (Mt 10) addressed to his apostles as he sends them out on their mission to the Jewish villages. These instructions also capture elements of discipleship that feature more explicitly in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. There are two important themes, that are related to each other, that emerge in the gospel of text of today. The first part is an invitation to surrender, and the second part is a promise of reward. Let us reflect on these two themes.
An Invitation to Surrender

Discipleship is marked by a sense of clinging to something beyond ourselves. To be able to cling to the master, the disciple has to go through a process of self-emptying. That […]

Sermon for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Homily

June 22, 2023June 24, 2023 selvam Year A

12th Sunday – Cycle A
Do not be Afraid! (Mt 10:26-33)
This is the 2nd Sunday after the celebrations of the Easter festivals and the follow on. This being Year A in liturgy, we continue with the Gospel of Matthew. One of the explicit characteristics of Matthew is that it was written in and for a Jewish community. Hence to understand that Gospel we need to be conscious of the Jewish background. Flowing from this setting, an interesting detail in the Gospel is that Matthew collects various sayings of Jesus delivered at different contexts into a compendium, breaks them into five parts, and places them at five locations, demarking the Gospel into “five-books” symbolically representing the five books of the Torah! Have a look at this:
Part 1 – Sermon on the […]

Sermon for Feast of the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord

June 9, 2023June 10, 2023 selvam Year A

Body to be eaten and Blood to be drunk
Holy Eucharist as a Sacrificial Meal
During the liturgical year there are at least two feasts that invite us to meditate on the mystery of the Eucharist: the Maundy Thursday and the Feast of the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord (that is today!). On the Maundy Thursday, the reflection on the Eucharist is centred on the Passover meal and the institution of the priesthood. In the context of the Easter triduum (the three days of preparation towards Easter), the celebration of the Eucharist of the Maundy Thursday is also emotionally coloured by the impending passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. The feast of today gives us yet another opportunity to contemplate the mystery of the Eucharist.
Allow me to begin our reflection with a very concrete structure in the Church: the […]