To understand the impact of ‘persistent worrying’ here is an illustration. Take a pen in hand and hold it with two fingers. Would it be difficult? Not yet? Keep holding it for five minutes. What happens? The pen is becoming heavier, cumbersome, and the centre of your attention. Keep holding it for ten minutes. What is it like? It is unbearable and heavy. You just want to get rid of it. Yes, it is easy to get rid of the pen. But we find it so difficult to get rid of our worries. They hurt, we still hold on to them.
In the gospel text of today, as we continue to listen to his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us: do not worry. Be free!
What is worry? It is the mental process of rumination about a negative experience. It is a […]
Year A
Year A Sunday Sermons
Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
9 November 2014
Rarely do we have a feast such as the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica replacing the Sunday celebration. The liturgical tradition of the Church places a lot of importance on dedication of churches. For instance, when it is the anniversary of the dedication of a Cathedral church (the principal church of the diocese which has the chair of the Bishop), it can be celebrated as a solemnity on a Sunday. The Basilica of St John Lateran is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Rome – the mother of all churches. Why do we celebrate the dedication of a church? In the Catholic tradition, the church building is not just a hall for fellowship. It is a sacred space. It […]
Sermon for Cycle A – 30th Sunday Homily: Love
Love!
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A
(Ex 22:20-26; 1The 1:5c-10; Mt 22:34-40)
I write this reflection fromKigali,Rwanda. It has not been that easy to write this for several reasons. TodayKigalilooks very beautiful – perhaps the most beautiful African city I have ever visited. People are all smiles – very friendly and cordial. But in 1994, this was the epicentre of the grotesque story where neighbours and friends turned against each other. In a matter of three months almost one million people were killed, just because they belonged to two different social groups. As much as 20% of the population was wiped out in a nation that boasts of perhaps the highest Christian population in the African continent: with almost 95% Christians, and 56% Catholic!
It is easy to raise questions about how these Christians lived the commandment or love, or failed to practise it! Doing a soul-searching myself, I know, I […]
Sermon for Cycle A – 27th Sunday Homily: Tenants of the Vineyards
“The kingdom of God will be taken from you”:
Protecting against Spiritual Redundancy
In the corporate world, often people are laid off from jobs in the name of ‘redundancy’ when the company wants to downsize its operations. Hence redundancy cannot be taken to be a statement on the ability of individuals. However, one needs to be smart enough to fight redundancy in the competitive world, for instance, by updating oneself. And what about the spiritual world? Are you protected against spiritual redundancy?
Three parables of the Vineyard. In chapters 20 and 21 of the Gospel of Mathew we come across three parables; and all the three use the image of the vineyard. These parables, which we have heard read in these three Sundays (25th to 27th Sunday), have a sequence of teachings of […]
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
The Cross of Love, Healing and Challenge
Often the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross would fall on weekdays. This year it happensto fall on a Sunday, and because it is a Feast of the Lord it takes precedence over the Ordinary Sunday of the Year. It is a feast that is celebrated across the mainline churches, including the Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican traditions. It commemorates the legend of the finding of the ‘true cross’ by St Helena in 326 AD, and the subsequent dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335. In any case, the feast offers us an opportunity once again to contemplate the mystery of the cross. The cross – “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1Cor 1:23) – is the central symbol of our Christian faith. Let us focus on […]