Fr. Dominic's Homily

1st Sunday of Advent A

“Stay awake, for you do not know on which day your Lord will come.”

Today we begin the season of Advent and with this we begin the new liturgical year. On this day, the church invites us to be ready and prepared to receive the Lord. Advent means waiting and we wait eagerly for someone we love, we care and we are ready to invest our time on him. In the liturgical calendar, the season of Advent means a joyful waiting, a waiting for Jesus prayerfully, with affection and love. There is the eagerness within us to receive him and we look forward to this great event when God becomes man. However, it is a special kind of waiting for a God who has come already, who is coming regularly into our life and who will come again at the end of time. We know that Jesus came into the world already two thousand years ago, and we remember this event with devotion. We know that he will come again at the end of time as a judge and unite the whole universe to himself. He comes daily in the sacraments and in the Eucharist in a very special way as our food and drink to strengthen us and fill us with his grace. We also prepare ourselves to celebrate the feast of Jesus Christ born among us as a human person in a stable of Bethlehem to be one with us and remind ourselves of the great work of salvation began for us.

In the gospel reading we heard we need to be prepared and stay awake because the lord would come unexpectedly. Jesus reminded the people at Noah’s time, who were absorbed in the earthly things, forgetting God totally. The great flood swept away all except the family of Noah. Today’s world not different than Noah’s time. You have that experience. In the reading, we heard about the Arch of Noah. This prefigures God’s salvific plan which would come through Jesus’ passion death and resurrection. We are saved through his great sacrifice on the cross. He is always with us. Through the Holy spirit, he helps and guides us. He gives us his courage and strength at the time we go through crisis. This helps us to be active and vigilant. Our lord Jesus Christ is sitting at the right hand of the father and ruling the whole world. He would on the final day to judge the living and the dead.

The Second Reading is taken from the Letter of Paul to the Romans reminds us that salvation is nearer to us now. No matter how we look at it, each day is a day closer to the day when we will come face to face with the Lord Jesus. He tells them to live honourably as in the day, not in revelingand drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, they are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ,

32nd Sunday of the Ordinary Time B

“This poor widow has put in more than all others.”

Today’s liturgy of the word challenges us to be true disciples detaching oneself from earthly attachment and live in charity, sharing the love of God with others.

Jesus sitting opposite to the treasury at the entrance of the Temple watched many rich people making offerings of money. They were doing it in an ostentatious manner. They wanted to be seen and admired for their big contributions. While people were vying with each other to display their wealth as they put coins one by one into the box, Jesus observed in the crowd a poor widow offering only two small coins.

The attitude of that woman impressed Jesus and he wanted to show her to his disciples as a model of selfless generosity. “I tell you solemnly, this poor widow has put in more than all who have contributed to the treasury; for they have put in money they have in surplus, but she, from the little she has, put in everything she possessed, all she has to live on.” Jesus was moved by the widow’s readiness to give her whole livelihood, while others gave out of their surplus.

It was not the woman's poverty that made her gift significant for Jesus. For him, it was the fact that this widow, alone among all the contributors lined up to give their offerings, gave her all. The very rich put in much, and the moderately well-off put in a decent amount. But all those who had gone before this widow had limited their giving by holding back a major portion of their money for their own use. This widow stood alone as the one who had turned over, as an offering to God for His use, everything she had -- two coins. Those two, almost worthless coins represented her last shred of security, her fragile earthly thread of hope for the future. With her deep desire to be an obedient servant of God, the widow gave all she had as an offering -- even her future -- for the sake of God. In other words, she gave herself totally into God’s hands, with the sure conviction that He would give her the support she needed.

The story of another widow described in the Book of Kings is also inspiring. It tells us how God rewards your generosity, as you share your livelihood with the hungry. You will experience his infinite generosity in his providential care for you. The widow of Sarepta trusted in God, listening to Prophet Elijah’s words. She baked bread for the Prophet with the handful of flour intended for her last meal with her son at the verge of starvation death. Because of her kindness to the hungry Prophet, God did not let her jar of flour and jug of oil go empty. They were always supplying miraculously until the season of drought was over.

The second reading tells us how Jesus, as the High Priest of the New Testament, surrendered His life to God His Father totally and unconditionally as a sacrificial offering for our sins – a sacrifice far beyond the sacrifices made by the poor widows.

This weekend we are celebrating veteran’s day. Today scripture readings are very fitting for this occasion when we express our gratitude for their selfless service and sacrifices, offered for this great country and for us. In the line of duty, they didn’t think of themselves but this country, us and the world peace. In the course of service, so many of physically and psychologically harmed, even many died.

The Eucharist gives us the perfect model of self-gift in love. It should continually inspire us to live our daily lives with trust in God and commitment in service to our fellow human beings.

The Feast of Christmas A

“God is with us.”

After long forty days’ preparation, we are here to celebrate Christmas, birthday of our lord Jesus. This began as we celebrated thanksgiving, everywhere Christmas decorations, lights and music. As Christians in the Church began with advent prayer, penance and sacrifice. This waiting and preparation picture in lighting different advent candles. Now it is complete. We were very busy doing different things, shopping, cooking, decorating and family coming together. Perhaps, it was wonderful time. This is a beautiful season. On this day, Jesus came to the earth as human beings to make us worthy of God. This is celebration of true God and true man, as our savior and redeemer, born little baby. This is the reason to rejoice.

Tonight’s vigil Mass gospel reading is long. In there, Matthew traces Jesus’ genealogy from Abraham. Though we often skip over these lists of names, the Gospel writers took great pains to compile the genealogies and to make several theological points in the process. Our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a line of ancestors whom Matthew arranges into three groups: 14 Patriarchs, 14 Kings and 14 Princes. The three groups are based on the three stages of Jewish history: i) the rise of Israel to a great kingdom by the time of David, ii) the fall of the nation by the time of Babylonian exile and iii) the resurrection of the nation after the exile. Strangely enough, the list includes a number of disreputable characters, including three women of bad reputation: Tamar, Rahab and Bathsheba. Perhaps the Lord God included these women in His Son's human genealogy to emphasize God's grace, to give us all hope and to show us that Jesus is sent to save sinners. Thus, God's powerful work of salvation comes to us under the appearance of weakness. From the beginning, Matthew's account challenges our human expectations as to how God will fulfill our hopes for endless peace, justice, and righteousness. This was done to show that Jesus is truly a man. He had family, as all humans beings he ate and drank. He also felt joys and sorrows, pains and sufferings.

This is wonderful to see Christians’ making cribs to prepare themselves for Christmas. In this way, it becomes vivid on the earth the coming of Jesus. It was St Francis of Assisi who assembled the first crib in a cave on an Italian hillside. It was in 1293 that the first crèche was erected in the woods of Greccio near Assisi, on Christmas Eve. The crib was ready, hay was brought, the ox and the donkey were led to the spot. Greccio became a new Bethlehem. The aim of St. Francis was to make the Christmas story come alive for the people of the locality. His idea was to show them how close it was to them and their lives. And it seems that he succeeded. St. Chrysostom has said, “The God has become son of man, in order to make us sons and daughters of God.”

But he is also true God. In his gospel, Mathew makes it clear. Before, Mary and Joseph came, she was found with baby. Joseph was confused and thought to divorce her. But in the dream appearing the Angel Gabriel told baby is from above, through the Holy Spirit. We also hear, when Mary went to serve Elizabeth in the hill country of Juda, filled with the Holy Spirit spoke out “How does this happen that to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me.” Even Baby John leaped with joy in the womb of the mother. At the river Jordon, we hear “You are my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.” The Gospel chosen for the morning mass tells us how the word which existed from the beginning became incarnate for us and pitched his tent among us. John tells us that he is the light that shines in the darkness and takes away the darkness from within us. In all gospels, we find testimony of God. Jesus is picture of God on this earth.

This is what we have to understand as we contemplate the scene in the Christmas Crib. That Jesus is the Son of God who adopted human form and who came into our world in order to submit himself to death by human hands. He did this so that in his resurrection he could turn everything to our advantage and so manifest his forgiveness of every human being. This is what Christmas means and it is of the utmost significance for the entire world. It is something that we celebrate and take joy in but it is also something that we know we must proclaim to all those who have not fully understood what it is really about. Our desire this Christmas is that the real significance of the feast permeates our whole lives and changes us. Our wish is that it makes us better people and turns us definitively away from sin. We also want the good effects it has on us to be transmitted to the rest of the human family.

When we continue our celebration, let us be ready to welcome him, look for him and you shall find salvation. True Salvation to the problem of the world is only in him. He only gives us ultimate meaning of life, pain and setbacks. let us read and listen to the word God, try to truly live in accordance with the teachings of Jesus, the Son of God that has come into us. Only then, we shall realize that, together, we could truly build a better world.

A four-year-old girl went with a group of family and friends to see the Christmas lights, displayed at various locations throughout the city. At one church, they stopped and got out to look more closely at a beautiful nativity scene. “Isn’t that beautiful?” said the little girl’s grandmother. “Look at all the animals, Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.” “Yes, Grandma,” replied the granddaughter. “It is really nice. But there is only one thing that bothers me. Isn’t Baby Jesus ever going to grow up…? He’s the same size he was last year!”

Add Text Here...