This wake homily for Mr. John Gokongwei, Jr. was delivered on 11 November 2019.
I was instructed by Robina to keep this homily short, so like an obedient Jesuit, I will keep it short and sweet.
No doubt, in the next few days, much will be said about Mr. John. People will certainly talk about his extraordinary life, for indeed it has been an extraordinary life on so many levels.
This reflection is based on Luke 20:27-38.
As always, a trick question from his enemies elicits not only a clever answer from Jesus, but also an argument for the afterlife. The Sadducees present the Lord with an unlikely but not implausible scenario: If a woman widowed seven times ends up marrying seven brothers, whose wife will she be at the resurrection?
This homily delivered in Loyola House of Studies is based on Luke 14:25-33.
My first thought this morning after reading the Gospel was: I should have checked out the Gospel reading first before accepting the invitation to preside at this Mass.
Our homily today is based on Luke 19:1-10.
The encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus has got to be one of the strangest–and funniest–scenes in the Gospel. So we’re told our Lord is, as usual, on his way somewhere, followed by the usual massive crowd. Then without any warning, he stops in his tracks, looks up–and, we can imagine, all the people around him instinctively looking up as well–to see, of all things, a man straddling a branch, hiding behind its leaves.
This reflection is based on Luke 18:9-14.
Today’s familiar Gospel story reminds us of God’s boundless mercy for sinners, but also His dissatisfaction with self-righteous Pharisees–those of us who tend to look down on others and exalt ourselves at their expense. As our Lord reminds us:
“…whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
