Category: HOMILIES

This homily is for the Feast of the Sto Nino.

I’m not exactly a big fan of the Sto. Nino.  When I was a kid, my sister had her own private altar that featured many religious statues and pictures.  You name it, she had it.  It was a virtual nightmare for any born-again Christian.

It had a huge wooden crucifix with a bloody corpus, a small replica of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo, several images of the Blessed Mother—Lourdes, Fatima, Perpetual Help, among other titles—and last but not the least, it had the Sto. Nino in a glass case.  I remember almost all the images elicited a religious feeling in me—all the images, that is, except for the Sto. Nino.

This homily is based on 1 Samuel 3:3-19 and John 1:35-42.

In the First Reading today, we have the somewhat charming story of young Samuel who mistakes God’s voice calling to him as coming from his master Eli. After being roused a third time from his sleep, Eli realizes it must be the Lord and directs Samuel to answer, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

When I googled this line, here’s what I found:

This homily, based on Luke 2:16-21, is for New Year’s Day and the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.

Today, New Year’s Day, there is one line that comes to mind. And I love saying it: “The best is yet to come!”

Yet it’s not always something easy to say–and to believe!

Not when things aren’t quite right. And especially not when the way the world is turning out isn’t quite to our liking–or the way people behave is, to say the least, bewildering–or to tell it like it is, disheartening.