Category: HOMILIES

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HOMILIES

UNBELIEVABLE: DETOUR TO JUDAH

imageThis Simbang Gabi homily is based on the Gospel reading for the 4th Sunday of Advent, Luke 1:39-45

Today we have the account of the so-called Visitation–probably better known to us as the Second Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary.

Most of us are familiar with the story: Upon learning of her cousin Elizabeth’s pregnancy from the angel Gabriel, Mary makes a trip to Judah not only to confirm the angel’s news, but also to help the elderly Elizabeth out in what we can only imagine would be a difficult pregnancy.

It’s tempting to regard the Visitation as a relatively unimportant event, a minor Joyful Mystery squeezed between the two earthshaking mysteries of the Annunciation and the Nativity. But today, the Church in her wisdom invites us not to rush to Bethelehem yet, but to make this necessary detour to Judah with Mary. There must be a grace waiting for us here. 

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HOMILIES

QUESTION

john-the-baptist-preaching-wilderness_1164972_inlThis reflection is based on Luke 3:10-18.

One thing that immediately struck me reading today’s Gospel is how different kinds of people approach John the Baptist and ask him the same question. The crowds, having heard his call for repentance, ask John, “What should we do?” The tax collectors and the soldiers are also so moved by John’s preaching that they too ask the same question: “What is it that we should do?”

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HOMILIES

STILL

john-the-baptistThis reflection is based on Luke 3:1-6 for the Second Sunday of Advent.

Today John the Baptist uncharacteristically takes center stage. As we hear from today’s Gospel, he is but “a voice crying out in the desert,” whose life work is to “prepare the way of the Lord.” At the proper time later on, when Jesus begins his Public Ministry, the Baptist will opt to decrease as his cousin increases, fading disceetly to the periphery. But today, he steps into the limelight and quotes the bold promise that God has made through the prophet Isaiah:

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HOMILIES

ADVENT IN A SEASON OF TURMOIL

imageThis reflection is based on Luke 21:25-36 for the First Sunday of Advent.

The words that our Lord speaks to his disciples in today’s Gospel reading are chilling; they are disturbingly applicable to our world. This talk about “signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars” may well have been a long-issued warning about the vengeance of nature that we are already beginning to experience in the form of climate change. We know what the Lord means when he speaks of the “dismay of nations,” for what can better describe our shock and helplessness at the escalation of meaningless violence all over the world?

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HOMILIES

QUESTIONS THAT OPEN DOORS

nice-pictures-of-jesus-8This reflection is based on John 18:33-37 on the Solemnity of Christ the King.

The conversation between Pilate and Jesus that we hear about in today’s Gospel reading is significant. It is one of the very few occasions in the life of our Lord that he admits to being king. The Lord Jesus is usually quite reticent about this matter–not only out of humility, but also out of caution: Then as in today, kingship is easily stereotyped into the worldly type of kingship, where power is wielded and coercion employed. 

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