Sunday Homilies

Readings: Acts 10:34.37-43, Colossians 3:1-4, John 20:1-9

Christ lives, all fear is gone

On 23^rd January 1999, Graham Stain, an Australian missionary who worked at a leprosy center in India was burnt to death with his two sons aged 10 and 6 by Hindu fundamentalists. He was accused of converting Hindus to Christianity. His wife and only daughter were left alone in a state of pain and tragedy of losing three people of their family in a single day roasted on the fire.

Readings: Ezekiel 37:12-4, Psalm 129, Romans 8:8-11, John 11:1-45

Christ the resurrection and the life

We are drawing close to the mysteries of the Holy Week. Today's readings talk about life, a life that sprouts out of death through the Holy Spirit. The prophet Ezekiel says "I shall put my spirit in you and you will live. (Ezekiel 37,12-14) and of course in the gospel scene, Jesus restores life to a dead Lazarus. God gives and restores life. Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were close friends of Jesus, they hosted him in their home several times.

Readings:  Mathew 21:1-11, Isaiah 50:4-7, Philippians 2:6-11, Mathew 26,14-27,66,

To Jerusalem, to calvary: the walk of love

Dear brothers and sisters, today we start the most important week the story of God’s love for us. It is the tangible sign of God’s love for us, it is an invitation to expose ourselves to the greatest lesson and teacher of love. With Palm Sunday, the time of Lent flows into the time of the Passion which changes our sentiments of the season from the more self-centered prayer, fasting, and almsgiving for our conversion to the example of God himself who offers his son for us. This Sunday leads us through the path taken by Jesus in the last phase of his life, in the last days of his existence before his death.

Readings: Exodus 17:3-7, Psalm 95:1-2.6-7.7-9, Romans 5:1-2.5-8, John 4:5-42

Lent: The tough search for living water

Today's readings point to a journey toward something new. The Israelites in the desert march towards the promised land and Jesus's dialogue with the Samaritan woman leads her to liberation from the isolation she lived in. Both represent a search for something essential and satisfying or quenching, that is; water.  Our journey of the season of lent is represented by this voyage of the Israelites in the desert and the search for living water by the Samaritan woman. They both manifest toughness and are rendered urgent by the desire to quench the thirst.