Homilies

Homily for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

July 27th, 2024

Fr. John Paul's homily for this weekend

THEME: JESUS CHRIST IS THE BREAD OF LIFE; HE IS THE EARTHLY SPIRITUAL FOOD FOR ETERNAL LIFE.

God is love. We were created in God’s image and likeness because God loves us. God’s love for us is infinite. He gave us his love and called upon us to always love one another as he loved us first by creating us without any request given to him. He expressed his deep love for mankind by sending to the world his only begotten son Jesus Christ as savior of the world. Right down from creation up to today, God’s love for humanity has never stopped. He wishes everybody had his love and shared it with one another.

The first reading from the book of 2 Kings: 4: 42-44 has given us an example of a good man who remembered to express and extend God’s love to the prophet Elisha by bringing to him the first fruits of his harvests in the form of twenty barley loaves of bread. On reaching Gilgal he finds the Prophet Elisha having 100 people receiving prophecy from him but unfortunately almost dying of hunger as they had stayed for some days without food. He asked himself, ”What good are these twenty barley loaves of bread to give to all these people to eat?” The Prophet Elisha told the people to sit down. Elisha with faith, hope, and trust in God prayed to God and suddenly God made a miracle and multiplied the twenty loaves of bread and was able to feed the people. Afterwords he collected baskets of leftovers. God does not want his people to suffer and die of hunger and other worldly problems. He always intervenes in every hard unpredictable situation.

The gospel reading we have heard today is related to the first reading. In it, also we have Jesus Christ preaching to five thousand people who also had stayed for three days without food. Jesus Christ asked Philip where shall we buy bread to feed all these five thousand people to eat? He knew what to do but wanted to test Phillip’s faith in God. Simón Peter’s brother who was listening to the conversation replied there is a boy here who has five barley loaves of bread and two fish, but what are they to five thousand people who have spent three days without food? Jesus Christ told the Five thousand People to sit down and in thanksgiving prayed to God. The barley loaves suddenly multiplied, and Jesus Christ was able to feed five thousand people leaving many baskets of leftovers. 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, what is Jesus Christ teaching us today from the two miracles of the Multiplication of the bread in the First reading and the gospel? Jesus Christ is teaching us that whatever we receive as gifts from God and from one another, we should always give back to God and share with one another as the good man in the first reading and the young boy did by giving out freely the few loaves of bread God had given them, which were used by Jesus Christ to feed God’s hungry people. Jesus is saying always give out whatever God has given you as a gift on this earth. He will multiply it to do good for the entire People of God, and in response God will grant us abundant blessings.

The hungry people who had gathered to listen to the Prophesy of Elisha and divine teachings of Jesus Christ symbolize the world’s hungry People of God. Hungry for the word of God and other worldly human needs. What are doing to feed them? 

The prophets in the Old Testament expressed their concern and love for the hungry and needy by multiplying bread and feeding them. In the New Testament on Holy Thursday, Jesus expressed his abundant love by changing the bread and wine into his body and blood so that whoever believes in him and takes his body and blood has eternal life. He makes the sacrament of the Eucharist. And he makes the Eucharist the spiritual food on earth for eternal life. 

The feeding of the 100 people by Elisha in the First reading and the feeding of the five thousand people by Jesus was a foretaste of the Holy Thursday Eucharist. He gives himself as the true bread that gives life and that whoever would receive him in truth would hunger no more as he would receive the spiritual food and bodily food. 

Jesus is teaching us that he is both the true spiritual food for the world and eternal life. The three days the hungry people had spent listening to Jesus Christ’s teachings were days of repentance and forgiveness. We are reminded to prepare well before the reception of the Eucharist through the sacrament of Penance. The doors for the rooms of penance are always open. Let us always prepare well our hearts before receiving the Eucharist. 

The people who had stayed for some days without food but listening to the teaching of Jesus Christ teach us that our life does not depend on food alone but on God and his word.
Finally, Jesus is asking us in this earthly life what do we hung for more? Is it dominion over others, Is it authority? Power? Riding in a yacht? Fine dining every day? For whatever we hunger, Jesus is saying always remember that He is the true bread of life and the earthly spiritual food that we should always hunger for.

Homily for the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Today’s readings invite us to reflect on the theme of mission and the call to be messengers of God’s love and truth. Each of us, baptized into Christ, is called to be a missionary, to bring the Good News to the world. 

The Call of Amos:
In our first reading, we encounter the prophet Amos, a humble shepherd and a dresser of sycamore trees, who is called by God to prophesy to the people of Israel. Amos didn’t come from a line of prophets, nor did he seek out this role. Yet, God chose him for this crucial task. This reminds us of that God often calls the most unexpected people to fulfill His purposes. It’s not our credentials or background that matter but our willingness to respond to God’s call. 

And when we look into the Gospel, we witness a pivotal moment in Jesus’ ministry as He sends out the twelve apostles two by two, giving them authority over unclean spirits and instructing them on how to conduct their mission. This passage is rich with lessons for us as modern disciples of Christ, guiding us on how to live out our faith and share the Good News.

Simplicity and Trust
Firstly, Jesus instructs the apostles to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts. This radical call to simplicity and trust in God’s providence challenges us to reflect on our own lives. In a world that often equates success with accumulation and security, Jesus reminds us that true discipleship relies on dependence on God rather than material possessions. (Life story of St. Mother Theresa. The suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work). We are called to travel light, both physically and spiritually, freeing ourselves from the burdens that hinder our ability to serve God and others wholeheartedly.

Community and Collaboration
Jesus sends the apostles out in pairs, emphasizing the importance of community and collaboration in our mission. The journey of faith is not meant to be undertaken in isolation. We are called to support and uplift one another, sharing our gifts and strengths for the common good. By working together, we can accomplish far more than we ever could alone. In our own lives, we should seek out and cultivate relationships that foster mutual growth in faith and service.

We have a liberating mission:
Although many people don’t believe in real demonic possession at our age, there are many demons which can control the lives of people around us, making them helpless slaves. For example, there are the demons of nicotine, alcohol, gambling, pornography and immoral life, materialism and consumerism or of any other activity which somehow can take control of people’s lives and become an addiction over which they have no control. All of these, or any one of them, can turn people into slaves.  We need the help of Jesus to liberate us and others from these things.  Jesus is inviting us today to cooperate with him.  He wants us to be his instruments of liberation, to help others recover their freedom. We are meant to help people to cure their sicknesses – While we might not possess the miraculous healing powers of the apostles, we can still be instruments of God’s healing in the world. This could mean offering a listening ear to someone in distress, providing comfort to those grieving, or supporting those struggling with illness. Through acts of compassion and kindness, we bring God’s healing touch to those around us.

Witnessing to the Kingdom
Ultimately, the apostles’ mission is to proclaim that people should repent and believe in the Good News. Our lives, too, are meant to be a witness to the Kingdom of God. Through our words and actions, we are called to testify to the transformative power of God’s love and grace. This requires a personal commitment to ongoing conversion, allowing God to continually renew and reshape us.

We are the Amos of today. We are the Twelve of today and the Saint Paul of today. The Lord calls us to prophesy with courage, love, hope and faith. Like the Amos and the Twelve he sends us to bear witness to him in different situations and circumstances of or lives’ journeys, as priests, pastors, religious, deacons, lay men and women in families, offices and factories. Though we are aware of the inevitable social and cultural challenges, political rejections, economic temptations, dust, dirt, stress, long journeys, long flights, but abundant spiritual benefits and redemptions await us when we endure the cost of witnessing to the Lord! 

God tells us that we do not have the right to walk away from our responsibilities to the Truth. We should have the openness to our prophetic mission and to stand for the truth of the Lord, whether it is popular or not, whether it is convenient or not. We have all received the mandate of Jesus to go out and proclaim his Word. Today we pray for the courage and willingness to proclaim the truth in our families, at our work and in our neighborhoods. Amen.

May we, like our patron, St. Brendan, trust joyfully in the guidance of our God and in the goodness of our fellow travelers.

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