Category: Homily

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Pentecost Sunday – Mass during the Day

Pentecost

John 20:19-23

Do you know that “you, baptized members of the Catholic faith, are called to evangelize and are called to be missionary disciples?” These words are from Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. Many lay faithful think that the works of evangelization are assigned to clergy, religious orders, or missioners. However, when we think like that, we are ignoring an honored vocation. Today, if you remember nothing else in my homily, you must remember that whatever your position in the Church or your level of instruction in faith, you are called to be missionary disciples and agents of evangelization.x2

You may question why do I preach about missionary vocation on the solemnity of Pentecost? It seems not related to the nature of this occasion. I should talk about the Holy Spirit, such as who he is, or what the meaning of his titles is. However, I tell you that the feast of the Holy Spirit is the best occasion to remind you of your missionary vocation. Why?

Let us recall the readings and the gospel you have heard. In the gospel, after greeting his disciples, Jesus commissioned them “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then, He gave them the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit they had received is not to keep for themselves, but to go forth on their mission to proclaim the kingdom of God and the forgiveness of sins. In the acts of the apostles, after the people were all filled with the Holy Spirit, they had begun to proclaim the good news of Resurrected Christ, not only in their mother tongue, but also in different tongues that everyone can understand clearly. In the letter of Saint Paul to Corinthians, we see that the Holy Spirit enables us to believe “Jesus is Lord.” The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to everyone in different kinds so that he or she can give a hand to build the unity of the mystical body of Christ. The pattern of all readings today is receiving the Holy Spirit and proclaiming the Gospel.

Does what happened in the scripture relate to you today? Yes, if you personalize the word of God you have heard. That is, you place yourself in the word of God so that what happened in the scripture is what happens to you. If you consider you are among the disciples in the locked door room, you are also given the Holy Spirit and commissioned to proclaim the Gospel. Indeed, you received the Holy Spirit when you were baptized. In baptism, you are commissioned to evangelize the whole world. Moreover, God does not commission you without preparing you for your mission. By the sacraments of Christian initiation and by the gifts of the Holy Spirt, you are prepared well to be missionary disciples and agents of evangelization.

            Now, when you are aware of your missionary vocation, you can think of how to carry it out. There are various ways to do it, but I recommend two actions, namely participate, and dedicate. That is, you participate in daily mass so that you cultivate your relationship with God. You participate in apostolate works to serve God and people. You participate in social life in your conditions by promoting the common good, respecting the just laws, and witnessing the gospel in society. By dedicate, you dedicate yourselves to daily prayers not only for your needs but also for the mission of the Church. You dedicate yourselves to the works of charity by which you show God’s merciful face to everyone. You dedicate yourselves to building the unity of the Church by becoming peacemakers. I encourage you to find and add more ways to participate in and dedicate to proclaiming the word of God in your conditions.

The image of honeybee workers is a good image of your missionary vocation. Honeybee workers have only one mission to fly away from their hive to find honey. Their trips are always long with danger from the predators, but they never stop doing their mission. Thus, the hive is full of precious honey. The hive is the Church. You are the honeybee workers. Honey is the soul of the repentant. Like a bee worker, you are sent everywhere in the world to gather people to the Church. You may encounter many dangers and challenges, but never fear because you have the Holy Spirit, your Paraclete, your Advocate. Brothers and sisters! Go and gather honey to the hive. You are missionary disciples and agents of evangelization.

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Seventh Sunday of Easter – Ascension

Chúa Thăng Thiên

John 17:1-11a

            Does anyone know where Jesus now? Three days ago, we celebrated the Ascension of Jesus, so he must be in heaven now. However, where is heaven? Is it somewhere in the sky or in the cosmos? No! we do not understand heaven as a physical place, but we understand it as a state in which there is God. In other words, heaven is wherever God is found. If you know the song ubi caritas, you will know where God is found. The song begins with the words “where charity and love prevail, there God is ever found.” Now, you can see the signs of heaven are love and charity. Heaven is not far from us, but it is right here among us when we show love and charity to each other. Thus, Jesus’ ascension means that he returned to the Father, but it does not mean that he went far away from us. He is still present here among us to intercede for us, to give us the hope of one day being fully united with him in heaven.

            Being aware that while Jesus ascended to heaven, Jesus is present among us, what should we do. The readings and gospel today advise us to do three actions, namely believe, pray, and rejoice. The gospel is Jesus’s petitions for his disciples. In his petitions, we find that who belongs to God are those who accept Jesus’s words and believe that Jesus is sent by God. Thus, if you want to belong to God and to be united with him, you first and foremost have to believe in Christ and his words. We can explicitly express our belief in Christ through our acts of worship. The true belief in Christ must foster us to appreciate the necessity of our worship to him. He does not need our praise, and our praise does not increase anything for him, but the praise given to him is for our own sake. In addition, we can show our belief in his words through the love of Scripture because Scripture is the word of God. That is, we frequently listen to the Scripture in the liturgy or by ourselves in private. We read the Scripture, ponder it, and live out its messages in our lives.

            Pray! The first reading from the acts of the apostles tells us that “After Jesus had been taken up to heaven the apostles returned to Jerusalem. […] “[They] devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” Prayer was very important for them at that moment because they feared the Jews. Prayer brought them peace and courage. We, followers of Jesus, also need to imitate the example of the apostles. That is, we have a prayerful lives. In prayer, we can offer to God everything that matter to us, such as our fear, our joy, and our sadness. We surrender to God all our life concern. He will strengthen and console us. We have two types of prayers, namely communal prayer, and personal prayer. The apostles in the reading were doing communal prayer. We now can do it by attending mass and celebrations of sacraments, by holding prayer in group or in family. Besides, we are encouraged to take sometimes by ourselves alone to pray with God. In personal prayer, we can cultivate deeper our relationship with God whom we believe and worship.

            Rejoice! Normally, we rejoice in delighted events. For instance, Ascension is truly a delighted event for us to rejoice. However, in the second reading, Saint Peter exhorts us that “Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly.” We can share in the suffering of Christ when we renounce a bad habit or forgive someone his mistakes. Sharing in the sufferings of Christ is not easily seen as a delight because we may experience wounds and pains. Wounds and pains seem impossible to make us rejoice, but the truth is that they are possible. Precisely, those who accept to forgive someone must accept some kinds of wounds, but forgiveness can bring joy and peace for both the forgiving and the forgiven. In a family, if husband and wife, parents and children accept the weakness of each other and forgive each other any mistakes, that family will be filled with joy and love. We see here that wounds and pains accepted out of love can truly rejoice us. “Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ.”

            Brothers and sisters! ‘Believe, pray, and rejoice’ is the message for you today. I invite you to take it home, pondering it, and living it out. May our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen our faith, lift us up in prayer, and rejoice us in sharing with his sufferings. Amen.

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Homily on Easter Sunday

Let me begin my homily today by telling you a story about resurrection, not of Jesus but of a pastor. As preparing for the solemnity of Easter, he attended a retreat the week before Palm Sunday. He was very touched by the words of the retreat master. He realized that he was too bossy and too demanding to the parishioners. He was motivated to change the way he treated them. He told the parishioners that “your old pastor died” and put this message on the parish bulletin board. However, when he was very busy preparing for Holy Week, his personality came back again. One parishioner wrote below his message on the bulletin board “and he resurrected after three days! Alleluia.”

The paschal mystery of Jesus, which comprises his passion, death, resurrection, and glorification, stands at the center of the Christian faith. It is also important for you to keep in mind that the risen body of Jesus is the same the body crucified on the cross. However, his body now participates in the divine life with the characteristics of a glorified body. In the story of the pastor, we see that “the resurrection of the pastor” refers to his returning to the old way of life. On the contrary, the resurrection of Jesus is not like that. In the resurrection, Jesus is glorified, and he started a new age of salvation. Therefore, we are invited to participate in the resurrection of Christ by giving up our old way of lives and living a new lives in accord with Jesus’s new commandment of love.

It is essential in our faith to believe that Jesus truly died and that he truly resurrected. The readings and the gospel today provide sufficient evidence for this belief. In the acts of the apostles, Peter witnessed that “the witnesses chosen by God in advance ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” That is, there were people seeing the resurrected Jesus and proclaiming this good news to us. Their message is credible because many of them had to pay their own lives for witnessing it. They were willing to accept to be persecuted and murdered so that the good news of Jesus’s resurrection can be proclaimed to us. We must be aware that the faith we received is paid by the price of many martyrs over the past 2000 years. Therefore, to live more deeply the paschal mystery, we not only keep this mystery for ourselves, but we also witness it to the world by observing the law of love. There will be challenges and suffering in observing this law, but it is worthy to carry it out because our reward is being participated to the glorification of Christ.

If you still doubt the truth of Jesus’s resurrection, you may look at the evidence in the gospel, namely the empty tomb. It is not the case that Jesus’s body was stolen by his disciples because the Jews sent the guard to secure the tomb after Jesus’s burial. Thus, it is more plausible to believe that Jesus resurrected and went out. In this gospel account, there is an interesting detail, that is “the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.” I found a meaningful message from this detail when I learned about Jewish culture. Precisely, at meal, if a master leaves the table, the servant must know to read signs that tell whether his master comes back or not. If the napkin is not rolled and left in a random place, then it means the master finishes dinner. If the master rolls up the napkin and places it aside, the servant must wait for his master. Therefore, the burial cloths, rolled up, may implies another good news that Jesus will come back. Truly, he will come back on the last day to judge the living and the death. Thus, this message tells us to prepare for his second coming. We prepare by strengthening our faith, deepening our love, and sustaining our hope.

May our risen Lord fill you with his grace and increase you in the virtues of faith, hope, and love.

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Homily on Holy Thursday – Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper

Last Supper

            Have you ever heard of “coconut Christology”? Havea, in his article “Christianity in Pacific context,” wrote that “if Jesus had grown up and lived in the Pacific, He could have added another identification of himself – I am the coconut of life.” It is because coconut is the most popular in Pacific islands, and because the full Christology can be seen in it. For instance, if the Eucharist had been instituted in the Pacific context, instead of unleavened bread and wine, Jesus could have used the coconut to represent his body which was bruised and crushed, and the juice for the blood. The image of the coconut even represents the Eucharist better than that of bread and wine because the coconut has both the drink and the food from the same fruit, like the blood and flesh from one and the same body of Christ. What do you think? Do you want to receive the Eucharist in the form of coconut?

            In the mass this evening, we celebrate the institution of two sacraments: the Eucharist and the Holy Orders. I would like to invite you to especially remember bishops, priests, and deacons in your prayers. Also, I would like to share with you some essential points about the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

            In every Sacrament, there is always something functioning as a sign. For example, water is the sign of baptism. Sacred Chrism is the sign of confirmation. The “coconut Christology” is just like a joke, but it helps to see the characteristics of the sign. The sign must somehow function to signify the invisible reality underneath the sacrament. In this aspect, coconut could be a perfect sign for the Eucharist. However, another important element of all sacraments is that sacraments are instituted by Christ. The second reading tells us how Jesus instituted the Eucharist. He did not take a coconut, but he took the bread and cup. This is the reason why only bread and wine are valid matters for the Eucharist.

            Above all, the most important point that we have to believe and have to keep in mind is that by the consecration of the priest, Jesus is present whole and entire in each of the eucharistic species and in each of their parts. After consecration, the bread and wine are no longer bread and wine, but they are the body and blood of Christ. The appearance of bread and wine does not change, but their substances change. This kind of change is called transubstantiation. In no way, our senses can prove this reality, but only faith can. If you believe that “nothing is impossible for God,” then you will easily believe in the mystery of the Eucharist. When we believe in the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, we are aware of the importance of this Sacrament for our salvation. Precisely, “Holy Communion increases our union with Christ and with his Church. It preserves and renews the life of grace received at Baptism and Confirmation and makes us grow in love for our neighbor. It strengthens us in charity, wipes away venial sins and preserves us from mortal sin in the future.”

            Today, the liturgy especially reminds us of the Eucharist. We are invited to cultivate our faith in the Eucharist and increase our love for this wonderful sacrament. You may not know the theological foundation of the Eucharist, or you may not understand the significance of signs, but I urge you to inscribe in your mind the most crucial belief that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. Then, you show your love for Jesus by attending mass and receiving his body and blood.

            Brothers and sisters, come to the Eucharist for Jesus is waiting for you!

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A Reflection on The Final Judgment – Matthew 25: 31-46

The Final Judgment - Thirty Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Matthew 25: 31-46

           If today is the final judgment, what would you do? Would you be like a baptized lawyer who did not practice faith his whole life. When he knew that he had only three days to live, he hastened to his house to find the bible. His wife was surprised and saying, “did someone reconvert you?” He kept looking at the bible and answered “no! I am trying to find some weak points in the bible so that I can defend myself in the final judgment.”

What would you do in the final judgment? The answer is you can do nothing but wait for God’s judgment. The righteous will enjoy the reward of eternal life while the others will be punished in the eternal death. Nevertheless, if you have opportunities to make your choice between Heaven and Hell, Life and Death, what would you choose? It is urgent for us to make our choices right now.

            “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (25:31-32). Here, the gospel emphasizes the separation at the final judgment. There are only two categories, namely sheep and goats. Why were the sheep preferred over the goats while their values are mostly equal? I suggest that we look at their characteristics. Sheep are often considered as meek and gentle animals. They know the shepherd and obey his directions. Thus, they stand for the righteous. In contrast, goats have many negative characteristics, so they represent for the unrighteous. For example, they stink, they butt, they are over-sexed, they are quarrelsome, they have horns like the devil, they use their horn to attach the sheep, they destroy pastures and pollute the water, and so on. What group do you think you belong to? If you are meek, gentle, and obedient, then you are among the sheep. If you do evil deeds, then you are among the goats. Remember there are only two groups, either sheep or goats. Your actions in the present express your choices to belong to either of these groups. Be wise to make your choices.

            It is true that evildoers deserve punishments. However, the gospel today tells us another attitude that causes punishments. Do you realize that those on the left were not condemned for their evil deeds? The king says to them that:

“I was hungry, and you gave me no food, I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.” (25:42-43)

The main reason for their condemnation is that they did not do good deeds. Especially, they did not care for one of the least ones to whom God identifies himself. I believe most people here are keeping very well the first aspect of righteousness, shunning evil works. However, I would like to remind you of the second aspect, doing good works. There are many people being neglected around us. They need our care. You do not need to do something beyond your capacities, but you can start from little things of caring for others, such as be generous to the needy, be compassionate to the sufferings, and be merciful to those who offend you. Whenever you accomplish a good work like this, you deposit to your spiritual budget which is to buy your insurance to enter the paradise. You do not have to find any weak points in the bible like the lawyer I mentioned at the beginning. Your good works will defend you in the final judgment.

            Brothers and Sisters! We belong to the sheepfold of God who does not want anyone lost. God wants all of us to inherit the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world, but the choice is ours. Our lives now are the great opportunity for making our choice. Make your choice before too late. May we make wise choice so that, on the last day, we will be placed at the right side of the king.