SundaySermons

Use Money to Win You Friends (Lk 16:1-16) A clear message in the gospels: Renunciation The gospel of this Sunday, this is one of the repeated themes in the gospels: · In the Beatitudes, Jesus begins with a counter-cultural statement, “How blessed are you who are poor: the kingdom of God is yours” (Lk 6:20).

The Lost Son (Lk 15:1-3, 11-32) Today is one of those days when I feel a homily might steal the gospel reading of its depth. The parable that we heard read is a much-quoted story and we are all too familiar with it. Perhaps I might just challenge that familiarity, so that the Word of

Remember, you are following a martyr! (Lk 14:25-33) Our world today has too many celebrities and very few heroes. Our contemporary culture focuses so much on celebrities. The media hypes up stars in sports, entertainment, and popular culture. Often these celebrities are far from being role models for the younger generation, yet young people have

The Virtue of Humility Humility, the forgotten virtue? There is an online test for these character strengths, also referred to as “Values in Action” (https://www.viacharacter.org/www/ ). This survey would point out to you your most developed and least developed character strengths. Using the data gathered online, psychologists have attempted to summarize the global situation of

The Narrow Door (Lk13:22-30) When you were in school, did you prefer easy-going teachers to demanding ones? In the gospel reading of today, Luke presents Jesus as a demanding teacher. This portrayal of Jesus is very unlike Luke. For instance, Matthew uses the phrase “grinding of teeth” (NJB), or in other translations, “gnash their teeth”

Disturb me, Lord…! When I read the gospel reading of today, a phrase kept coming back to me very spontaneously. It was the first line of a prayer that I had heard before. I googled and came across this poem-prayer, written by a famous British sailor of the 16th Century, Sir Francis Drake: Disturb us,

Spiritual Capital: Treasures in Heaven (Lk 12:32-48) During the course of the past week, I happened to chance upon a former student of mine, thanks to the Facebook. We had a brief chat. I was intrigued by what he was doing for a living. He predicts stock-markets. He appears on TV at breakfast shows forecasting

Seek the Things that are in Heaven (Lk 12:13-21) “What stone?” asked the sage. “Last night I was told in a dream that if I went to the outskirts of the village at dusk, a sage would give me a stone that would make me rich forever.” The sage rummaged in his sack and, pulling

Ask, Seek, Knock (Lk 11:1-13 Let me begin with a story from Tony de Mello – shortened here: The village priest was a holy man so each time the people were in trouble they had recourse to him. He would then withdraw to a special place in the forest and say a special prayer. God

Mary sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. (Lk 10:38-42) One of the realities that we notice in urban life today, across the globe, is speed. I feel sucked into speed. I get into a car every morning and rush to work. Every evening I get back into the car and