Homilies

Jesus was a great preacher of the Kingdom of God. He strove to help the people of His time understand what the Kingdom of God was and to see It growing among them.  One resource that Jesus used a lot was parables, that is, short stories in simple language, understood by everyone, talking about elements of nature and everyday stories.  In today's Gospel, according to Luke, Jesus speaks of mustard seeds, gardens, trees, branches, birds, nests; he speaks of yeast, flour.  He uses this language to help the people of His time understand the dynamics of the Kingdom of God, that is, that It is initially small and fragile and that It gradually becomes stronger and spreads everywhere.  Jesus was right! In fact, the Kingdom of God, which began with Him and the Twelve apostles, spread from Israel until It reached the entire world through the Church.  We must imitate Jesus, on the one hand, by preaching the Kingdom of God to the people of our time and, on the other hand, by...

Today, with Mother Church, we celebrate the feast of the apostles Simon and Jude Thaddeus. They were men chosen by Jesus Christ himself. We saw this in today's Gospel. Luke says that Jesus chose the apostles after spending a whole night in prayer to God on a mountain. Jesus gave the apostles the task of continuing his mission in the world after his ascension to Heaven: they should go into the world, make disciples of all nations, announce the Good News of the Kingdom, spread peace, heal the sick, and cast out demons. The apostles are the foundation of the Church, whose cornerstone is Christ himself. Jesus continues to choose men and women to be his servants in the Church, in the world, in our days. As today's reading from Paul's letter to the Ephesians tells us, these men and women are fellow citizens of the saints, they are part of God's family. They were integrated into the Church to become the dwelling place of God through the Spirit. May we imitate the apostles Simo...

Dear brothers and sisters, it is great that we are gathered together again, beginning a new week. We are in the final stretch of Ordinary Time.  And, this Sunday, the evangelist Mark presents us with Jesus recognized as the Son of David by the blind Bartimaeus, who recovers his sight through faith and follows Jesus on the way.  It is very uncomfortable not to be able to see. Sight is a fundamental sense. Without sight, we become vulnerable and dependent. Life is seriously impaired if we cannot see well and clearly.  From the perspective of Judaism, those who are with God see perfectly and walk in righteousness, and the blind are sinners far from God. But Jesus' logic and actions are different.  When the blind Bartimaeus - full of faith - cried out to Jesus, many rebuked him, certainly because they saw the blind man as a sinner who should stay away. But Jesus - sensitive to Bartimaeus' vulnerability and seeing his faith - in addition to asking him to come closer, made...

Brothers and sisters, today we begin the twenty-ninth week of Ordinary Time with the entire Church.  Power is the main subject in this Sunday's Liturgy of the Word.  Human beings have a great thirst for power. Unfortunately, power is seen as obtaining privileges and being served by others.  This mentality also existed at the time when Jesus lived. We saw in today's Gospel how the brothers James and John were interested in power. The two went so far as to talk to Jesus without the other 10 apostles knowing.  Jesus knew that James and John would accept death in the future rather than deny their Christian faith. But that would not make them better apostles than the others.  It did not take long for the other 10 apostles to learn of the attitudes of the brothers James and John. The fraternity was shaken. But Jesus, with wisdom, restored peace in the group.  Jesus knew how power was sought and exercised in the society of his time. He spoke about this, telling th...

Dear brothers and sisters,  This day the Church celebrates the feast of Luke. He is the author of the third gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He was a companion of the Apostle Paul. Like him, Luke didn’t know the historical Jesus, because He had already died, resurrected and ascended to Heaven. Luke learned a lot about Jesus through Paul's preaching.  In his gospel, Luke wrote about Jesus from faraway Nazareth, passing through several cities, until he reached the capital of Israel: Jerusalem. And in the Acts of the Apostles, Luke wrote about the Church from faraway Jerusalem, passing through several countries, until she reached the capital of the empire: Rome.  In today's gospel, Luke shows Jesus sending out on an evangelizing mission - not only the twelve apostles - but also 72 other disciples. The missionaries should proclaim the Gospel, the Good News of the nearness of the Kingdom of God, bringing peace. Even when finding difficulties, the missionaries should go for...

Dear brothers and sisters, On this feast day of Saint Teresa of Ávila, the Gospel of Luke presents Jesus dining at the home of a Pharisee. The Pharisees were Jews who were more concerned with fulfilling religious traditions than with pleasing God by practicing charity and sharing their goods with the poor. Washing hands before meals was a religious tradition. Failure to do so made a person impure. Of course, personal hygiene and cleanliness are very important and promote individual and collective health. We saw this during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Jesus tells the Pharisee and us today that we need to be more concerned with inner cleanliness, of the heart, than with outer cleanliness, of the body, of things. It is no use being clean on the outside and dirty on the inside, with theft and evil. God sees and knows all things, our attitudes. The best way to purify ourselves internally is to practice charity and share our goods with the poor. In the reading, the apostle Paul tells the Gala...