FR REMI HOMILIES/REFLECTIONS AND SERMONS

Sermon/Homily for Easter Sunday Year B celebration of the Risen Christ 31st march 2024  Acts 10:34a,37-43. Psalm 118:1-2,15c-17,22-23. Colossians 3:1-4. John 20:1-9. Today, we celebrate the central fact of history, namely the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Easter is the greatest feast of the Christian year. There is none like it. The birth of Jesus at Christmas is incredibly magnificent. But Christmas is only "mission begun," while Easter is "mission accomplished." "Therefore Easter  is not only one feast among others, but the "Feast of feasts," the "Solemnity of solemnities," just as the Eucharist is the "Sacrament of sacraments" (The Great Sacrament)). St. Athanasius calls Easter "the Great Sunday," and the Eastern Churches call Holy Week the "Great Week." The mystery of the Resurrection, in which Christ crush death, permeates with its powerful energy our old time foe, until all is subjected to him...

MEDITATION/HOMILY FOR EASTER VIGIL MASS 30th March 2024  Romans 6:3-11; Ps.118; Mark 16:1-7 The Dawn of Victory! Today we come to the point of victory, unprecedented and irrevocable victory. Today, the shame that was associated with following Jesus is taken away, never to return. Today, after death has struck its worst, it was overcome with everlasting life. Today, Jesus answers the question Pilate asked during his passion: “what is truth”, not with words but with the glory of the resurrection. The truth is that which has the capacity to bear all the humiliation and still proceed to glorification. Today, the humiliation of Christ that started since the incarnation is finally brought to an end with the glory of the resurrection. Today, hope is instituted, not as a wishful thinking but the endurance of a night that must come to an end. Today, it has become crystal clear who is truly powerful and who is the weakling. The one who was called weak for not being able to save himself and p...

SERMON/HOMILY ON THE PASSION OF THE LORD - GOOD FRIDAY 29TH MARCH 2024 Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Ps.31; Heb.4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42 Lessons from Good Friday At last He has been caught! The Jesus who had been confronting and reprimanding the Scribes and the Pharisees; the Jesus who worked miracles even on Sabbath day (not minding that it infuriated the authorities), the Jesus who had the capacity to know the thought of men and always knew when questions were put forward to Him just to test him; the Jesus whom the authorities have often time wanted to arrest and persecute but for fear of the crowds who held Him to be a prophet; the Jesus who had often slipped through the crowds when He was about to be arrested; the Jesus who had made possible all that was thought impossible, including raising the dead; this Jesus has finally been caught. He’s been publicly scourged and humiliated. He’s labeled a criminal and He carried this label to the grave. It is disheartening that the last identity...

HOMILY FOR MASS OF THE LORD’S SUPPER (HOLY THURSDAY 28TH MARCH 2024 Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; Ps.116; 1Cor.11:23-26; John 13:1-15 “ _The cup of blessing is a participation in the blood of Christ!”_ (1Cor.10:16) Participation is key; it is Life! Today we commence the time of Easter Triduum. In this Mass of the Lord’s Supper, our attention is turned to three things: the institution of the Holy Eucharist, the institution of the Sacred Ministerial Priesthood and the call to Service. These threefold events are so intertwined that it was on the same day, during a meal, that Jesus instituted them all. As he instituted the Holy Eucharist as a memorial of his death, he also instituted the Priesthood that will be saddled with the prime responsibility of presiding over the Eucharistic celebration. Since, Jesus wants us to also partake in the Eucharistic banquet in memory of him, he has also given us the priesthood. The power and responsibility to preside over the Eucharistic celebration can be mistak...

SERMON/HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK 27TH MARCH 2024 Isaiah 50:4-9a; Ps.69; Matthew 26:14-25 To Dine in Pretense is to betray like Judas Today, we read of Matthew’s account of the betrayer of Judas Iscariot. Yesterday, we read that of John. Reading about Judas’ action a second time gives us another opportunity to reflect more deeply into what he did and how we may be treading his path consciously or unconsciously. Matthew’s account says that Judas visited the Chief priests and collected thirty pieces of silver from them with the promise to deliver Jesus to them. This, Judas did, even before the Passover meal. Funny enough, he still partook of the meal not as a sign of sharing common life with Jesus, but in search of an opportunity to betray Jesus. This is something that is quite common. How often do we bear grudges or reservations about people but will never dare to talk to them about it? Sometimes we smile and praise people but deep within us we are not happy with them. Sometimes ...

REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK 26TH MARCH 2024 Isaiah 49:1-6; Ps.71; John 13:21-33, 36-38 You too will be betrayed The pain of betrayer can be so intense, devastating and everlasting. People who have passed through great ordeals in life, continue to suffer, not necessarily due to the effect of the ordeal but based on the thought of the one who was responsible for the ordeal – a dear one, from whom they never expected such negativity. Today, many persons have adjusted in their acts of kindness, charity and godliness because the past of experience of being repaid evil for their good, continues to serve as a deterrent. Jesus too was betrayed, but he was able to evade the whole culture of stop being good as a result of the shock of betrayer. In today’s gospel, Jesus calmly predicted the betrayer of Judas and the denial of Peter. It is interesting that Jesus was able to maintain so much calm with knowledge of such magnitude. He did not begin to give Judas or Peter some altitude ...

REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK 25TH MARCH 2024 Isaiah 42:1-7; Ps.27; John 12:1-11 Use your best to gain the Best It pained Judas that Mary used such an expensive ointment of pure nard to anoint the feet of Jesus. For Judas, a cheaper ointment would have served the same purpose. Obviously, the justification Judas gave for his complaint was that the costly ointment would have been sold and the money given to the poor. Scripture helped us to understand that Judas made this statement because he would steal from what was given him to keep for the poor. Invariably, Judas was not happy with the gesture of Mary because the value of that ointment would have come to him rather than Jesus. So we see that the betrayer of Judas did not start the day he approached the Jews for a bounty if he delivers Jesus to them. The betrayer started with a mindset that the best is not good enough for the Lord. Like Judas, some of us are not against giving ourselves and our resources to God but not the ...