The story of David and Saul in today’s First Reading functions almost like a parable. Showing mercy to his deadly foe, David gives a concrete example of what Jesus expects to become a way of life for His disciples. The new law Jesus gives in today’s Gospel would have us all become “Davids”—loving our enemies, doing good to those who would harm us, extending a line of credit to those who won’t ever repay us. The Old Law required only that the Israelites love their fellow countrymen. The new law Jesus brings makes us kin to every man and woman. His kingdom isn’t one of tribe or nationality. It’s a family. As followers of Jesus, we’re to live as He lived among us—as “children of the Most High.” As sons and daughters, we want to walk in the ways of our heavenly Father, to “be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Grateful for His mercy, we’re called to forgive others their trespasses because God has forgiven ours.

In the context of today’s liturgy, we’re all “Sauls”—by our sinfulness and pride we make ourselves enemies of God. But we’ve been spared a death we surely deserved because God has loved and shown mercy to His enemies, “the ungrateful and the wicked,” as Jesus says. Jesus showed us this love in His Passion, forgiving His enemies as they stripped Him of cloak and tunic, cursed Him and struck Him on the cheek, condemned Him to death on a cross. “He redeems your life from destruction,” David reminds us in today’s Psalm. That’s the promise, too, of today’s Epistle: that we who believe in the “last Adam,” Jesus, will rise from the dead in His image, as today we bear the image of the “first Adam,” who by his sin made God an enemy and brought death into the world.

Do you know what makes Christians different and what makes Christianity distinct from any other religion? It is “the grace”—treating others not as they deserve but as God wishes them to be treated—with loving kindness and mercy. God is good to the unjust as well as the just. His love embraces saint and sinner alike. God seeks our highest good and teaches us to seek the greatest good of others, even those who hate and abuse us. Our love for others, even those who are ungrateful and selfish towards us, must be marked by the same kindness and mercy which God has shown to us. It is easier to show kindness and mercy when we can expect to benefit from doing so. How much harder when we can expect nothing in return.

Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, your love brings freedom and pardon. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and set my heart free with your merciful love that nothing may make me lose my temper, ruffle my peace, take away my joy, nor make me bitter towards anyone. Lord, help me always to treat others the way that you treat them.

With love and prayers,

Fr. Charley

The blessings and woes we hear in today’s Gospel mark the perfection of all the wisdom of the Old Testament. That wisdom is summed up with marvelous symmetry in today’s First Reading and Psalm: each declares that the righteous—those who hope in the Lord and delight in His Law—will prosper like a tree planted near living waters. The wicked, who put their “trust in human beings,” are cursed to wither and die.

Jesus is saying the same thing in the Gospel. The rich and poor are, for Him, more than members of literal economic classes. Their material state symbolizes their spiritual state.

The rich are “the insolent” of today’s Psalm, boasting of their self-sufficiency, the strength of their flesh, as Jeremiah says in the First Reading. The poor are the humble, who put all their hope and trust in the Lord. We’ve already seen today’s dramatic imagery of reversal in Mary’s Magnificat. There, too, the rich are cast down while the hungry are filled and the lowly exalted.

That’s the upside-down world of the Gospel: in poverty, we gain spiritual treasure unimaginable; in suffering and even dying “on account of the Son of Man,” we find everlasting life.

The promises of the Old Testament were promises of power and prosperity—in the here and now. The promise of the New Covenant is joy and true freedom even amid the misery and toil of this life. As Paul says in today’s Epistle, we’re to be pitied if our hope is “for this life only.”

The blessings of God mean that we’ll laugh with the thanksgiving of captives released from exile, feast at the heavenly table of the Lord, “leap for joy” as John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb, and rise with Christ, “the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Jesus began his sermon on the mount by addressing the issue of where true happiness can be found. The word beatitude literally means happiness or blessedness. Jesus’ way of happiness demands a transformation from within—a conversion of heart and mind which can only come about through the gift and working of the Holy Spirit. If we want to be filled with the joy and happiness of heaven, then we must empty ourselves of all that would shut God out of our hearts.

Love and Prayers,

Fr. Charley

Simon Peter the fisherman is the first to be called personally by Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. His calling resembles Isaiah’s commissioning in the First Reading: confronted with the holiness of the Lord, both Peter and Isaiah are overwhelmed by a sense of their own sinfulness and inadequacy. Yet each experiences the Lord’s forgiveness and is sent to preach the good news of His mercy to the world.

No one is “fit to be called an apostle,” Paul recognizes in today’s Epistle. But by “the grace of God,” even a persecutor of the Church—as Paul once was—can be lifted up for the Lord’s service.

In the Old Testament, humanity was unfit for the divine—no man could stand in God’s presence and live. But in Jesus, we’re made able to speak with Him face-to-face, to taste His Word on our tongue.

Today’s scene from Isaiah is recalled in every Mass. Before reading the Gospel, the priest silently asks God to cleanse his lips that he might worthily proclaim His Word.

God’s Word comes to us as it came to Peter, Paul, Isaiah, and today’s Psalmist—as a personal call to leave everything and follow Him, to surrender our weaknesses in order to be filled with His strength.

Simon put out into deep waters even though, as a professional fisherman, he knew it would be foolhardy to expect to catch anything. In humbling himself before the Lord’s command, he was exalted—his nets filled to overflowing; later, as Paul tells us, he will become the first to see the risen Lord.

Jesus has made us worthy to receive Him in the company of angels in God’s holy Temple. On our knees like Peter, with the humility of David in today’s Psalm, we thank Him with all our hearts and join in the unending hymn that Isaiah heard around God’s altar: “Holy, holy, holy….”

This incident tells us an important truth about how God works in and through each of us for his glory. When we cooperate in his works, we accomplish far beyond what we can do on our own. Therese of Lisieux (Little Flower), wrote to a friend: “Jesus has so incomprehensible a love for us that he wills that we have a share with him in the salvation of souls. He wills to do nothing without us. The Creator of the universe awaits the prayer of a poor little soul to save other souls redeemed like it at the price of all his Blood.” Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, in Jesus Christ God chooses ordinary people like you and me as his ambassadors, and he uses the ordinary circumstances of our daily lives and work situations to draw others into his kingdom. Jesus speaks the same message to us today: we will “catch people” for the kingdom of God if we allow the light of Jesus Christ to shine through us. God wants others to see the light of Christ in us in the way we live, speak, and witness the joy of the Gospel. God Bless us all.

Love and Prayers,

Fr. Charley Alookaran

Today’s feast marks the Presentation of the Lord Jesus in the Temple, forty days after he was born. As the firstborn, he belonged to God. According to the Law, Mary and Joseph were required to take him to the Temple and “redeem” him by paying five shekels. At the same time, the Law required the child’s mother to offer sacrifice to overcome the ritual impurity brought about by childbirth.

So, the feast we celebrate shows a curious turn of events. The Redeemer seems to be redeemed. She, who is all-pure, presents herself to be purified. Such is the humility of our God. Such is the humility of the Blessed Virgin. They submit to the law even though they are not bound by it.

However, the Gospel story nowhere mentions Jesus’ “redemption,” but seems to describe instead a religious consecration such as a priest might undergo. Saint Luke tells us that Jesus is “presented” in the Temple, using the same verb that Saint Paul uses to describe the offering of a sacrifice. Another parallel is the Old Testament dedication of Samuel to the Temple as a priest. The drama surrounding Jesus’ conception and birth began in the Temple when the Archangel visited Mary’s kinsman, Zechariah the priest. And now the story of Jesus’ infancy comes to a fitting conclusion, again in the Temple.

All the readings today concern Jerusalem, the Temple, and the sacrificial rites. The first reading comes from the Prophet Malachi, who called the priests to return to faithful service and foretold a day when a Messiah would arrive with definitive purification of the priesthood. Christ now arrives as the long-awaited priest and redeemer. He is also the sacrifice. Indeed, as His life will show, He is the Temple itself.

There are lessons we can draw from these readings for our lives today: 1. Reconfirm our commitment to God’s will. Joseph’s and Mary’s obedience in presenting Jesus at the Temple shows the importance of aligning our lives with God’s. 2. Recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Cultivate a life of prayer, reflection, and openness to the Holy Spirit to discern God’s presence and guidance in everyday moments of our lives. 3. Our hope and patience in God’s promises, like Simeon’s declaration, show the reward of waiting faithfully for God’s promises and trusting in God’s timing, maintaining hope even during long seasons of waiting, knowing he fulfills his word. 4. The recognition of universal salvation—Simeon acknowledges Jesus as a light for Revelation to the Gentiles and glory for Israel, emphasizing God’s inclusivity. Embrace a broader vision of God’s work, understanding that his love and salvation are for all people, not just a select group. 5. Endurance through challenges—Simeon prophesied the suffering Mary would face, reminding us that growth often involves trials. Accept difficulties as opportunities for refining faith and deepening trust in God’s purpose. When we have trials and challenges, let us always think about Mary and Joseph. They had gone through all these in their lives. God Bless you all.

Love and prayers,

Fr. Charley

We need background to understand what’s happening in today’s First Reading. Babylon having been defeated, King Cyrus of Persia decreed that the exiled Jews could return home to Jerusalem. They rebuilt their ruined temple and under Nehemiah finished rebuilding the city walls.

The stage was set for the renewal of the covenant and the re-establishment of the Law of Moses as the people’s rule of life. That’s what’s going on in today’s First Reading, as Ezra reads and interprets the Law and the people respond with a great “Amen!” Israel, as we sing in today’s Psalm, is rededicating itself to God and His Law. The scene seems like the Isaiah prophecy that Jesus reads from in today’s Gospel.

Please read all of Isaiah 61. The “glad tidings” Isaiah brings include these promises: the liberation of prisoners; the rebuilding of Jerusalem, or Zion; the restoration of Israel as a kingdom of priests; and the forging of an everlasting covenant. It sounds a lot like the First Reading.

Jesus, in turn, declares that Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in Him. The Gospel scene, too, recalls the First Reading. Like Ezra, Jesus stands before the people, is handed a scroll, unrolls it, then reads and interprets it. If you compare Luke 4:16–17, 21 and Nehemiah 8:2–6, 8–10, you will get it clearly.

We witness in today’s Liturgy the creation of a new people of God. Ezra started reading at dawn of the first day of the Jewish new year. Jesus also proclaims a “sabbath,” a great year of Jubilee, a deliverance from slavery to sin, a release from the debts we owe to God. The people greeted Ezra “as one man.” And, as today’s Epistle teaches, in the Spirit the new people of God—the Church—is made “one body” with Him.

The Gospel is the all-powerful and all-merciful word of God for us today. It’s a life-giving word that has supernatural power to change, transform, and bring freedom and healing to those who accept it as the living word of God. When the president of the synagogue called on Jesus to read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, Jesus chose to read Isaiah’s description of what the Messiah would do when he came to restore God’s kingdom for the people of Israel.

The Lord Jesus speaks this same word to each of us today—he comes to bring us healing and restoration, pardon, and freedom from the oppression of sin, despair, hopelessness, and destruction. We shall believe his word with expectant faith and trust. The Lord will not refuse to pour out his Spirit on all who trust in him. Ask the Lord Jesus to renew in us the joy of the Gospel and the freedom to live each day with trusting faith, joyful hope, and fervent love.

Love and prayers,

Fr. Charley

Think of these first weeks after Christmas as a season of “epiphanies.” The liturgy is showing us who Jesus is and what He has revealed about our relationship with God. Last week and the week before, the imagery was royal and filial—Jesus is the newborn king of the Jews who makes us coheirs of Israel’s promise, beloved children of God. Last week in the liturgy we went to a baptism. This week we’re at a wedding. We’re being shown another dimension of our relationship with God. If we’re sons and daughters of God, it’s because we’ve married into the family.

Have you ever wondered why the Bible begins and ends with a wedding—Adam and Eve’s in the garden and the marriage supper of the Lamb. Throughout the Bible, marriage is the symbol of the covenant relationship God desires with His chosen people. He is the groom, humanity His beloved and sought-after bride. We see this reflected beautifully in today’s First Reading.

When Israel breaks the covenant, she is compared to an unfaithful spouse. But God promises to take her back, to “espouse” her to Him forever in an everlasting covenant. That’s why in today’s Gospel Jesus performs His first public “sign” at a wedding feast.

Jesus is the divine bridegroom, calling us to His royal wedding feast. By His New Covenant, He will become “one flesh” with all humanity in the Church. By our baptism, each of us has been betrothed to Christ as a bride to a husband.

The new wine that Jesus pours out at today’s feast is the gift of the Holy Spirit given to His bride and body, as today’s Epistle says.

God often reveals his glory to us in the unlikeliest of places—in a cold stable at Bethlehem, at a village wedding party in Cana, on a bloody cross at Golgotha, or on the road to Emmaus. In today’s Gospel reading we see the first public sign and miracle which Jesus performed. The miracles of Jesus demonstrate the power of God’s love and mercy for his people. God’s kindness knows no limits. We shall thirst for God and for the abundant life and blessings he always offers to us.

We shall also intercede to Our Blessed Mother who always shows kindness and mercy towards her children on earth. She always intercedes for us and prays for us to her Son Jesus Christ. Always pray through her and she will never abandon us.

Love and prayers,

Fr. Charley

The Liturgy last week revealed the mystery of God’s plan—that in Jesus all peoples, symbolized by the Magi, have been made “coheirs” to the blessings promised to Israel. This week, we’re shown how we claim our inheritance.

Jesus doesn’t submit to John’s baptism as a sinner in need of purification. He humbles Himself to pass through Jordan’s waters in order to lead a new “exodus”—opening up the promised land of heaven so that all peoples can hear the words pronounced over Jesus today, words once reserved only for Israel and its king: that each of us is a beloved son or daughter of God.

Jesus is the chosen servant Isaiah prophesied in today’s First Reading, anointed with the Spirit to make things right and just on earth. God put His Spirit upon Jesus to make Him “a covenant of the people,” the liberator of the captives, the light to the nations. Jesus, today’s Second Reading tells us, is the One long expected in Israel, “anointed . . . with the Holy Spirit and power.” The word messiah means “one anointed” with God’s Spirit. As in 2nd Samuel 23:1-17 we see that King David was “the anointed of the God of Jacob.” The prophets taught Israel to await a royal offshoot of David, upon whom the Spirit would rest.

That’s why the crowds are so anxious at the start of today’s Gospel. But it isn’t John they’re looking for. God confirms with His own voice what the angel earlier told Mary: Jesus is the Son of the Most High, come to claim the throne of David forever.

The Lord Jesus is ever ready to renew and refashion us in his likeness through the gift and working of the Holy Spirit—and he anoints us for mission as ambassadors of his kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy. We are called to be the “light” and “salt” of his kingdom that radiate the beauty and aroma of his mercy and goodness to those around us. The Lord Jesus wants his love and truth to shine through us that many others may find new life, freedom, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Ask the Lord Jesus to fill us with his Holy Spirit that we may radiate the joy of the Gospel to those around us.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit and with the fire of your love and goodness. May I always find joy and delight in seeking to please you in doing your will just as you have delighted in the joy of pleasing your Father and doing his will. Help me to do the Heavenly Father’s will in my daily life and be true and faithful to you always. Amen.

Love and prayers,

Fr. Charley

An “epiphany” is an appearance. In today’s readings, with their rising stars, splendorous lights, and mysteries revealed, the face of the child born on Christmas day appears.

Herod, in today’s Gospel, asks the chief priests and scribes where the Messiah is to be born. The answer Matthew puts on their lips says much more, combining two strands of the Old Testament promise—one revealing the Messiah to be from the line of David, the other predicting “a ruler of Israel” who will “shepherd his flock” and whose “greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth.”

Those promises of Israel’s king ruling the nations resound also in today’s Psalm. The psalm celebrates David’s son, Solomon. His kingdom, we sing, will stretch “to the ends of the earth,” and the world’s kings will pay him homage. That’s the scene, too, in today’s First Reading, as nations stream from the East, bearing “gold and frankincense” for Israel’s king.

The Magi’s pilgrimage in today’s Gospel marks the fulfillment of God’s promises. The Magi, probably Persian astrologers, are following the star that Balaam predicted would rise along with the ruler’s staff over the house of Jacob. Laden with gold and spices, their journey evokes those made to Solomon by the Queen of Sheba and the “kings of the earth.” Interestingly, the only other places where frankincense and myrrh are mentioned together are in songs about Solomon. One greater than Solomon is here. He has come to reveal that all peoples are “coheirs” of the royal family of Israel, as today’s Epistle teaches.

St. John Chrysostom, an important Early Church Father who served as Archbishop of Constantinople, explains the significance of the star of Bethlehem this way: “Note how fitting was the order of events: the wise men saw the star, were received by the Jews and their king; they heard prophecy to explain what had appeared; the angel instructed them; and then they journeyed from Jerusalem to Bethlehem by the guidance of the star. From all this we learn that this was not an ordinary star, for no other star has this capacity to guide, not merely to move but to beckon, to ‘go before them,’ drawing and guiding them along their way. The star remained after bringing them to the place, in order that the child might also be seen. For there is nothing conspicuous about the place. The inn was ordinary. The mother was not celebrated or notable. The star was needed to manifest and illumine the lowly place, until they had reached their destination at the manger.”

We do have a star now which leads us to Jesus, that is “The Holy Bible.” Follow it, read and meditate every day on a passage from it, then we will also reach Jesus Christ Himself. The Bible is our daily guiding Star to reach Him.

Love and prayers,

Fr. Charley

Why did Jesus choose to become a baby born of a mother and father and to spend all but His last years living in an ordinary human family? In part, to reveal God’s plan to make all people live as one “holy family” in His Church.

In the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, God reveals our true home. We’re to live as His children, “chosen ones, holy and beloved,” as the First Reading puts it.

The family advice we hear in today’s readings—for mothers, fathers, and children—is all solid and practical. Happy homes are the fruit of our faithfulness to the Lord, we sing in today’s Psalm. But the Liturgy is inviting us to see more, to see how, through our family obligations and relationships, our families become heralds of the family of God that He wants to create on earth.

Jesus shows us this in today’s Gospel. His obedience to His earthly parents flows directly from His obedience to the will of His heavenly Father. Joseph and Mary aren’t identified by name, but three times are called “his parents” and are referred to separately as his “mother” and “father.” The emphasis is all on their familial ties to Jesus. But these ties are emphasized only so that Jesus, in the first words He speaks in Luke’s Gospel, can point us beyond that earthly relationship to the Fatherhood of God.

In what Jesus calls “my Father’s house,” every family finds its true meaning and purpose. The Temple we read about in the Gospel today is God’s house, His dwelling. But it’s also an image of the family of God, the Church.

When God sent his only begotten Son into the world, Jesus was born into a human family as a Jew who was raised according to the teaching and wisdom of God’s word in the Hebrew Scriptures and the religious customs of his people. Jesus was born under the law of Moses and was circumcised on the eighth day and given his name, Yeshua in Hebrew (Jesus in English) which means “God saves.”

We know little about Jesus’ early life at home in Nazareth. Luke tells us that Jesus was obedient to his parents—Mary, his mother and Joseph, his foster father. As devout and God-fearing Jews, Joseph and Mary raised the boy Jesus according to the Scriptures and Jewish customs. It was the duty of all Jewish parents to raise their children in the instruction and wisdom of God’s word in the Scriptures. We shall also raise our children in the instruction and wisdom of God’s word in the Scripture and in the fear of God always. And pray for our children every day of our life. May God bless us and our families abundantly.

Love and prayers,

Fr. Charley

My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,

I understand it is sometimes difficult to see the good when we feel so overwhelmed by despair, but Christmas reminds us of something critical to keep in our minds, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5). My friends, there are many more reasons to be grateful and filled with hope because of our faith. God has and will continue to help us to see all of this through.

Therefore, we are reminded that we are a Christmas people and that Jesus is incarnated in every act of love and kindness we extend to one another. God can reach us beyond all the barriers the world can create and revive us by giving us strength in times of great distress. So, we can do this, and we will overcome because we are the Church, the body of the risen Christ!

Now, I pray that you may see a bright future awaiting. I believe, as many of you do, too, that God is leading us into a new season of life and ministry together. We have grown so much as a parish family. My only request is that we continue to do so by inviting others, getting to know each other, and showing appreciation of each other. We have done well at this and I am pleased to see such a friendly and welcoming spirit! Let us continue to grow together and in such a spirit let us celebrate many more Christmases together.

As your pastor, along with our staff, we are called to serve alongside you.

With this, I invite you to stay connected and don’t underestimate the value of your presence (online or in-person), service, prayers, witness, and giving/pledging for the renovation of the old school building. We need each other more than ever before. Please reach out to each other and encourage one another, particularly as we may be tempted to give up hope. Ask for help if you need it.

I am privileged to be your pastor, and I feel incredibly blessed and honored to be with you. My prayers are with you always. You are remembered in my Masses and in my daily prayers. Thank you for all your support and keep me, too, in your valuable prayers.

May you be filled with the wonder of Mary, the obedience of Joseph, the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the determination of the magi, and the peace of the Christ child. Amen.

I wish you all a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas and a very Prosperous New Year 2025.

With gratitude, love and Prayers,

Fr. Charley