A Year Acceptable to the Lord: Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

My dear brothers and sisters,

These words that we heard in the Gospel today would be familiar to many of us. To some of us, these words would have a special meaning, having provided the raison d’etre of our lives. Nevertheless, when I read these words today, I was struck by the last line “and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord,” because ever since the 29^th of December, we have been in a Jubilee year, which is Our Lord referred to in the portion of the Gospel we just heard.

The foundations of the Jubilee year were laid when, through Moses, God gave the law to Israel. Thus, in chapter 25 of the book of Leviticus we read:

You shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family (Is 25:10).

In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another (Is 25: 13, 14).

You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God (Is 25: 17).

Brothers and sisters, from both, the verses read out by Our Lord, as well as in these verses from Leviticus, it is clear that a Jubilee year is about righteousness and justice. We make things right among our brothers, and God rights the relationship we have with Him. God’s mercy, freely extended in the form of an indulgence in the course of a Jubilee year, “transforms the boundaries of human justice” and “free[s] our hearts from the weight of sin because the reparation due for our sins is given freely and abundantly.”

The first reading today has something to teach us about our comportment in the course of a Jubilee Year. Ezra the priest reads out the law, forgotten by the people in the course of the Babylonian exile, and – we read – “the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.” The people were weeping, dear brothers and sisters, because they realized that bereft of the law, they had been leading sinful lives and were filled with repentance. My dear brothers and sisters, this is the task before us in this, and any, jubilee year; return to hear the instructions of the law, and then filled with repentance for our sins, return to the law and the righteousness of God’s ways.

Beloved, living in the times that we do it is easy to forget the law, but every Mass we attend offers us reminders of aspects of it. It is also essential that in the course of this Jubilee year we begin a practice of regular confession, so that we may be reconciled both with our brethren and God.

But a Jubilee year is not only about repentance and tears, for, as Ezra reminds us:

Today is holy to the LORD your God.
Do not be sad, and do not weep

Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks,
and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared;
for today is holy to our LORD.
Do not be saddened this day,
for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!

Indeed, the Jubilee year is a year for rejoicing, but a rejoicing that is in the Lord, by keeping in His ways, and being reconciled with him. And once again, dear brothers and sisters, remember this call to “allot portions to those who had nothing prepared.” There is no jubilee year, when there is no distributive justice, when we do not share with others less fortunate.

There is another element to the righteousness of the Jubilee year. We cannot profane the year of the jubilee with works that are unworthy. Even the simplest of acts may be those that take away from our brothers. Let me end by proffering a small example. I was in a vehicle some days ago, which was flying down some of these new expressways that now contaminate Goa. Dissatisfied with the speed at which he was already travelling, the driver chose to overtake from the left! Overtaking from the left, as you know, is a violation of traffic regulations, and you can take someone’s life in the process. Every death on Goan roads, my dear brothers – and there are too many deaths on our roads – is a manifestation of the disregard we have not only for traffic regulations, but for life itself, and because we privilege our own pleasure. Every violation of a right of others demands restitution and it would be a good idea to begin our commemoration of the jubilee year, by the restraining of ourselves when in traffic, chastising ourselves when we break traffic norms, and then confessing that sin at the earliest possible opportunity. If we only did so much, we would be making “a year acceptable to the Lord.”

May God bless you and help you keep the Jubilee year holy.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Fatorda on 25 Jan 2025.

This homily is dedicated to my brother Joel Albert Fernandes, whose generosity has made this homily possible. Do offer a prayer for him.)

Of Political Theology

Of the many homilies I heard during the recently concluded Exposition of the Sacred Relics of St. Francis Xavier, there was one which particularly stood out for reasons of expounding a very political theology. This homily was that of the Apostolic Nuncio to India, Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, delivered on the fourth of December, the fourteenth day of the exposition. 

In his homily, the Nuncio referred to the rather impertinent demands made to test the DNA of St. Francis Xavier. Responding to this suggestion, Archbishop Girelli said; “Actually, the DNA [of St. Francis Xavier] resides in his faith in Christ; and whoever is interested to know it can find it in every Catholic in Goa, since every Catholic Goa is intimately united to St. Francis Xavier and receives from him his imprint, his Christian legacy. We are all Francis Xaviers in Goa. He is the model of our lives.”
Now some readers may dismiss these words as mere rhetoric. However, it is not mere words but fact, since it was on this rhetoric that history has been built, and this history has had very real implications for the lives of thousands of contemporary Goans – both Catholic and otherwise.

The fact that I refer to is the fact of baptism, which the pre-liberal Portuguese state in India took very seriously. Once a person was baptised, they became Catholic, and in principle were entitled to all the rights that other Catholics were entitled to. To this early Portuguese state in India, to be Catholic was to be synonymous with being Portuguese. As a result, those who were baptised, were now considered for all practical purposes, Portuguese. Given that these Portuguese did not live in a liberal world, with its rhetoric of equality, it did not mean that all Portuguese would be treated equally. However, they were all treated as Portuguese in the graded society that they lived in. And the long legacy of this Catholic politics resulted in the fact that even today the Portuguese-ness of the Goan (both Catholic and non-Catholic) is an undeniable fact of law! 

Francis Xavier, as he was then, may have been born Basque, but when he passed through the port of Lisbon and headed to Goa, and indeed as he moved through the territories of the Portuguese crown in Asia, he would have operated as Portuguese. But Portuguese or otherwise, both he and the Portuguese crown were equally interested in that most noble of projects, the winning souls for Christ. Once these souls submitted to Christ in baptism, then as Archbishop Girelli pointed out, they were all equally imprinted with Christ.

Any argument in political theology must take theological truths as its point of departure. In this case, Archbishop Girelli is pointing to the fact that those who are baptised in Christ partake in His Spirit; and those who commune of His body, partake of His flesh. Having eaten of Him, He becomes an integral part of them, and they in Him. They are all one in Christ, just as St. Francis Xavier was one with Christ. Ergo, at the spiritual level, which any political theologian must take seriously, Christ is very much part of the DNA of every Catholic in India. By virtue of our veneration of St. Francis Xavier, by our kissing of his relic, by making him the model of our lives, and indeed, by virtue of our praying to him that he be the model of our lives, we are indeed imprinted with the DNA of St. Francis Xavier. At the end of the day, it was his total commitment to Christ which marked his DNA, to the extent that it did not corrupt!

It is unfortunate that there is no substantial amount of political theology, of the kind Archbishop Girelli articulated, being expounded in contemporary Goa, or indeed India. The theology that tends to be presented as political theology is dated, and cannot respond to the current situation in our country. Above all, it does not begin from spiritual premises, being silent on the fact that the transcendental, or supernatural, world has a very real impact on our lives. Rather, this theology remains almost entirely within an immanent frame, ignoring, if not denying (implicitly, though not explicitly) the transcendental, and sticking within the material, or natural, world. Where it attempts a political theology, it seems to remain at the level of the moral, be good to the poor, etc. etc. which while undeniably important and critical parts of the Christian project, gain importance only when they spring from a transcendental belief and truth. Indeed, what a shame, that it took a foreign diplomat to say what ought to have been on the lips of most Goans, especially the Catholic. But no matter! It is not too late for us to think more seriously about the way in which the Catholic faith physically imprints on the lives of Goans, both Catholic and non-Catholic.

(This text was first published in the O Heraldo on 21 Jan 2025.

Image Reference:St Francis Xavier baptizing Indians, by Luca Giordano, 1685, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples .)

Espouse Yourself to the Lord: Homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

For Zion’s sake I will not be silent,
   for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,
until her vindication shines forth like the dawn
   and her victory like a burning torch.

My dear brothers and sisters, when I read these lines of the first reading from the prophet Isaiah, they urged me to proclaim the truth that I know must be proclaimed. Before I do that, however, I would like to quote from the words of the Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade:

    Fizemos Cristo nascer na Bahia. Ou em Belém do Pará.
    We made Christ to be born in Bahia, or in Belém do Pará

Now the Oswald de Andrade was not proclaiming a Christian message, quite to the contrary! Nevertheless, I found these words useful to make the point that we must all recognise; that when the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ was proclaimed by the good missionaries who came to us, they once again incarnated the Word in these lands. They then incarnated the Word once again when, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and the words of Our Lord, converted bread into body, and wine into blood, and then once again when they consumed this body and blood, and became the Incarnation of the Word, inviting our ancestors to the faith.

My dear brothers and sisters, when Christ is incarnated and proclaimed in a land, it does not stay the same, it becomes another Zion, another Jerusalem. As prophet Isaiah proclaims in the first reading:

    you shall be called by a new name
   pronounced by the mouth of the LORD.
You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD,
   a royal diadem held by your God.

Prior to the Portuguese, there was no Goa. Goa was the name of the little port which the Portuguese took in 1510 on the feast day of St. Catherine of Alexandria. And by divine providence various territories kept getting added to this little town, until the words of the prophet Isaiah came to pass “you shall be called by a new name.” That new name was Goa, and it represented a particular Christian project, the proclamation of the Gospel, and the incarnation of the values of the Gospel so that these values could be imitated by all – both Catholic and non-Catholic – who lived in this land with a new name.

The prophet Isaiah prophesied that this land would be a glorious crown in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem; and so it was that Goa was also called the Pearl of the Orient.

The story I am trying to tell, my dear brothers and sisters, is of the salvific project in which Goa plays a role. The role of spreading the Gospel of Christ throughout the world. This is Goa’s special role in the evangelisation of the world. Like our Lord in the Gospel today, we are called to turn the waters of the peoples, into wine.

This role was amply fulfilled by earlier generations of Goans, who lived pious lives, and who sent sons and daughters into religious life so that they could become missionaries and preach the Word to people in all parts of Asia, Africa, and even Europe. But not just in religious life, even the lay Goan was known for virtuous living throughout the British Empire. Indeed, through their lives, they made their own the words of the psalm we heard today “Proclaim his marvellous deeds to all the nations.” St. José Vaz, whose feast we celebrated on the sixteenth of this month, is a notable example of this special calling of the Goan people.

And yet, dear brothers and sisters, it would not be an understatement to say that today we are failing in this duty to preach the Gospel and evangelize the world. It would not be wrong to say that with every day, the words of the Prophet Isaiah, “No more shall people call you “Forsaken, “or your land “Desolate,”” seem to be like a mockery of the Christian project in Goa. Our piety is being forsaken, and as we migrate or are forced into exile,  the land seems increasingly desolate. Ancient spirits once though vanquished are once again asserting themselves to the common detriment of all.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, from which we read today, St. Paul tells us:

To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.

My dear brothers and sisters, it is our bounden obligation to discern, and then fulfill, the manifestation of the Spirit given to each of us. As St. Paul says earlier in the same letter to the Corinthians (9:16), “woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel.”

The proclamation of the Gospel requires that we enter into spiritual battle with all the evil spirits that seek to reclaim what was gained in the name of Christ. The spirits of envy, or jealousy, of greed, of licentiousness, of lust, of idolatry.

I began this homily with the words of the Brazilian poet, I would like to end with the words of an unknown Gujarati poet,

Mero gaam kaatha parey
Jaha doodh ki nadiya baahe

Translated these words mean:

My village is Katha Parey
Where rivers of milk flow

Our land blessed with so much water, once ran with the rivers of wine that flows from His Sacred Heart. These rivers have been blocked dear brothers and sisters, by our disinclination to preach the Gospel and live the Gospel in our lives. Let us, therefore, espouse ourselves to Our Lord that once more, to use the words of the prophet Isaiah:

you shall be called “My Delight, “
   and your land “Espoused.”

May Our Lord, and His Blessed Mother, bless you and those you encounter this week.

(This homily was written to be preached to the faithful at the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Fatorda on 19 Jan 2025.
Image reference: “The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine,” Barna da Siena, c.
1340, Museum of Fine Arts Boston.)

An Uncommon Righteousness: Homily for the feast of the Baptism of the Lord

The second reading for today, the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord presents us with a dilemma. In his letter to Titus, St. Paul teaches:

Beloved:
The grace of God has appeared, saving all
and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires
and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age,
as we await the blessed hope,
the appearance of the glory of our great God
and saviour Jesus Christ,

St. Paul explains that it is the grace of God that is necessary, and makes possible, to live a life that rejects godless ways and worldly desires. It is God’s grace that enables us to live temperately, justly and devoutly. Now so many of you will have encountered people who have said, “Going for mass does not make you a good person!” or perhaps, that one does not have to be a Christian, or Catholic, that is, one does not need to be baptised, to be a good person. Conversely, there are others who believe that the role of religion is so that we can be good persons.

And it is a fact that it is possible to be a good, and virtuous person even, without going to Mass, or being baptised. After all, as even Biblical history will testify, there were lots of virtuous people who lived prior to the Incarnation, the birth of Our Lord. 

And yet, dear brothers and sisters, we must remember, that good deeds alone cannot get us to heaven. And this is what the Christian life is all about, getting to heaven, that is, living life eternal in our glorified bodies in the presence of God, and His Mother and saints. We must also remember that Holy Mother Church teaches that the virtuous who died before Our Lord did not go to heaven; rather they waited for the Resurrection of Our Lord, for Him to open the doors to heaven. This is why we assert in the Creed “He descended into Hell.” As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (§633) teaches us, “Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.” Heaven was impossible prior to the death and resurrection of Our Lord. 

And so it is, dear brothers and sisters that baptism is necessary for us to get to heaven. For what is it that baptism does but remove from our souls the stain of original sin! Prior to Fall, our first parents lived in a rightly ordered relationship with God, they walked with Him in the Garden of Eden. Their Fall resulted in an impossibility to have a relationship with God which is why the Son incarnated to return us to the embrace of the Father, to make us right with God.  

Brothers and Sisters, St. Paul’s letter to Titus makes the limits of our righteousness very clear:

the kindness and generous love
                        of God our saviour appeared,
            not because of any righteous deeds we had done
                        but because of his mercy,

The last verse of the psalm this Sunday sings to God and affirms that:

If you take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust.
     When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.

My dear brothers and sisters, it was the mercy of our God that restored to us the possibility of living in our bodies for life eternal. Were it not for this mercy, we would have been like those who perish and return to the dust, unable to live in the presence of God. It was His mercy that brought to human existence a quality of goodness that is undeniable. When we are pointed to non-Christians who are good and virtuous, we should also look for the Christian institutions and lives of Christian holiness that make this non-Christian virtue possible! This is to say, when He sent for His spirit, He renewed the face of the earth. Virtue was no longer what it had been!

Bishop Saint Maximus of Turin (c. 380 AD – c. 465 AD) identifies the correct relationship between virtue and holiness when he teaches:

When the Lord is Baptized, then, Righteousness does not justify Christ, but Righteousness is itself made Holy by Christ, and unfulfilled virtue is Fulfilled by Him in Whom is the Fullness of Virtues.

In other words, in submitting Himself to Baptism, Our Lord was opening the way to us not just to virtuous living, but to holiness, and through this, opening the route to heaven and eternal communion with God. 

My dear brothers and sisters, the life of the Christian is not meant to be merely the life of secular virtues, though of course this is encompassed in the Christian life. The Christian life is the life of holiness, a life that is not possible without the infusion of the grace of the Holy Spirit; a grace that is particularly promised to us through the sacrament of baptism, which is the gateway to all other sacraments and therefore the graces that they provide. As we leave the graced period of Christmastide behind, mark the commencement of Our Lord’s public life, and look forward to the penitential season of Lent, let us strive, to lead not just virtuous lives, but holy lives by rejecting godless ways and worldly desires, and living temperately, justly, and devoutly.

May St. Paul in his prayers aid us in this life. Amen.

(This homily was written to be preached to the faithful of the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Fatorda on 12 Jan 2025.
Image credit:'The Baptism of Christ,' Antoine Coypel, c.1690, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.)