Father Weerackoon’s Homilies and Talks

5th Sunday of Lent

The woman caught in adultery stood nearly naked and humiliated in the midst of Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes and couldn’t escape from the fact that she was being dragged her death. But she encounters and receives Divine Mercy, who Himself will be utterly humiliated and naked when He is placed in the midst of two thieves and raised up high on the cross in taking on not just her sin, but all of our sins and shame in suffering death for our sake in an act of supreme love engraved on the wood of the cross that no wind could ever erase.

4th Sunday of Lent

The sons of the merciful father in the parable sadly didn't know their father's heart, but the father wanted his sons to have a heart like his. So too do we stand to inherit a heart of our Father who art in heaven if only we ask Him, because our Father tells us everything I have is yours.

3rd Sunday of Lent

Jesus addressed the Samaritan woman personally because He knew her shame and humiliation. Jesus also wishes to come into our private lives - not to embarrass us or judge us or condemn us - but to free us, to change us, and to offer us what we really need: the living water of the Holy Spirit because Jesus thirsts for us.

2nd Sunday of Lent

Lent is meant to be a time of transformation for each of us. Lent is not primarily about things we just give up – it’s about what God wants to give us. Lent is not just about what we have to do for God – it’s about what God wants to do for us. He wants to do great things for us. He wants to change us, to transform us, to transfigure us so that we become like Christ, so that we come to realize that our citizenship is in heaven.

1st Sunday of Lent

Jesus went out into the desert as to a field of battle to conquer temptation for us. So in the name of Jesus Christ, we need to renounce the temptations and lies from the devil by sending those temptations to the foot of the cross, and pray asking the Lord to lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

8th Sunday of Ordinary Time

How do we allow Jesus to take the wooden beam out of our own eye so that we can see better? Ask yourself: when was the last time you thought your opinion was wrong? We probably don’t remember. We always think we’re correct. But if we recognize that Jesus is always right, then we give Him permission to take the wooden beam out of our eye, and through the wooden beam of the cross, He will lift us up to heaven.

7th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Our human instinct is to get back at our enemies and those who hurt us. But Jesus gives us three concrete ways to love our enemies - to do good with our actions, to bless them with our words, and to pray for them with our thoughts so that we transform, change, and inspire our enemies.

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

We need to learn to weep and be vulnerable with Jesus, because He can hold our pain and because He gives us His shoulder to cry on. And when we do so, we will hear Jesus tell us: "Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh."

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Isaiah, Peter, and Paul all had their sins - but that's not what God saw. God saw in them a treasure because they acknowledged their sins and He called them to be saints. We too are called to be in God's family, to be vulnerable, loving, forgiving, and to share a communal life so that we too may be saints.

The Presentation of the Lord

Jesus is the Lord, the mighty in battle, who is presented in the Temple as our true high priest to free us from sin, death, and the devil. So we can take confidence that we are not alone in this battle because we are equipped with what we need for battle by the Lord, strong and mighty, mighty in battle, the king of glory.