Homily for the Lunar New Year

February 15, 2026
Our Lady of Fatima Church
Fort Worth, Texas

Genesis 1:14-18
Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Philippians 4:4-8
Matthew 6:25-34

We come together today to worship God in the offering of the Mass. We do so because God has revealed Himself fully to us through the Sacred Scriptures and fully in the gift of His Son Jesus Christ, who taught the Apostles and His earliest disciples to do this in His memory. We come together as members of His Holy Catholic Church in communion with the Church throughout the world.

We come together today also as families and as members and guests of the Vietnamese community shaped by a culture handed down to you by your elders who were brought here by God to the United States of America to contribute to the flourishing of this society by hard work and the sharing of God’s blessings who delivered you from the scourge of war and oppression.

Today’s cultural celebration of the lunar new year is marked by the symbol of the Fire Horse — representing such themes as freedom, speed, and intelligence all directed towards prosperity. There are many customs associated with this celebration attached to bringing us good luck and avoiding bad luck.

Our readings for this Mass speak to an even more profound truth that our lives are not ultimately influenced by luck, chance, or superstition, but rather by God’s Love and Providence. They speak to the love of God in creating the world and the universe and human beings. They reveal to us that we are not controlled by such awesome entities and the sun and the moon, but that even these things owe their existence to God’s love. “God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day and the lesser one to govern the night, and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky, to illuminate the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was very good.” The Scripture continues to reveal that God placed at the center of creation human beings — male and female — made in His image.    

All human beings are created to be attracted to the light because light draws us to life and goodness, but darkness draws us away towards false promises, deceit, and death. The light drew our ancient ancestors, before receiving the gift of faith, towards seeing the moon and the sun as more powerful than us and therefore as our masters whom we needed to cajole and to appease.

But the Revelation offered us by Christ through Sacred Scripture and Tradition as handed down authentically by the Apostles and His Catholic Church, show us that He is the source of our freedom, our speed, our power, and our intelligence. As we listen to the words of Jesus from today’s Gospel, “If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will He not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’

All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom [of God] and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.”

Without God, we become lost in the darkness. Without God, we cannot know love or offer love to each other as husbands and wives, as parents and children, as brothers and sisters, as families and neighbors. Without God, we can only be afraid of the darkness and in our fear we will turn to hatred just as the communists do in their commitment to atheism and their sordid gain.

The Good News is that God created and redeemed us and that He loves us and is the source of our freedom and power, having made us little less than gods, crowning us with glory. As God’s loved children and as His family, let us now continue with the offering of the Mass and allow Him to feed us with His own Body and Blood which He shed for our freedom from the power of darkness.