Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers confronted him, saying, “You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.” This incident happened soon after the Pentecost event. Peter was going around Jerusalem and its neighboring towns thus most of the newly converted were Jews, Orthodox Jews who were strictly faithful to the Mosaic laws and Jewish traditions and practices like circumcision, separating from the Gentiles, and even religious dietary restrictions. They wanted to follow Christ but were not ready to let go of their old way of life. They were not ready to live alongside the Gentiles who also accepted Christ and so could not include them into their community. They embraced Jesus’ resurrection but could not discard their deep rejection of the Gentile people. If the apostles and their successors had also maintained the same disposition, the church would not have grown. It was only when the good news spread to the Gentiles and non-Jews that the chu

 "I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me.” Out of the 150 Psalms, I memorized two which are Psalm 91 and Psalm 23. As you know, I grew up on a farm. Venomous snakes were very common, so as a family, we used to recite Psalm 91 during family prayer and before setting off to go to the farm. One of the verses in the Psalm reads like this: “You can tread upon the asp and the viper.” As children, we thought it was a powerful spiritual weapon so memorized it. At some point, Psalm 23 was also added to our family prayer. This family practice cultivated a beautiful prayer habit for me. And I especially love Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; nothing I shall want.” If Jesus is our shepherd, our Lord, we will have everything we need, because He gives us everything including His own life. He protects us and ensures we are safe with His life. He would rather die for us than to see us die. Each one of us is special to Him; thus, He knows us not as a flock of sheep all the same

 "The Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. She was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit, she grew in numbers.” What peace did the early Church have? There was a period around when I was four or five years old, gangs of robbers were attacking the nearby villages. They came from a neighboring state and broke into many houses. They stole and robbed everything in these houses. The families who tried to fight back would be brutally killed. No one knew when they would suddenly attack again. My family was terrified because there was one family, whom my parents knew, was robbed and killed. We were afraid they would come to our village, to our home. We were afraid to be robbed and killed. We didn’t have any police protection, no helpline to call, no one to save us.  Some evenings when my papa was delayed in returning home from the farm, we children would be so frightened and anxious, worried that the robbe

Holy family School Mass  “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me”.  Isn’t this wonderful? Jesus says that He will not reject anyone who comes to Him. This means that whoever goes to Jesus, whether they are naughty or nice, good or bad, He will accept them all and love them all. So, every one of you here, no one excluded, as long as you go to Jesus, He will accept you. This is truly good news! And this is what we are celebrating for Easter, Jesus died to save not just some people, but the whole world. During this season of Easter, we take readings from the Acts of the Apostles. We see how the Apostles were fervent and fearless in the way they go around to preach this good news and how thousands and thousands of people believed and were baptised. But it was not smooth and easy, we see in the first reading, how the early church was being persecuted. The enemies have killed Jesus, and they continue to kill those who believed in Him

"But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” Can you visualize this scene? His enemies were ready to stone him to death, but he was not at all afraid. He even seemed joyful to be dying, he was fearless as he continued to preach and give witness to Jesus with his dying breath. Such unwavering faith, such unshakable courage! I too wish to have faith and courage like that. I wonder if all the martyrs who died for Jesus could have seen with their own eyes the glory of God, like Stephen did, just before their death. That would have given them the strength because at that moment, nothing else mattered, they knew without a doubt who was there waiting for them and what they would gain from their dying - the glory of heaven. To become a martyr like Stephen, would imply living a life not compromising to the ways of the world. In fact, it would mean living a life in conflict with the world. Jesu

But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world. I grew up in a big household, with 7 children, our parents, and our grandparents, totaling 11 of us altogether. Among my siblings, fights were very common, but most of the time, we would reconcile ourselves quickly and life got back to normal fast. There were occasions when our fights were intense, and the separation lasted much longer. Our grandpa had a special ability to sense that we needed external help to set things right again. He would simply call all of us together, made us take turns to apologize to one another with a hug and miraculously, we were back to normal again after that. Many times, I waited eagerly for grandpa’s intervention when we could not resolve it ourselves because I wanted to play again with my siblings, but I didn’t have the confidence to initiate reconciliation. A few years ago,

"But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out, and said, “Go and take your place in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life.” I love this scene from the Acts of the Apostles. You can almost feel the excitement and experience a jaw-drop reaction when you visualize the prison doors suddenly open wide and a bright light leading them all out of prison. Free again! To continue preaching and spreading the Good News with greater fervor and conviction! It was not yet time for the apostles to stay in prison, they still had more work to do, so God sent His angels to set them back to the temple area, to reinstate them from being prisoners back to being preachers.  This is not a legend, not someone’s imagination, but it truly did happen. The truth is, such divine intervention is still happening in our time. Have you heard about the story of the beggar priest? I will share the gist  of it here. There was a priest who did somet

 "There was no needy person among them." Today’s first reading described how the early Christians lived, they shared everything, no one owned anything to their own name, and the apostles distributed everything equally among the people. Can you imagine living in such a community, in such a society? Wouldn’t it be wonderful? Because truly, there would not be any needy person, everyone’s basic needs would be provided for. In the first few decades after the resurrection of Jesus, there was a common belief that the second coming of Jesus would happen very soon. It is reflected in an old Aramaic prayer the people chanted regularly, “Maranatha” which means "Our Lord is coming". Because of that belief, the people did not cling on to their property or wealth.  However, as the number of Christians increased, it must have become a herculean task for the apostles to ensure equal and fair distribution. And when they came to understand later that the second coming of the Lord was

 Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.” He takes away the first to establish the second. By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all. From the second reading, we hear about the ‘will’ and ‘consecration’. In the Gospel also, we hear the great Fiat of Mary, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word”. By choosing to unite her will to God’s, the incarnation took place, the long-awaited Messiah took on human flesh. Mary was a simple young woman from Nazareth who like all other Jews, had been praying for the coming of the Messiah. When God’s plan was announced to her, she did not give up her well, instead she chose to unite her will freely and totally to the will of God. At that moment, her life is no longer separate from God’s plan, instead her life became separated and set aside from the world. She has consecrated herself totally to God. As Jesus grew and began to exercise His will

 Let the house of Israel say, "His mercy endures forever." Let the house of Aaron say, "His mercy endures forever." Let those who fear the LORD say, "His mercy endures forever." We sang these verses in today’s responsorial psalm. God’s mercy endures forever. ‘Forever’ means from the very beginning to the very end of time, God’s mercy ‘endures’. What does it endure? Does it endure just the length of time? No, more than that. It endures the breadth of our sins, and the depth of our hard-heartedness. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, they had to bear the consequences of their sins. Even then, we read the scene of God putting together some garments for Man and Woman to cover themselves, who became conscious of their nakedness. This is a beautiful sign of God’s affectionate and compassionate love for the man and woman He created. This is God’s mercy. Thereafter throughout the whole of history, from Abraham to Moses, to Jesus till today, God continues to pur

Thank you all for continuing to come for Saturday morning Mass. When I was little, my family used to attend Saturday morning Mass together and will always end with the Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. To me, that is a beautiful devotion for the whole family. I have wanted to start Saturday morning Mass when I first came to SAC but didn’t know if it will catch on with the parishioners. Last year, I attended an evening talk about Our Lady of Fatima at St. Augustine Parish and came to know about the First Five Saturday devotion, and I was again motivated. Finally, today being the first Saturday of the month, we can begin. Let me share a bit more about this devotion. Sr. Lucia was one of the three shepherd children visionaries to whom our Blessed Mother appeared for six months in 1917 in Fatima. Later when Lucia grew up and joined the convent in Spain, our Blessed Mother appeared to her again on December 10, 1925, with this message, “Behold, my daughter, my Heart encircled with thorns

 Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb, weeping. Today’s gospel begins by describing the emotional state of Mary. We can all visualize and identify with this scene. Mary Magdalene is very sad, to the point of experiencing deep emotional pain which triggers tears. This is love.  I recall when my papa died within a week of discovering his illness. It was unexpected, we were all unprepared. All my sisters wept on the day he died, and into the days after his burial. They cried again, very emotionally, when we visited his tomb thereafter and I recited the Office for the Dead. I, too, cried a lot at papa’s death. Love is a powerful emotion. It stirs our heart to feel the pain of loss, which works up our brain to trigger the release of tears, to help reduce the emotional pain. God gave us tears to help us manage our pain.  Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus, and before He entered Jerusalem, and at the garden of Gethsemane. His love for humanity stirred up deep emotional pain, strong enough f

Preached During  Holy Family School Mass.  This week is a special week, do you know what it is known as? Yes, Holy Week! It is the holiest week in the whole year of the church. This is the week when the church follows everything that happened to Jesus, and studies seriously everything that Jesus did and taught, every day, up to Easter Sunday. Christians all over the world remember and celebrate the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus during this week. How many of you went to church last Sunday? Did you take back some palms? Great! So last Sunday was Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday. It remembers the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem sitting on a donkey and many people welcomed him with palms shouting, “Hosanna to the King of kings!” It is the beginning of Holy Week. Then we have Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday. And what is today? You are right, today is Holy Wednesday. But there is also another name to this day…anyone knows? Today is also known as Spy Wednesday. A s

 "I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth." We can see light from the sun, we know what happens when we turn on the light switch in a room, we understand how it is like to walk in the night without any streetlight. But how does a person become a light to others and to the world? Yesterday we read from one servant song from Isaiah, meditating on the compassion, mercy, and love of the Messiah, who came as a suffering servant of God. Today we read a second servant song, which further iterates the mission of the Messiah to shine for the world and bring the salvation of God to everyone. God is light, in Him there is no darkness, and Jesus is the light of the world. How does His light shine in the world? During middle school, I read a short story titled ‘The Little Girl Who Spread Light’. It was based on a true story. It told of a businessman whose business failed terribly, he had no way out of the situation and decided to end hi

“A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching.” There are four passages in the book of the prophet Isaiah known as ‘Servant Songs’, or ‘Songs of the Suffering Servant’.  Today’s first reading is taken from the first song. The next two days we will read from another two songs. These are prophecies about Jesus, written 700 years before His birth, and they reveal the mission and disposition of the Messiah. This first song describes the most important disposition of Jesus and His very purpose on earth. A bruised weed is a stalk of grain which is crushed and broken in such a way that it will never produce any grain again. It is a dying stalk. This refers to the poor and oppressed, so miserable is their life such that they can never on their own, rise above their poverty and neediness. Their only hope is having someone to lift them out of their situation. A smoldering wick mi

 “But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph. In their failure, they will be put to utter shame.” Jeremiah is arrogantly confident of God. He boasts of God’s might and that He will fight Jeremiah’s enemies down and put them all to ‘utter shame’ for the sake of the prophet. Don’t we all wish to have a mighty warrior, like a bodyguard, watching our back and causing all our enemies to fear and tremble? During my school days, kids from my village had to walk two miles every morning and evening, to and from school. There were twenty kids from my village who had to walk that way together every day. And along the way we would have lots to talk, play and fight about. We talked about anything and everything, and we fought over small and simple things. But the fights never lasted long; very quickly we became friends again. There was this girl, who was also my sister’s classmate, whenever somebody fought with her, she would threaten them by

 Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works of Abraham.” Traditionally, children often follow the trades of their parents, learning the craft and skills and attitude. Apprenticeship was the prevalent education system. So, what were the works of Abraham? What did he do? Searching scripture for the answer, James 2:23 says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.” All of Abraham’s works were works of faith; it was not ‘what’ he did, but ‘how’ he lived. He lived in faithfulness to God, he lived in close relationship with God. His faithfulness made him the father of all the faithful for generations and generations. His faithfulness caused him to believe in God and in the impossible. When God called him out of his homeland, his birthplace and to move to an unknown distant land, promising him a child in his very old age, and having descendants like the stars of heaven. These were v

“They suppressed their consciences; they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and did not keep in mind just judgments”.  Do you remember hearing these verses in today’s first reading? It is a very long reading so you might have missed it. These words made me recall something a very devout woman once said to me. She said, “Father, it is not easy to go to hell.” That got my attention because I have always thought that it is easy to go to hell but difficult to go to heaven, don’t you think so? She then continued and explained, “God has given us everything we need to help us get to heaven easily: a conscience, the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, many opportunities to perform good deeds, help, guidance, gifts and charisms from the Holy Spirit, and the list goes on. But to go to hell, we have to choose to go against all these intentionally.” What an interesting perspective! And she is not wrong. In today’s story about Susanna, the judges who were plotting evil, had to go again

“And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” Are you drawn to Jesus? In the Gospel, we see that the Greeks want to see Jesus. Greeks were non-Jews, they were pagans. They did not know the prophesies about a Messiah who will come to save the world. But these Greeks are seeking out Jesus.  They might have heard of His wisdom, or witnessed the miracles He performed, or seen the number of people He healed. They might simply be curious, or they might really be drawn to this amazing person, so much so that they approached Philip to arrange for them to see Jesus. Do you also want to see Jesus? We are getting closer to Holy Week. This is already the fifth Sunday of Lent and traditionally, the church veils the crucifix from now till Good Friday. Some churches would veil the statues too.  How do you feel seeing, or rather, not seeing the crucifix and statues of Jesus and the saints in the church? Have you ever thought, what would this world be if Jesus had not come?

 "Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?” Do you firmly believe in Jesus? Why? If someone in authority comes and questions you, “Why do you believe in Jesus? Have you been deceived?” Would you be shaken? Would you know how to answer? In today’s Gospel, we see many people believing in Jesus, even the temple guards were inspired, because “never before has anyone spoken like this man”, they say. They believe because they have seen and heard Jesus for themselves. What about us? Who brought you into this faith? For me, it was my parents. They were believers and their parents were believers too. And so, generations in my family all believe in Jesus because someone whom we trust introduced us to the faith. And I do not for one moment think they have deceived me. Most of us would have started our faith life the same way. We come to believe because someone we trust believes in God first, and we followed them. They are not people of author

“Once more, he measured off a thousand, but there was now a river through which I could not wade; for the water had risen so high it had become a river that could not be crossed except by swimming.” The book of Ezekiel contains visions and prophecies of Ezekiel, called to minister to the Israelites who were in exile in Babylon. We get a glimpse of how they were living in those times. Having lost the temple in Jerusalem, the people felt they have lost God and were giving up on the traditions and practices to keep up their faith. This vision of Ezekiel led me back to my own childhood days. Everyone in my village knew how to swim. There were no swimming coaches nor life jackets, but children just learnt to swim by following what others did. There was a pond at our family farm, it was 20 feet deep and almost always full. My siblings and I would go there very often. They learnt to swim very fast, but I took a long time. I was afraid of the deep waters; I was fearful about drowning. While ot

 "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe…" If you had been praying to God all your life, but never once were your prayers answered, would you still believe? My mother was diagnosed with cancer when I was still studying in Rome. I prayed hard for a miracle for my mommy to be healed and to live long enough to see me become a priest. But she died at age 62 in 2012, four years before my ordination. Then in 2018, my father was also diagnosed with cancer. He was 70 years old. Again, I prayed hard for his speedy recovery, since I was already a priest for two years, I desperately needed a miracle to believe in my priesthood. But he passed away just one week after his diagnosis. I was sad for my parents’ early death, but what I found very difficult to accept was that my prayers for miracles were rejected, or so I thought. Now fast forward to January 2024, finally I made my first trip back to India after four years in USA. One of my anxieties was my hundred-and-o

“For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.” It is logical right? If we did something terrible, made mistakes or broke the rules, we really do not want to be exposed. It is embarrassing, shameful and so we hide. Either we do not want to face the consequences of punishment, or we are simply afraid that if others know about it, they will lose respect for us, look at us differently or stop loving us. A friend shared with me that once when he went for reconciliation, he sat in the confessional behind the screen and tried to change the tone of his voice so that he would not be recognized by the confessor who was his parish priest because he felt ashamed of his sins. At the end of the confession, after the absolution, the priest suddenly spoke to him to convey a message and called him by his name. He was recognized! Honestly, just to share with you as a priest, I really do not think too much about the sins y