Homily: February 28, Monday of the Eight week in the Ordinary Time.

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 “You are lacking in one thing.” Jesus said to the man. That man had many possessions, he probably had everything necessary for a very comfortable life and more. Yet, he was still seeking, he had not found fulfilment.

Jesus said that he was lacking in one thing. It must be the thing which would make his life complete, which he would find satisfaction and contentment.

What is that one thing?

I have a secret to share with you. I have a phobia. I am claustrophobic. One of the places I avoid is the elevator, especially when I am alone. Even with someone in it with me, I would suffer extreme anxiety and fear. I would rather take the stairs if I have a choice. 

I know that elevators in this country are very safe, there are definitely more accidents on the roads than in an elevator. But deep in my subconscious mind, I don’t believe I can survive more than a minute in the elevator. Psychologically, I have zero faith in it, even though intellectually I know it is safe. I can never step into an elevator alone.

What is that irrational force that blocks us from living our full potential?

Fear. What are you afraid of?

And what do we need to free us from fear so that we can live a full life?

Faith. Faith in God, believing truly that He is in control and has a perfect plan for each of us.

The man who came to Jesus, believed in God and kept the commandments. But it seems that he followed the law in fear of punishment, not in faith.

When Jesus told him to “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.”

He could not do it. He was afraid to let go. He had more faith in his earthly wealth than the ‘treasure in heaven’. He did not have faith in God’s promises.

Faith is more precious than gold because the final reward of faith is eternal life. But how many of us would give up the gold in our hands in exchange for faith that we cannot hold? And the more gold we hold, the harder it is to let go.

We believe in the existence of heaven, but we do not want to walk the way. We want to fly there in first class.

Believing in a God whom we have not seen is difficult. Saying we believe is easy but living it in total trust is not easy at all.

Without faith, how can we ever enter the kingdom of God?

“For men it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”

None of us can ever enter on our own efforts. But with God’s grace and mercy, all of us can.

Do you believe?

Fr. Nivin Scaria


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Homily: February 27, 2022, Eight Sunday in the Ordinary Time

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For readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022722.cfm There were two brothers who lived debauched lives engaging in terrible deeds. They were notorious yet not at all ashamed. Then one brother died. The surviving brother asked the local pastor to preach at his brother’s funeral. The pastor, aware of the brothers’ background, was reluctant to do it. The brother then promised to donate a big sum of money to the church and begged the pastor to preach with a special request. “Father, in your homily, you just have to say that my brother was a saint.” The pastor thought about it and agreed. The funeral day came. The pastor began his homily, “The man laid in the casket was a rotter; he led a horrible and debauched life. He was truly rotten to the bone. But compared to his brother, he was a saint.” Saintly life or shoddy living – Would the priest at our own funeral have to be paid to tell a lie? It all depends on what kind of fruit we produce from the way we live. Usually, we cannot
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Homily: April 23, 2024, Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter (Exciting news).

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Those who had been scattered by the persecution that arose because of Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. Antioch is approximately 300 miles from Jerusalem. So it seems that the good news of Christ had spread out far and wide very fast since the death of Stephen. Look at these early converted believers, how excited they are to receive and share the good news. When was the last time you were super excited about something and had to share it with everyone you know? A few days ago, a young friend of mine got enlisted into the US military, he called eagerly to tell me, "Father, I am a soldier." And in a few hours, he came to my office and told me again the same news. He was so excited, it was the best news he had been waiting for, and he went around telling all his friends about it within that morning. Little children are not good at containing their excitement. Often when my young nephews and nieces got new toys, they would immediately FaceTime with me to show
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Homily: June 19, 2023, Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time (parish Treasure)

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"As unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things." In today’s first reading, we see St. Paul’s wisdom as he writes to the faith community in Corinth. He is teaching them to see positivity in every hardship, every problem, every suffering. To him, every situation, seemingly good or bad, is a blessing, if we have eyes of faith to see it. A good example is our St. Ambrose parish. In the diocese, we are one of the poorest parishes, despite being the Cathedral. Seventy percent of our parishioners are refugees, living every day in survival mode, working hard to build a basic home, to educate their children, simply to live in peace. They left their war-torn country to find a new home, starting from zero. They brought nothing with them, only faith and hope. Materially, they have next to nothing, so they are not able t
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Homily: March 13, 2022, Sunday of the second Week of Lent

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 The Lord God took Abram outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can. Just so,” he added, “shall your descendants be.”  “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession.” God made these two promises to Abram. For the people in ancient times, and for many even in modern times, having children as heir and owning land as property are two most important possessions in life. Abram had been leading a nomadic life for many years and his wife Sarai, already in her old age, was still childless at that time. So, Abram doubted and questioned, “how am I to know…?” Have you been praying for something important, bearing heavy burdens while waiting, trying to keep hopeful but still you received nothing? Would you also doubt and question God? In response to Abram’s doubt, God assured him by cutting a covenant with him, known as a covenant of the pieces. In ancient times, when people entered a treaty, a contractual agreement, they wo
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Homily: April 30, 2024, Tuesday of the fifth week of Easter (Power over Satan)

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"I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me..."  Jesus is comforting His disciples before His passion and death. The disciples’ greatest fear was losing Jesus to the enemies. They needed Jesus to save them from Roman power and the abuse of the Jewish authorities. But Jesus knew His time with His disciples was limited, yet He assured them that the ‘ruler of the world’ had no power over Him. Jesus was speaking about Satan and his power. When Satan was an angel of God, he enjoyed power given to him to serve God. When he turned against God, God did not take back that gift. So, Satan retained power, but which can never overpower God who gave it to him originally. He has no power over Jesus. When we look around, we see a lot of evil committed by people, and which seem to spread more evil around. We see even believers, Christians, falling away, continuing in repetitive sin, giving in to addiction, giving up their faith.  Why i
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Homily: November 20, 2023, Monday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time (Hope).

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"But many in Israel were determined and resolved in their hearts not to eat anything unclean; they preferred to die rather than be defiled with unclean food or profane the holy covenant, and they did die.” At the beginning of the first reading, the situation of the Israelites was disappointing. There were many ‘breakers of the law’ who ‘seduced’ their fellow Jews to discard their covenant with God. Many chose to disobey and disown God, and accepted the gods and deities of the Gentiles, believing that would protect their lives. They were quick to give up their faith in the generous God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses because of some difficulties and discomfort in life. That led to the persecution of the Jews during the time of the Maccabees. But when we come to the end of the reading, the determination of some of the Jews ‘not to eat anything unclean’ shows that there were many who kept the covenant with God and were faithful even in the face of death. There is hope. Looking at
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Homily: May 4, 2024 Saturday of the fifth week of easter (Align to the Holy Spirit).

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“Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number.” This was the observation made by the author of today’s first reading, reporting about how St. Paul and companions went about preaching the good news, teaching the faith and building the church communities. If the same author were to be here today, looking at what is happening in the church communities now, how would he report? What would he say about the churches here? Churches are closing, religious vocations are decreasing, few people are sharing faith, young people in the families are not attending Mass, people are choosing churches that align with their ideologies not based on truth. It looks like the first 300 years in the history of the Church were the most glorious and productive. What happened thereafter? Why such a great difference? What is missing? What went wrong? Is this the same situation in churches around the world? Is there any hope that the church will grow again, in strength and spirit? Yes,
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Homily: June 4, 2023, The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Trinity-Love-Power)

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 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." When I was a child, I wished to be tall, strong and muscular; I dreamed of winning every fight and imagined myself being feared by others. But the truth is I was always thin and small in stature compared to my peers and was bullied by others. To compensate for my lack, I decided that my God is powerful and mighty and will defeat all my enemies.  Growing up in a predominantly Hindu country, I was fascinated by the stories of Hindu deities who were victorious in every battle, they were superheroes. In school, my Hindu friends and I would argue whose god would win in a wrestling competition: Jesus or Krishna and Shiva the Hindu gods. But Jesus does not even possess any weapon, has never been in fights and would never kill, how could He win? I secretly wished that Jesus and His angels were powerful, invincible  warriors.   So, what is our God? Our God is unlike any
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Homily: September 28, 2022 Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time (For children)

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“God is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has withstood him and remained unscathed?” How many of have visited another state in the USA? Have you visited another country out of the USA? Do you know how many countries are there in the world today?  The answer is: 195 countries! When we travel to different places, we would realize that the world is so big. If you were to visit my home country India, you may have to take three flights and travel about 30 hours to arrive. The world is so huge, isn’t it? And the whole world is far bigger and beyond this earth, the sun, the moon and the stars. Can you imagine it? I can’t. And who created all these? God. With His wisdom and mighty strength God created all these. Everything is so organized with their own characteristics and structures, it cannot happen by accident nor by chance.  Is there anything or anyone stronger than our God? No, definitely not. But I found that many children think Spiderman is stronger than God. Recently a 4-year-o
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Homily Third Sunday in Ordinary time: 1/23/22

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 “…Because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor”. Jesus declared His mission in the Gospel text today by reading from the scroll of Isaiah. Glad tidings are good news, news that will gladden the hearts of the recipients and cause them to rejoice. And prophet Ezra encouraged the Israelites who returned from exile in the first reading, “Do not be sad, and do not weep…for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!” So, what news is good news? What will truly gladden the heart and cause rejoicing? Today my homily will be short, is that good news? My family have always been average, we have always had what we needed, through God’s providence in our hard work. We just did not have comfort or extras, so we seldom go on vacations or travels. But we had simple fun and joy in daily life. My mommy died in 2012 and my papa died in 2018, both due to cancer. Papa had always been a very prayerful, humble and mild-mannered person. I saw him fast and pray consistently throughout his l
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