Homily: March 14, 2022, Monday of the Second Week in Lent.

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 “O Lord, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers…”

When I was in 9th grade, we studied an interesting book written in my native language. The book title translated, would be “The sheep of Fatima”.

The author, Basheer, was a Muslim novelist and freedom fighter from Kerala, a state in India which is my hometown. During his time in the early 1940s, young people participated in freedom movements to fight against British occupation. Many left their homes secretly to join the fight. Many families assumed their kids had died when they did not return home.

Basheer also, left quietly one night to go to North India. He did not inform his parents and left no contact. They did not know where he went or what happened.

During the protests, Basheer was arrested and put in jail. No one in his family knew.

Finally, he returned. Walking back silently, the same way he left, he was surprised when he saw his mother waiting at the front door, with an oil lamp. It was midnight.

Since the night he left home, she had been waiting at the door for him to return, day and night, with a meal always ready for him. She did not know when, she did not know if he would, but she never gave up waiting.

She was not angry with his leaving but was overjoyed with his homecoming.

In the time of Daniel, as seen in the first reading, the people were living in sin and shame. So Daniel confessed and repented on behalf of the people. Look at our world now, we too reject God’s values, live in conflict with His teachings, and turn away from His love ever so often. We too “are shamefaced even to this day...”

Yet God has never stopped waiting, even to this day. He is merciful and compassionate, always ready to embrace us when we repent from our sins and come back to Him. And daily He prepares for us the real food, His precious body and blood.

We can never outdo God’s love and mercy. May this Lenten season help us deepen our love for our merciful God. And on behalf of our Lord, let us invite those who have left God’s house to come back soon. 

Amen.

Fr. Nivin Scaria


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Homily: April 6, 2024, Saturday in the octave of Easter (First five saturday devotion.)

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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
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“The angel led me to the gate which faces the east, and there I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east”.  These words in the first reading remind of the Orthodox and Oriental Churches. When they construct their churches, they would set their church altars to face the east, so that, when the priests celebrate Mass, they will be looking towards that direction. In India, especially in Kerala where I came from, all our church altars face the east. The concept is based on the expectation that Christ would come again, arriving from the east, and the priest is leading the community to the heavenly Jerusalem.  Interestingly, the Hindu temples also face eastwards.  And do you know, the houses in my village are built with the kitchens facing the east also. Why? It has nothing related to the coming of Christ. It has to do with the sunrise. The mothers of the households start cooking when they wake up, and the kitchens are open concept, so the rising sun will provide the much need
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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 Third Sunday in Ordinary time: 1/23/22

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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: 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: 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, March 22, 2022, Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent.

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 “Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy.” This is the prayer by prophet Azaria, pleading to God on behalf of the people. How do you discipline your children when they do something wrong? In India, caning is the norm. My parents did the same. Whenever we did something wrong, my mommy would grab the cane to give us a good beating. Of course, we knew what was coming and would run away fast. Mommy would then chase us around the house, trying to get us. Where could we go? The best trick was to run to grandpa. If we reached him before mommy got us, we will be safe! He would always protect us and plead on our behalf, “don’t cane them, just forgive this time”. How many times have we been saved by grandpa? I don’t know, maybe more than seventy-seven times. Peter asks in the Gospel, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him?” He is referring to offences between two persons. If seventy-seven times is how often we should forgive o
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Homily: March 10, 2022, Thursday of the First Week in Lent

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 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” When I was much younger, I wanted to become very rich, to have lots of money, a nice car, a big house etc.… It was a common village boy’s dream. I don’t think I actually prayed for it, but I surely dreamt about it often. What happened thereafter? Well, I am still dreaming about it. And I even pray for it now! Not for myself but for the parish. When I first moved to this parish, I was shocked by the financial situation, so I did wish and pray for this parish to be rich.  Money is indeed helpful in life but not the most important. Money solves a lot of problems only when it is used wisely. Being poor helps me learn to depend on God’s providence. So, my dream for the parish now is to be rich in God’s word, in community life, in prayerful spirit, in loving and caring for one another. I dream of hearing our prayers and singing rise-up strong and joyful to the heavens when we gather to prais
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Homily: June 26, 2023, Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time (Father of faith)

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"Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father's house to a land that I will show you…I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you.” Some many years ago, I attended a parish renewal program. One takeaway from that program which impacted me was just a simple phrase: "money follows mission". It speaks volumes about having faith in God’s providence. When I read today's first reading, I was inspired to coin this phrase: "Blessings follow struggles". This says a lot about trusting in God’s plan above our plans. In the coming two weeks, we will be reading from the book of Genesis. Today, we read from chapter 12, which narrates the call of Abram. This chapter marks the beginning of salvation history. Abram was a very wealthy man. He was leading a very comfortable, luxurious life with servants in wait and plentiful livestock. Which meant he had more than enough for himself and his household to live very long. Abram was already 75 years
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