Homily, March 19, 2022, Solemnity of St. Joseph

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 “Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame…”

In India and most of the world, men are expected to be strong, powerful, decisive and outspoken. Oftentimes, quiet, meek and gentle men are considered weak.

Are these qualities signs of weakness?

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” It is in quietness that we become more conscious of God’s presence.

Jesus teaches, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” Meekness is humility before God and allowing Him to take over as Master of life.

St. Francis de Sales said, “Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.” To be gentle is to have self-control, real strength is to have control over self, not others.

Yes, these describe St. Joseph very well. Quiet, meek and gentle. St. Joseph was a righteous man. Discovering that Mary was carrying a child from another, before he knew it was conceived from the Holy Spirit, Joseph had every right to expose her for being unfaithful to the betrothal, but he gave up his own rights so that Mary was protected from the law. His decision to quietly divorce her was to free her from the bonds of the betrothal to be with the father of the child. He was unwilling to expose Mary to shame, yet he willed for her safety and happiness.

Can any man be so humble as to bear such injustice to himself? And so generous as to offer freedom to others, quietly?

How many of us would do that - to protect someone else’s wrong by swallowing our own pride and forgoing our own rights, gently?

In my life, I have personally encountered such a man. My father had these qualities, my mother was the opposite. So, in my household, mommy was the one who won all arguments and had her way in decisions. But at the end of mommy’s life, she realised and admitted that papa was the one who had been right. My papa had never insisted on his views nor complained about mommy being wrong.

St. Joseph’s beautiful qualities are not signs of weakness. Neither are they unrealistic. They are qualities of righteousness, of faith and trust in God, of love and respect for Mary, his wife. These are qualities of spiritual strength which every one of us can imitate and receive through grace, if we ask for it.

St. Joseph, holy and humble husband of the blessed virgin Mary, pray for us.

Fr. Nivin Scaria



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Homily: May 14, Feast of St. Mathias (Chosen)

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"It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you”.  Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Matthias, who was not at first one of the twelve nor part of the inner circle of Jesus. He was chosen later into the college of apostles, to take the place of Judas. In the first reading, we saw how the apostles prayed and asked the Lord to show them whom He had chosen, someone who had accompanied them ‘the whole time’. They then cast their lots and God’s choice was revealed. Did God choose Matthias only at that point when the apostles had to replace Judas? Or did God already planned and prepared Matthias ‘the whole time’ when he was following Jesus throughout His ministry, and remained in the community even after the crucifixion? St. Paul says, “He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world…” Can you imagine, right up to this point in your life and mine, you and I are present right now in this holy place not by chance, but by choice. Through our own decisions nevertheless, but not w
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Homily: July 28, 2023, Friday of the sixteenth week in Ordinary time (First commandment).

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In those days: God delivered all these commandments: “I, the LORD, am your God…” In today's first reading, Moses passed on the Ten Commandments to the Israelites as he had received from God. Most emphasis is given to the first commandment because God wants His chosen people to focus on it seriously. It is the foundation on which all the other commandments rest. Whenever Israel failed in the first commandment, they would get into serious consequences. I am not an exorcist, but I have assisted exorcists as a translator on numerous occasions. Demonic possessions take place when people allow it through intentional offences against God. The exorcists would often ask questions to identify which commandment was violated, and commonly, it is the first commandment that was broken, such as playing Ouija board, practicing black magic or white magic, engaging in witchcraft, and so on. Violating the first commandment is denying God as our Lord, and that is the easiest way for Satan to possess a
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Homily: May 3, 2022, Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles

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 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip?” There is an excellent radio program on EWTN known as: “Called to Communion”. It is a live call-in show where non-Catholics and lapsed Catholics can ask Dr. David Anders all sorts of questions about being Catholic. And people really asked many interesting questions. I always wonder, if I were to be asked those same questions, would I be able to answer them? Even though I have been a Catholic all my life, and studied theology extensively, there are still many things I am ignorant of in my faith. There are still so much about Jesus that I do not know. Do you know everything about Jesus? I doubt so. Jesus lived with the disciples daily for three years and still they did not know him fully. While we have the benefit of hindsight and two thousand years of revelation, yet we can’t claim to know it all. I like drinking coffee. In my previous assignment, I used to drink coffee every day in the of
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Homily: March 7, 2022, Monday of the First Week of Lent.

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  “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am Holy”. Both the first and Gospel readings today presented a ‘to-do’ and ‘not-to-do’ list. Some are really tough tasks. Can we ever accomplish them? Is it possible for us to be holy? We all know that at the sacrament of reconciliation, it is Jesus Himself who is sitting at the confessional, listening to the confessions. And the sacred privilege for me as a priest, is that I get to see as God sees and hear as God hears. And what does God see and hear? He doesn’t see our failures. He sees our brokenness. He doesn’t hear our sins. He hears our desire to be good. And God wants to help us. He reaches out to us, pouring out His graces. We desire to be holy and God desires the same. In that moment of reconciliation, in that meeting of desires, we become holy. And I, the priest who witnesses that sacred moment, also become holy. The very first step to becoming holy is to desire holiness. To desire becoming what God wants us to be, to be like Him, to lov
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Homily: March 6, 2022, First Sunday of Lent

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F or forty days and nights, satan was waiting, to strike when Jesus was most hungry, at His weakest. First temptation: “Command this stone to become bread.” Jesus needed food indeed. Satan did not give food, but suggested Jesus to abuse His divine power to create food for Himself. He makes us think our needs and wants are most important. And suggests shortcuts to satisfy ourselves. Selfish desires turn us away from God. Second temptation: “I shall give to you all this power and glory…worship me.” Jesus’ mission is to preach the good news to all nations. Satan tries to persuade Jesus to take the easy way, to receive power and glory from him. satan is the father of lies. Nothing belongs to him. satan tries to make us believe that money will give us power and earthly possessions will give us glory. He tempts us with quick and convenient ways to achieve our ambitions. Greed and vanity block us from holy virtues. Third temptation: “If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here…”
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Homily: April 7, 2022, Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent

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 “Now we are sure that you are possessed.” I laughed when I first read this remark. The Jewish leaders have run out of clever accusations against Jesus, so they blame it on the devil! Interesting! They have witnessed the miracles He performed, and the wonderous things he did but they just refuse to admit these are signs and proof of His Divinity. They are so prideful and stubbornly insist that Jesus cannot be from God because he did not follow the laws of the Jewish Authorities. Jesus’ ways and teachings made them look bad, instead of admitting their wrongs, they now conclude that Jesus is possessed. Do we also behave the same way? When our argument is challenged or our authority is threatened, do we turn around to accuse others wrongly, just to defend ourselves? The Hundred Years’ War between France and England finally ended, with the help of a brave young lady who led the French army to victory. Her outstanding courage and wisdom came from divine inspirations from God and His messeng
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Homily: July 18, Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time.

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“She came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.” Queen Sheba went from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to see and hear for herself the famous King Solomon. Do you know how long did it take Queen Sheba to travel to Jerusalem in those times? She probably took three months to get there, and with a large group of servants, guards and advisors, taking with them not just the essentials for their daily needs but also loads of valuable gifts to present to the King. Would you be so well prepared and travel with so much conviction far away to see and hear someone great? We do see many people putting aside school, work and spend lots of money, even travelling far, to attend concerts, watch ball games and see their idols. Some of these events are often marketed as the ‘event of your life’ and not to be missed. Do we see the same interest and excitement for faith events?  Oh yes! Many people attended the Christ Our Life Conferences. They were all eager to hear the gifted speakers and for
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Homily: May 18, 2022, Wednesday of the fifth week of Easter.

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 “Remain in me as I remain in you.” The word ‘remain’ is repeated eight times in today’s Gospel text. I am not big on sports. When I first came to USA, I was introduced to baseball, and very quickly recruited into the Chicago Cubs as a follower. I knew nothing about baseball, other than it is similar to cricket which I used to play in India. So, I was an ignorant new Cub fan. Within the first few weeks of my ‘enrolment’, I found out there is another baseball team ‘Cardinal’. Some parishioners suggested that I switch. They reasoned that the name ‘Cardinal’ sounds more Catholic! But my Cub introducer advised me sternly, “Father, Once a cub, always a cub. Remain.” And to seal that ‘covenant’, he gave me a little cubby. Yes, till today, I have remained a cub. What does it mean to ‘remain’? Collins  dictionary defines it as: ‘stay’, ‘continue’, ‘do not change’. That is what our Lord wants of us, to stay with Him, continue with Him, do not change our following. But note that He says, ‘remain
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Homily: April 4, 2022, Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

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   “The innocent and the just you shall not put to death.” Do you agree? In 1966, a priest Fr. Benedict was accused of first-degree murder. He was from my archdiocese in India. He was accused of impregnating a woman named Maria, of stabbing her to death and leaving her body by the roadside. It was a cruel act. While in custody, the police questioned him to get his admission of guilt, they tortured him badly. They even pulled out some of his fingernails to force him to admit. But he denied. He insisted he was innocent. Thereafter, the first-class court concluded the case with a death sentence. He appealed to the superior court. Finally, after two years in prison, his appeal was accepted because the prosecution could not provide the necessary evidence. He was released from prison but nobody in society believed him his innocence. The media speculated that the catholic church had bribed the police and the court. He still insisted he was innocent. However, after his release, the diocese sen
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Homilía: Marzo 24, 2022, Jueves de la III semana de Cuaresma.

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 “El que no está conmigo, está contra mí; y el que no recoge conmigo, desparrama”.”. El mensaje de Jesús es muy claro. No podemos seguir a Jesús parcialmente. Si no lo estamos siguiendo de todo corazón, no somos sus seguidores. Hoy es el vigésimo día de Cuaresma, sin contar los domingos. Estamos a la mitad. ¿Recuerdas lo que decidiste hacer especial para estos 40 días de Cuaresma? ¿Lo estás cumpliendo? Mientras nos esforzamos por fortalecernos espiritualmente, los demonios se esfuerzan más para mantenernos deprimidos. Me pregunto quién está a la cabeza en esta mitad de camino. En mis años de infancia, solo los niños ricos de mi pueblo podían tener bicicletas. Cuando estaba en quinto grado, mi hermano mayor y yo decidimos recolectar flores silvestres de nuez moscada del bosque cercano para venderlas y poder comprar una bicicleta. Nos despertábamos muy temprano en la mañana y corríamos al bosque para buscar y recolectar tantas como fuera posible. Muchos niños de otros pueblos estaban hac
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