Homily: March 5, 2022, Saturday after Ash Wednesday

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 There is an Indian common saying, ‘Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are’. And a phrase we all know, ‘Birds of a feather, flock together’.

Are these sayings true?

I have a friend in India, who was known for all his tricks in business and illegal connections. He was despised by many and wanted by the police. But I became his friend, against the advice of my brother priests. He shared with me honestly everything he did, the bad and the ugly. He was open, sincere, and truthful with me. He too accepted me as I am and treated me better than my other friends.

I do not like the bad things he did, but I like him. He remains my good friend.

So were the tax collectors to Jesus. He became their friend. He sat with them, ate with them. He accepted them. He saw in them goodness which others did not see. He saw beyond their unacceptable occupation. He saw their needs. They needed God. They needed to hear the good news. They needed salvation, like any other.

They were open, truthful, and sincere with Jesus. They welcomed Him better than the Pharisees, who were in respectable positions.

God sees deep into our hearts. He sees the truth of our being. He does not judge us by our worldly occupations or positions. He loves every soul. Everyone is precious.

He has come to be our friend. Will we sit and eat with Him? Will we be open, sincere, and truthful with Him? Will we listen to Him? Amen.

Fr. Nivin Scaria


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Homily: September 20, 2026, Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Come to my Vineyard)

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 “Why do you stand here idle all day?” They answered him, “Because no one has hired us.” There is something very sad in those words: “No one has hired us.” These men were not necessarily lazy. They had been standing there waiting. Perhaps they were not as young or as strong as the others. Perhaps when employers came looking for workers, they looked at them and chose somebody else. And perhaps some of us know something about that feeling. Someone tells you, “We don’t need you anymore.” You lose a job. A relationship ends. Someone you loved decides that they no longer want to walk with you. You are overlooked while somebody else is chosen. There is a particular pain in feeling that nobody wants you. And in the time of Jesus, these workers were not simply looking for something to occupy their day. A day’s wage could mean food on the table for their families. If nobody hired them, they might return home that evening with nothing. But then comes this landowner. He goes out early in the ...
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Homily: September 21, 2026, Mass of Healing and Remembrance for those who died by Suicide

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 “I desire mercy.” As I was going through the readings for today, on this Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, these words of Jesus stood out to me: “I desire mercy.” Those words seem especially appropriate as we gather today to remember and pray for those who have died by suicide, and to pray for their families and friends who continue to carry their absence. Two years ago, on a cold January day, I received a call telling me that a young woman I knew had taken her own life. She was only 21 years old, a young mother with a seven-month-old baby, and she had been struggling with postpartum depression. Her death shocked everyone, her family, her friends, and our community. I still remember the funeral. It was a bitterly cold day, and I remember seeing her little baby wrapped warmly and held in the grandmother’s arms. Looking at that child and realizing that the mother was gone was heartbreaking. After the funeral, the family did not want to keep all the plants that had been s...
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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: September 18, 2023, Monday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Men should pray)

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 "It is my desire, then, that in every place, men should pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument." What a beautiful vision St. Paul had! Imagine if all people are prayerful and peaceful, no anger, no argument. The world would really be perfect. It is through prayerfulness that we learn to be deeply peaceful people, and I too desire to attain this. My papa and grandma were two great examples of prayerfulness for me.  Grandma was completely blind before I was born and she was living in my home. In my memory, she prayed the rosary all the time and she would spend hours reciting all the other prayers daily which she had memorized by heart. I have never seen her forgetting her prayers or skipping her rosary for even one day. My papa, too, had always kept a regular and consistent prayer routine. He read the Bible and devoted a good amount of time for prayer on a daily basis. I also do not recall seeing him miss a single day of his beautiful habit. I do regret though ...
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Homily: September 25, 2026, Friday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time (A time for everything)

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 “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for everything under the heavens.” Yesterday I watched the movie The Lovely Bones. The movie has many flashback scenes—moments from the past suddenly coming back to life. Later in the day, when I read today’s first reading, I found myself doing the same thing: going back through different moments and seasons of my own life. Whenever I hear this passage from Ecclesiastes, especially at a funeral Mass, memories come to mind—good times and difficult times, moments of joy and moments of sadness. Growing up, some of these images were very real to me: the season for planting and the season for harvesting. There really is a time for everything. And it is not only the different seasons of our whole life. Even a single day can contain so many different emotions. Those who regularly make an examination of conscience know this very well. At the end of the day, we look back: there was a moment when I was happy; a moment when I was frustra...
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Homily: August 15, 2026, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Sin-death)

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 “For since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead came also through man.” Sin and death are connected, but Christ has come to break that connection and give us life. In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul says, “The wages of sin is death.” Sin separates us from God, and God is the source of life.  God created Adam and Eve for life and friendship with him. But through their disobedience, sin entered the world, and with sin came death.  But when God prepared the world for the coming of his Son, he gave Mary a unique grace. From the first moment of her conception, she was preserved from original sin.  We can see Mary as the new Eve. Eve was created without sin, but she disobeyed God. Mary, by God's grace, responded differently. When the angel came to her, she said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Eve's disobedience was connected with humanity's fall. Mary's obedience opened the door for Christ, the Savi...
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Homily: December14, 2025, Third Sunday of Advent

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 “Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; they will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee.” The Israelites were still in exile, after many years. They did not know how long more before they could return to their own land. They did not know if they could ever return. Some had died, some had lost faith and chosen a different life, some continued to wait, though losing patience, because they were suffering while in exile, they had no freedom, no power, no status. Then Isaiah spoke these words of hope, that God will restore their land, their status, their freedom. Beyond just returning to the promised land, they were also waiting for God to send the Messiah, to restore them their original glory. But, like children on a long road trip, the big question is, “How long more? When will it be?” The Israelites could not see ahead, they did not know how long more they had to wait. For us, we know. This third Sunday ...
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Homily: September 4, 2026, Friday of the Twenty second Week in Ordinary Time (Do not Judge)

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 “Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes.” It is very difficult to live without judging others. Knowingly or unknowingly, we often judge people based on what we see, especially those who are different from us. But we are all different. Our life situations are different, our ideas are different, and the ways we were raised are different. There is a beautiful saying often attributed to Philo of Alexandria: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.” How true that is. We often do not know what another person is carrying in his or her heart. Jesus also tells us, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” So how do we overcome a judgmental attitude? One way is by becoming more empathetic. Instead of immediately judging someone, we can try to know the person, listen to their story, and understand why they may think or act differently from us. St. Paul reminds us today that the final judgment belongs to God. God knows what is ...
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Homily: September 12, 2026, Saturday of the Twenty Third week in Ordinary Time.

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 “That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock. When the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.” When we speak about the Church, these words give us great hope. Throughout her history, the Church has faced persecutions, divisions, scandals, wars, and many other difficulties. Yet she remains. For two thousand years, the Church has endured because her true foundation is not any human person; her foundation is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The world around us changes. Cultures change, opinions change, and people change, but Christ remains the same. And the Church continues to place her faith in him. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is asking each one of us to build our lives in the same way: to dig deeply and build our lives on the solid rock of faith in him. I have known many people who had that kind of strong and simple faith.  All of us nee...
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Homily: September 21, 2026, Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and evangelist (Follow me)

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 “Follow me.” On this feast of St. Matthew, we hear Matthew’s own account of his calling. Jesus saw him sitting at the customs post and said just two words: “Follow me.” And Matthew gets up and follows him. No second thought. No long discernment. No plan for the future. Maybe Matthew had been waiting for a moment like this—a chance to begin again. Matthew was a tax collector, considered a sinner and hated by his own people because he worked for the occupying power. Yet Jesus looked at this man whom others rejected and saw an apostle. That should give every one of us hope. God can change people. God does not wait until we are perfect before he calls us. Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” We are all sinners. We all have weaknesses, habits, failures, and things in our lives that need to change. And there may be people around us struggling with addictions or trapped in sinful situations. Sometimes we may even wonder whether a person can ev...
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