Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

 “For at that moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy”. When I was studying in the minor seminary, news that my eldest sister was pregnant with her first child was announced. My siblings and I were very excited. According to local Indian tradition, at the seventh month of the pregnancy, the husband’s family would have to send his wife back to her parents’ home to prepare for birth of the child.  So, my eldest sister came home and stayed with us for three months before the delivery and another three months after the birth of her first-born son. my sister was the only pregnant woman I have ever had close encounter with. The most exciting experience I had was when I actually saw the movements of my nephew, still in her womb. And whenever me and my siblings came close to talk to my sister, her baby would make movements in her womb. So even a little baby in the womb can sense the presence of other people near the mother. Amazing, isn’...

 As Jesus was about to ascend to heaven in the presence of his disciples, he told them, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Could the disciples be good witnesses? Who can be a good witness? Some of you may already know, my official name is Nipin but my original name is Nivin. Typo error is easy to correct, but written error on official documents become permanent. That was the situation with my name. I also have two birth dates: one is the actual date of when I was born, which was stated in the birth document. The other date was chosen and used to enrol me into school earlier, instead of a year later. It is a common practice in India. This date was stated in school documents and all other official documents. It became my official date of birth. Now in USA, part of my immigration process requires my birth information, so the discrepancy in the dates needs to be rectified. Who can prove my actual date of birth? My parent...

Jesus said to His disciples, “And when the Advocate comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me.” Not believing in Jesus is sin. Believing in Jesus is salvation. In the first reading, St. Paul and Silas told the jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved”. Did the jailer believe? Yes. Did he do something concrete with that belief? Yes. He took in Paul and Silas, who were prisoners, took care of them and served them even though his and his family’s life would be in great danger.  They then accepted baptism, and they rejoiced for having received their faith. The jailer believed in Jesus, and he acted courageously according to his belief. If we truly believe in Jesus, we will live life active in the Spirit of Christ. If we truly believe in Jesus, we will act according to His commandments of love.  If we truly believe in Jesus, we will stand firm in the teachings of the...

 “They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God”. This warning of Jesus came true. In this Easter season, the first readings are taken from the Acts of the Apostles. From the accounts, we can see what happened to the disciples after the Resurrection. The Apostles were often being thrown out of the Synagogues. They were also killed. Stephen was the first to be martyred, stoned to death for refusing to deny his faith in Jesus. As he was dying, he echoed the same forgiveness for those who killed him, like Jesus did on the cross. Jesus, and Stephen, knew that those people were ignorant. They believed they were ‘offering worship to God’ with their killings. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “It is not wisdom that saves, it is ignorance. If we knew what we were doing when we crucified the Lord, we would never be saved.” That was at the point of the Lord’s crucifixion. Can we still be ignorant after Hi...

 “I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb”. This vision of St. John is so powerful! God Himself is the temple, His glory is the light for the world. So, there is no need for the sun or the moon. Probably there is no need for food and drink also, since Jesus’ body and blood is the real food and drink. God provides. There is a popular quote: “If God is all you have, you have all you need.” This is true not just at the end of time, but in our lives today. Do you believe? I have a good friend, Terry, who is the sole bread winner of her family. She works as a sales-person and her income fluctuates according to the sale she makes. During the year when Covid-19 first hit, everything slowed down. Her income suffered. But household expenses did not go down. She tried to find ways to make ends meet and dug into her savings. Then in May th...

 “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...

 “But when the disciples gathered around him, he got up and entered the city”. In the first reading, St. Paul had just been stoned by a crowd and dragged out of the city as dead. Try to imagine the physical condition of St. Paul. His body must be badly bruised, probably swollen and bleeding. Some of his bones might even be broken. Yet, he managed to get up from all his wounds and near-death condition, then walked straight back into the city where he just got stoned! He must be crazy. St. Paul firmly declared in Romans 8:35-39, “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?... No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.” Indeed. Nothing could stop Paul and the disciples from preaching the gospel. They were crazy for God. They looked forward to the reward of eternal life and couldn’t care less for the sufferings and death in this temporal life. They feared noth...

 “We are of the same nature as you, human beings.” St. Paul had to emphasize this to the people of Lystra. They had just witnessed a miracle performed by Paul. Indeed, no human person can perform such a miracle, only God can. Jesus performed many such miracles in His life, but the Jews did not recognise His divinity, they were spiritually blind. Now St. Paul performed the same, did he also have divine power? A new bar was under construction in a small town, right across the street in front of a church. The local priest launched a campaign for his parishioners to pray against the new bar from opening. As construction works progressed, prayers intensified. One week before the opening, lightning struck the almost completed new bar and it burned to the ground. The whole church celebrated, but the bar owner brought the church to court, charging her for causing the loss of his building and business. The church denied all responsibility, defending herself for having no such power to cause...

 Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment: love one another.” Why is this a new commandment? What was the old commandment? When I was in 8th grade, I failed to attend a one-day course conducted by the diocese, because I was running a fever on that day. The following Sunday during Mass, my parish priest called out those who did not attend the course. There were three of us. He made us stand in front of the altar, with our hands raised for five minutes, to shame us in front of the congregation, to punish us for being absent. Although I had a valid excuse, he crumbled my leave of absence note and disregarded it. The three of us were so angry and felt unjustified. After that incident, I hated that parish priest and church. A few weeks following that, I skipped Sunday Mass and went to play cricket with my friends. Some months later, that priest was transferred out. I often recalled that incident with pain but thankfully after many years, I was able to forgive him and the hurts I felt i...

 “If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?” We continue our first readings from Acts of the Apostles. Today we read from chapter 11. We begin to see problems rising within the new church community.  Last two weeks we read about the Jews protesting against the apostles and trying to stop their preaching. Now we see converted Jews not getting along with converted Gentiles. Two practices from the Jewish tradition were the issues. Regarding circumcision and eating what was considered unclean meat. Finally, Peter’s spiritual vision and wisdom settled it. Even after twenty-one centuries, we still see the same issues in the Church.  When I was studying in Rome, we had Italian language classes. I remember during one class, we had to express in Italian, what our favourite foods were. And because we were from different countries, many interesting cuisines were shared.  Th...

 Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” I grew up in a farm. We grew spices and we also had cows. I had a favourite cow. She was born when I was in kindergarten and I claimed her as my personal cow. Her name was Manikutty, which roughly means ‘little sweetie girl’. All our cows were named. Whenever I called out to Manikutty, she would respond and show me love and affection. I played with her every day after school, talked to her and gave her special treats like bananas. She trusted me and would follow if I led her somewhere. If a simple cow could respond to her young master’s call, and sheep know their shepherd’s voice from a stranger, would we intelligent humans be able to recognise our true master’s voice, from the noises of the world? Jesus also said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.” When I was in second grade, Manikutty gave birth to her first calf. Things changed from then. She was not...

 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 th...

 So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of the Lord, that you believe in the one he sent.” Is discipleship really so simple? That the only work we need to accomplish for God is simply to believe in Jesus? But don’t we have a lot to do to be a good Catholic? Sunday obligations, frequent reconciliations, obeying commandments and church authorities, ministries, tithing, loving our neighbours, even enemies, fasting, praying, works of mercy… Do you feel burdened? When I was young, I used to help mummy in the kitchen. My duty was to chop big logs of wood into smaller pieces of firewood for mummy’s cooking. Since mummy cooked all meals every day, there were a lot of firewood to cut. It was hard labor. Many children hated that. But I enjoyed it. Why? Because mummy once told me that cutting wood would help me build big muscles. I would become strong. So, I was motivated and I would do as much as I could. I did...

 Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.” My mummy cooked our family meals the traditional Indian way, preparing all ingredients from base, and using firewood. She spent most of her time in the kitchen cooking for her seven children. She had to work in the family farm too. Yet, every day at every mealtime, when her cooking is done, she would call out to all of us, “come and eat”. Even when we did not behave well or were naughty, even when she was angry and upset with us, when the food was ready, mummy would call. She must have called out to us over thousands of times till the day she was laid to rest. My mummy’s mealtime invitations still echo clearly in my heart. Another Indian tradition, my mummy never sat to eat with us when we had guests. she had to wait till we, including papa and the guests are done with our meal before she had her meal. My mummy always made sure we are fed well. That was how she showed love. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve...

 Jesús les dijo: “Vengan a almorzar”. Mi mamá cocinaba nuestras comidas familiares a la manera tradicional de la India, preparando todo con ingredientes frescos y cocido a la leña. Pasaba la mayor parte de su tiempo en la cocina cocinando para sus siete hijos. También trabajaba en la granja familiar. Sin embargo, todos los días, a la hora de comer, cuando terminaba de cocinar, nos llamaba a todos: “vengan para comer”. Incluso cuando no nos habíamos portado bien o cuando estaba enojada y molesta con nosotros, siempre que la comida estaba lista, mamá llamaba. Ella debe habernos llamado miles de veces hasta el día en que fue enterrada. Las invitaciones a la hora de comer de mi mamá todavía resuenan claramente en mi corazón. Otra tradición india, mi mamá nunca se sentaba a comer con nosotros cuando teníamos invitados para cenar, tenía que esperar hasta que nosotros, incluido papa y los invitados termináramos de comer antes de comer ella. Mi mamá siempre se aseguraba de que estuviéramos...