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 IN me’, not ‘WITH me’. So more than just keeping ourselves beside our Lord, He wants us to be inside of Him, united and one.

Why?

Jesus explains, “Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.”

The truth is, we are nothing without God. On our own, we cannot bear good fruit that lasts.

Without food and nutrition, our bodies cannot survive or grow. And so, without Jesus, without the Word of God, our souls will wither and die.

Let us not detract, let us not separate. Remain in the Lord as He remains in us. Once a Catholic, always a Catholic. Amen.

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: March 13, 2022, Sunday of the second Week of Lent

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Homily: May 4, 2024 Saturday of the fifth week of easter (Align to the Holy Spirit).

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Homily: January 24, 2023, Tuesday of the Third week in Ordinary Time.

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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: September 26, 2022, Monday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time.

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We heard in the Gospel today: "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me." We all have been to grocery stores. You see shelves and shelves of everything you need, rows and rows of vegetables and meat, packed, weighed and priced in advance, so you can just pick up what you want.  Back in my childhood, there were no grocery stores in the local village. So to buy vegetables, we go to the vegetable market on Sundays. For meat, we go to the butcher. Every Saturday, they would slaughter a buffalo and sell the meat. Once, my mummy sent my brother and I to buy some meat from her regular butcher. We didn’t know how to choose the best meat but we thought, the butcher would help since he knew my parents very well. Instead, he cheated on us, and packed bad quality meat for us to bring home. Mummy was very upset. The butcher knew we went to buy on behalf of our mummy, his regular customer, but he did not respect that. When he
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Homily: June 30, 2023, Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time.

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Homily: April 18, Monday in the Octave of Easter.

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