Homily: May 24, 2022, Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter

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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 church and against the ways of the world. We will defend life and reject vice. We will be saved.

We do not just say ‘we believe’, we live it.

Not believing in Jesus is sin because it means not believing in God, nor salvation, nor eternal life. It would mean believing only in self, without the need for God.

If we study the book of Genesis carefully, we will see that the devil did not tempt Adam and Eve to steal or kill or cheat or commit anything seemingly wrong, he simply tempted them to live independent of God. That was the sin of our first parents. And it continues to be the sin of the world today.

Do you truly believe in Jesus?

Fr. Nivin Scaria 


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Homily: February 21, 2026, Saturday After Ash Wednesday (Graceful Souls)

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 “He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.” Some of us would have experienced the grace of God in a very real way at some point in our lives. Perhaps after a very sincere confession, or during a spiritual retreat, maybe during deep prayer, or some may have felt it at Mass. Different people would experience it differently. It could be a sense of lightness when the heaviness of a grave sin has been lifted, an indescribable feeling of deep peace, a sudden vision of clarity. Sometimes we would most undoubtedly know that God is close. There’s probably a certain quiet joy within. There are so many possible signs. If you have ever experienced that unusual but wonderful feeling, you would know what I mean. And if you have not, try to make a good confession, I mean seriously, do it as if today is your last day, and you desperately want to be free from all sin, what we often call ‘deathbed confession’. And you might just get ...
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Homily: June 30, 2026, Tuesday of the Thirteenth week in Oridnary Time (God's Favorite)

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"You alone have I favored, more than all the families of the earth." Through Amos, God is reaffirming His covenantal relationship with Israel as His chosen nation, as promised to Abraham. It is an affectionate expression of God's faithful love. The rest of this reading is about Amos warning Israel the consequences of turning away from God, intending to bring them back to faithfulness. Despite all the disobedience and unfaithfulness, God loves Israel and continues to favor them specially. He has chosen them and will not back out of His choice. This is truly how God loves. Faithful, unwavering, unchanging. I heard that when someone spoke with Mother Teresa, she would ignore everything else around her and give her full attention to that one person. She remained fully present for as long as that person needed her. St. John Paul II was also well known for giving people that same kind of attention. They did that well because they were really giving God their undivided attention...
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Homily: February 15, 2026 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Yes or No)

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 “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” Every one of our Christian journey begins with a very simple thing: “Yes”. At baptism, the priest asks the parents or the candidates three questions: Do you renounce Satan? Do you reject sin? Do you reject all that leads you away from God? If the answer is Yes, Yes and Yes, then he asks three more questions to confirm our belief, the profession of our faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yes, Yes and Yes. And from that moment, we belong to God totally. Our new relationship with God, our new life as a Christian begins. Do we then live happily ever after? Realistically, this is where the struggle also begins. Growing up, I have said many “Yes’s” to God. Often, I have also said “No” to Him. But more often, My Yes’s were compromised, unaccomplished, unreliable. Often, they were conditional “Yes’s”. I negotiated and bargained with God, I procrastinated and made excuses. They would so...
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Homily: June 26, 2026, Friday of the Twelth Week in Ordinary Time.

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 "He burned the house of the LORD, the palace of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every large building was destroyed by fire." In the Books of Kings, we have heard many glorious stories about the kingdom of David and Solomon. We have witnessed the mighty deeds of great prophets like Elijah and Elisha. Israel seemed powerful, blessed, and secure under God's protection. But when we come to the end of the Second Book of Kings, that glorious history comes to a heartbreaking conclusion. The northern kingdom had already been taken into exile, and now the southern kingdom, where the Temple of the Lord stood, also falls into the hands of its enemies. The tragedy was not only that the people were carried away into exile. Jerusalem itself was left in ruins. The Temple was burned, the king's palace destroyed, and every important building reduced to ashes. Kingdoms rise, and kingdoms fall. God's chosen people, who once seemed so strong and secure, became slaves in a...
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Homily: March 6, 2024, Wednesday of the Third week in Lent (Laws)

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 “Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, 'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’” In today’s first reading, Moses exhorts the people of Israel to be carefully obedient to God’s Law. It is emphasized that if they remain faithful to these statutes, they will be a great nation, ‘truly a wise and intelligent people’. We know how the story developed after this - they became arrogant, rebellious, and disobedient to God, their glory did not last, eventually they ended up in exile and slavery. By nature, humans have been gifted with free will, and thus we do not like to be controlled, restricted, or bound by rules and laws. Yet, without boundaries, society or community will be in chaos. Everyone will be doing as they wish, there will be no order. Thus, laws are everywhere – in the church, in school, in every country, even in the family. It seems like we have no ...
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Homily: January 16, 2023 Monday of the second week in Ordinary time

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 “In the days when he was in the Flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.” Even Jesus, the beloved Son of God, prayed hard and fervently while He lived among us in this world. I know of a parishioner who is from one of our refugee communities. I have seen him many, many times kneeling in church, praying deeply and reverently and at length. He always has with him little prayer books that he uses. His deep reverence and focus really inspire me and make me curious too. Finally, I had to ask him about his praying. Each time he prays, he will say the rosary, meditate on the stations of the cross, pray novenas to saints. And his prayer list includes me, all his siblings, his cousins and friends. Wow! Blessed is every person in his prayer list, because he is a reliable prayer warrior interceding for them always. I am blessed. In every one of our communities, I know of at...
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Homily: June 29, 2026, Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles (Fear of God)

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 "The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him." Today's Responsorial Psalm is so assuring and is so apt for today as we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Both were faithful and fervent Apostles who had a deep holy fear the Lord - not like the fear of a slave, or being afraid of God, but a loving and reverent fear like that of an obedient child before a righteous and perfect Father. Having a fear of the Lord is the seventh gift of the Holy Spirit. It is a gift, not something we can earn or obtain on our own, but freely given to us at baptism, connecting us to God with deep respect and love, with a conscience to never want to offend the One who loves us so much. Peter and Paul did not always have this gift. If Peter had possessed this holy fear from the beginning, he would not have denied Jesus three times. Paul, before his conversion, persecuted Christians because he did not yet know the living God. Without knowing God, he could not truly fear Him....
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Homily: November 29, 2023, Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Joy, Fun)

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Holy Family School Mass:  Then they asked him, "Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?" Signs are very helpful in our everyday life. When I first came to this church, I had a hard time finding the confessional. There were no signs. I thought it might be somewhere in the vestibule and after going down the stairs, I ended up at the restrooms. Directional signs tell us where to go, spiritual signs tell us what to do. When Jesus spoke about the destruction of the temple, He was also warning the disciples about fake news and scammers. So simply looking for signs may not help, because there are misleading and false signs that will only lead to more confusion and wrong turns. The only reliable signs in life are the Holy Word of God and the teachings and traditions of the church passed down from the Apostles. Our Christian faith guides and provides, it shows the right path to the right place. I have preached before that ...
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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: October 20, 2023 Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Secrets).

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 "There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known." Do you have secrets? Are you worried about your secrets being revealed? Do you keep secrets for someone else? Have you been tempted to leak out the secret to another person? Something I realized growing up in a large family, is that in big families, there are no secrets, there is no way to hide any secret, not for long. Someone will somehow find out something. When I was in school, the period after exams is the secretive time. The teachers would enter our examination results in our school journal, to be shown to our parents for their signature, then return to the teachers next day. My brother and I would always get poor grades, and we would hide our school journals, with a plan to only show to our parents the next day just before leaving for school, so that there would not be much time for them to scold us, they could just sign and we would run off quickly to school. The plan never wor...
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