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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March 1, 2025: First Holy Communion Homily: St. Joseph's Catholic Church Seffner, Florida

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Did you listen attentively to the Gospel reading? Yes? Let me test you… What did Jesus say? Did He say, “Whoever eats my bread and drinks my wine?”  No! He said, “Whoever eats my FLESH and drinks my BLOOD remains in me and I in him.” Yes, when you receive Holy Communion, you are receiving the real flesh and blood of Jesus. I am sure Fr. Roy, your catechists, parents and the whole parish community have prepared you well for this day, so you know what you are receiving today. But what I want to focus on now is the last part where Jesus says, ‘remains in me and I in him’. 29 years ago in 1996, I received my First Holy Communion. I was eight years old, but I still remember that day vividly. I remember the preparations, my First Reconciliation, and the excitement I felt when I lined up to receive Jesus for the very first time. I remember seeing the priest dipping the Precious Body into the Precious Blood, and then that precious moment – Jesus’ body and blood rested on my tongue. So swee...
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Homily: May 1, 2024: May crowning Mass at Holy Family School

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 "A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” Did you remember hearing this from today’s first reading? This verse really struck me. The ‘woman clothed with the sun’ mentioned, do you know who this woman is? Yes, it is referring to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. St. John the Apostle had this vision and he described the mother of the Jesus as ‘clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her heard a crown of twelve stars’. Who would usually wear a crown? Yes, a king or a queen.  It is a symbol of their authority over everyone in the country, a sign of the power vested in them to rule the people and for them to obey their rule. So, Mother Mary is a queen, who wears a crown of twelve stars. Why twelve? Do you know what in the Bible are twelve in number? Yes, there were twelve tribes of Israel and Jesus had twelve apostles. The twelve tribes of Israel descended from the twelve chi...
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Homily: June 6, 2024, Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time.

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“Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory.” Before Paul was converted, he was enjoying success, recognition, authority and power as a Christian persecutor. But when he encountered Jesus and began to love the Lord and His sheep with all his heart, all his understanding, and all his strength, the sufferings also began to come to him, and he had to ‘bear with everything’. We all suffer in one way or another. We all have our own crosses to carry, but it is important to know whether we are carrying a cross because of salvation or because of our own wrong actions. There is an effect to every cause, and a consequence to every action. The consequence of wrong decisions, foolish actions, prideful deeds, selfish greed, over-ambitious endeavor, unhealthy relationships, financial mismanagement, and addictive habits is suffering. And these are self-inflicted sufferings, they...
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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: February 13, 2022, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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 In the first reading we heard, “Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.” And then it continued with, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.” It is very clear, isn’t it? That those who turns away from God will be cursed and those who trusts in God will be blessed. The gospel reading today is known as the beatitudes, in which our Lord Jesus also spelled out the curses and the blessings. But it seems much harder to accept what Jesus is teaching here. I too struggle with this. Let us try to understand it together. We have been told that we came from God, and after this life, we will go back to God. For a long time, I questioned the rationale. Why create me to throw me into this difficult life just to bring me back to Him again? Why not just keep me with Him from the beginning and save me the trouble of going through this life? This earthly life is not easy. I w...
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Funeral Homily: William J. Baum, June 8, 2023

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 The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. The soul of Bill is in the hand of God, no torment shall touch him. We are here to bid our final farewell to Bill, our beloved brother, grandpa, dad, husband, friend. I feel privileged to have known Bill these last two years and honored to preside over this Mass for his sending off. Many of you would have known him much longer and much better than I. I wish I had more time with him. I was awed when I read his obituary, his life story is inspirational. I know from my encounter with him that he was a dedicated husband, a loving and caring father, the greatest fan to every one of his grandchildren, and an incredible friend to countless people here and around the world. His going would surely leave a void in our lives. It is only natural that we grieve this loss. Bill was a man of remarkable character. His love for life, his sense of humor, and his thoughtfulness for others were the hallmarks of his persona...
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Homily: November 6, 2022, Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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 “We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.” To the seven brothers and their mother, their faithfulness to the laws were more precious than their lives, so to face death was not a threat to them. Having seen the death of his brothers, the fourth brother declared, “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him.” That was the reason for their courage, that they believed in being raised up by God after death. They would rather die a faithful death than live a faithless life. The first reading went on to say, “Even the king and his attendants marvelled at the young man’s courage because he regarded this suffering as nothing.” Dying a swift death is something, but to bear cruel torture and torment before dying takes more than just guts.  Indeed, the brothers’ and their mother’s courage in accepting suffering and death were marvellous. I too feel amazed at their grit and courage. I wonder if I would be able t...
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Homily: June 24, 2024, Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist.

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“Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God.”  Some people do go through life tougher and rougher than others. I personally know some such people who lived the whole of their lives literally toiling and working till they die. My own parents lived like that. Since young they were already laboring to help their own families. When they got married, they labored every day from morning till night to provide for us. Before they even got a chance to rest and retire, they fell ill and passed on. They did not accomplish anything spectacular and daily life was simply hardship from beginning till the end. They have never experienced a good life, but they have discharged their duties and responsibilities fully. Is such a life meaningful? Looking at Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John the Baptist, they might not have lived in extreme poverty, but they toiled in other ways. For a woman to be barren ...
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Homily: February 18, 2025, Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time (Leaven)

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 Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” What is ‘the leaven of the Pharisees’ and ‘the leaven of Herod’? In this passage, Jesus must have been trying to teach His disciples something very important, but they were all thinking about food, specifically about bread, such that they didn’t understand what He was teaching. Who can blame them? Like all of us, they too had practical concerns, they were worried about the lack of food on the journey. But Jesus was trying to warn them of something more worrying, something which will not just keep them hungry, but will also destroy life. Recently, during my vacation with my sister, I listened to a Bible podcast she was following. Coincidentally, that episode was discussing the significance of the unleavened bread in the Old Testament. Why did God command the Israelites in Egypt to eat unleavened bread for their Passover feast? 1. Because they had to eat in haste, to finish their m...
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Homily: July 3, 2022, Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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 “Behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals”. Jesus is sending his disciples out to proclaim the good news of salvation to all. Yet, his instruction sounds like he is sending them out to die, into a dangerous mission. Instead of advising them to bring all the necessities and resources to be self-sufficient and independent, He is telling them to be helpless and vulnerable. Can they manage it? Jesus is the lamb of God. His mission is to give His life for His sheep. He is totally dependent on God alone. He needs nothing else from this world to accomplish His mission. And now He is teaching His disciples to do the same. He is telling us to do the same. Can we manage it? Seems difficult, isn’t it? I have a very good friend Dr. Samuel Thomas. He is a Pentecostal minister. He is the president of Hopegivers International, giving hope of a better future to orphaned, abandoned and underprivileged children.  In India, founded by his father,...
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