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 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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 The Lord God took Abram outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can. Just so,” he added, “shall your descendants be.”  “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession.” God made these two promises to Abram. For the people in ancient times, and for many even in modern times, having children as heir and owning land as property are two most important possessions in life. Abram had been leading a nomadic life for many years and his wife Sarai, already in her old age, was still childless at that time. So, Abram doubted and questioned, “how am I to know…?” Have you been praying for something important, bearing heavy burdens while waiting, trying to keep hopeful but still you received nothing? Would you also doubt and question God? In response to Abram’s doubt, God assured him by cutting a covenant with him, known as a covenant of the pieces. In ancient times, when people entered a treaty, a contractual agreement, they wo
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Homily: May 6, 2024, Monday of the sixth week of Easter (Lydia)

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 “One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.” The Easter readings are truly remarkable. We witness how the Holy Spirit did amazing works through the acts of the apostles. The apostles simply went about sharing about the life of Jesus and spreading the good news. They were unperturbed by rejections or persecutions, and their persistence and bold proclamations won more hearts than objections. And we also see how the Holy Spirit converts not always in the same way but through many ways according to the charisms of the preachers as well as the unique situations of the listeners.  On Pentecost day, we saw a massive conversion of three thousand people all in one day through one event. Today we encounter the story of a single conversion: that of Lydia, a woman from Thyatira. We are told she was a dealer in purple cloth, that meant she had dealings w
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Homily: November 20, 2023, Monday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time (Hope).

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"But many in Israel were determined and resolved in their hearts not to eat anything unclean; they preferred to die rather than be defiled with unclean food or profane the holy covenant, and they did die.” At the beginning of the first reading, the situation of the Israelites was disappointing. There were many ‘breakers of the law’ who ‘seduced’ their fellow Jews to discard their covenant with God. Many chose to disobey and disown God, and accepted the gods and deities of the Gentiles, believing that would protect their lives. They were quick to give up their faith in the generous God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses because of some difficulties and discomfort in life. That led to the persecution of the Jews during the time of the Maccabees. But when we come to the end of the reading, the determination of some of the Jews ‘not to eat anything unclean’ shows that there were many who kept the covenant with God and were faithful even in the face of death. There is hope. Looking at
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Homily: May 4, 2024 Saturday of the fifth week of easter (Align to the Holy Spirit).

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“Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number.” This was the observation made by the author of today’s first reading, reporting about how St. Paul and companions went about preaching the good news, teaching the faith and building the church communities. If the same author were to be here today, looking at what is happening in the church communities now, how would he report? What would he say about the churches here? Churches are closing, religious vocations are decreasing, few people are sharing faith, young people in the families are not attending Mass, people are choosing churches that align with their ideologies not based on truth. It looks like the first 300 years in the history of the Church were the most glorious and productive. What happened thereafter? Why such a great difference? What is missing? What went wrong? Is this the same situation in churches around the world? Is there any hope that the church will grow again, in strength and spirit? Yes,
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Homily: January 24, 2023, Tuesday of the Third week in Ordinary Time.

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 Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." I have three older sisters, followed by my older brother, then me, the fifth child, after which I have two more sisters. All of us went to the same schools from kindergarten till High school. We even had the same teachers at each level. My older sisters were the best students in school, in their academics, conduct and other areas. So when my brother and I entered school, every teacher of each level expected us to produce the same standard of study and behaviour as our sisters. But we disappointed them. We were the opposite. Like what the teachers thought, I too sometimes wonder if we were from the same parents. 😉 Isn’t that what we all expect? That the people from the same family, with the same background, history, upbringing and lifestyle should have the same belief and behaviour, values and preferences, possibly even the same profession. It is logical and it is ideal. Jesus, t
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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: March 23, 2022, Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent.

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 “However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.” This morning I did reconciliation for the Holy family school. For the children’s penance, I would usually ask them to recite one or two Hail Mary or Our Father prayers. Easy right? Yes, and yet, some of the students told me they do not know how to say the prayers or where to find these prayers. I was surprised the very first time I did reconciliation for children in this country, but now I realized it is a common situation here. I remember in my time, before receiving first communion, we had to memorize thirty-three Catholic prayers and recitations like the angelus, Hail Mary, all mysteries of the Holy Rosary, the ten commandments and so on. Anyone who could not recite from heart all these thirty-three items, will be denied receiving first communion. Till toda
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Homily: June 30, 2023, Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time.

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 “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said…” This was how our first reading began today. God promised Abram when he was already 99 years old, that he would have a son with his 89 year-old wife, Sarah. I kept thinking to myself, “why did God wait till Abram was 99?” God could have appeared to him much earlier and given him a son when he was in his 20’s or 30’s. Why so late? Similarly with Moses. Why did God wait till Moses was 80 years old to call him into the mission of delivering the Israelites out of slavery? Moses could have done a much better job if he was younger in his 30s or even 40s. Another one is St. Paul. He was persecuting the Christians for so long before his conversion. If he had had that powerful encounter with Jesus earlier, many Christians would not have suffered so much, and Paul would have been less of a sinner. Why did God take so long to act? Honestly, I do not know the answer. I don’t think anybody knows. None of my seminary professo
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Homily: July 11, 2023, Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Namesake)

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 "You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob but as Israel."  Jacob was well known for giving new names to places where he had a memorable experience. In yesterday's first reading, we saw how he changed the name of the place where he had his beautiful dream of angels and stairs to heaven, from Luz to Bethel. Today, he wrestled with God’s angel, and he named the wrestling place Penuel. In the chapters that follow, we will see him name another place Manahaim and so on. The names of these places carry the memory of the event that happened to Jacob. Interestingly, in today’s reading, we see God's angel changing Jacob's name to Israel, because now, the person of Jacob was what carried the memory of the event. ‘Israel’ means ‘the one who wrestles with God’.  What is the significance of a name? Many roads and streets are named after people who contributed to the history of the land, this ensures that their names and the events of their time will not be forgotten. Jesus sa
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