Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

 “I will follow you wherever you go.” Couples deep in love would probably say this to each other. These are words of commitment, of total dedication and complete sacrifice of self, for the other. But have you ever said these words to Jesus? Would you be able to make such a promise of commitment to Him in your discipleship? The truth is, we all have said it, in different words, during our baptism and at every profession of faith. To profess that we believe, implies that we commit to follow. The next question then is, do we live it? Couples who said those words but do not act on it would likely break up in no time. What about our relationship with Christ? I am sure all of you here who diligently attend daily mass, do love Jesus deeply and would follow Him wherever his sacrifice is being celebrated, even if you travelled out of town, even if the distance to church was far, even if it meant sacrificing something, like your lunchbreak, to receive Jesus for the day. You are not content w...

“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. Recen...

“Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. Job spoke out and said: Perish the day on which I was born, the night when they said, “The child is a boy!”  Job was so upset that he wished he was never born! I can fully understand how Job felt. He had been faithful, he had lived right but he had lost everything in his life, including his own health. He had nothing left. He had every reason to curse, to complaint. Recently I visited a mom whose son took his own life. She was lamenting and crying her heart out to God. She cursed her life, complained to God and questioned Him why He allowed this tragedy to happen. In my own troubled moments when nothing is going right, I too wonder, “Why did God create me?” Why send me to this world to go through hardship then bring me back again? He could have just kept me in heaven. When everything go wrong, won’t we also think that life is meaningless? Even though I don’t have the perfect explanation, I find my consolation in the cross of Christ, looking...

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 ...

From the gospel, “He raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side”. The poor man who went to heaven in this parable had a name: Lazarus. The rich man who went to hell had no name. Our name is our identity. Our relationship to God is our identity. And we are all children of God, He calls each of us by name, both on earth and in heaven. In another gospel passage Jesus told his disciples, “Rejoice because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). The rich man may have enjoyed a life of comfort and luxury on earth, but he did not have a relationship with God. Thus in Jesus’ story, he had no name. Now, how did Lazarus get to heaven? Was it because of his poverty. No. How did the rich man end up in hell? Was it because of his wealth? Of course, not. What we have or have not, is not the deciding factor of our destiny after this life.  Our eternity depends on how we use what we have been given. We do not know if the rich man committed any mortal sins in his life, b...

 “Everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Easy peasy, right? Just believe in Jesus and you will have eternal life. The World population as of September 2022 is 7.97 billion. Only 2 billion are Christians including Catholics, Protestants and other Christians. That is only 25 per cent. And out of this 2 billion Christians in name, how many actually live the life of a true believer? A true believer follows the master, and that means carrying the cross of faith, like the master did. Among our family circles and friends, we see many who are baptised and raised in the faith but are living without any affiliation to faith or even against the faith.  God made salvation so accessible and available, yet many reject it. The reality is, many want to live forever but do not want to commit to a life of faith that comes with believing. Many reject the cross. In the first reading, we see the Israelites complaining against Moses and God. They are the people who had seen all the mi...

 Today’s first reading ends with this instruction, “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another”. Today’s passage is taken from St. Paul’s first letter to the new church community in Corinth. It was considered his very first pastoral letter. We can see that there already existed divisions and challenges in the early church communities. Because of Christ’s universal call to conversion, people of vastly different backgrounds and social statuses were coming together in the communities. They were probably made up of rich people who were landowners and didn’t need to work, and poor folks who were labourers. When they came together for meals and breaking of bread, very likely the rich people were able to arrive much earlier while the poor labourers came after a hard day’s work. And it was a practice that each household would bring the food they prepared for the fellowship meal and bread for the eucharistic celebration. Can you visualise, how th...

 “I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.”  Do you think you need repentance? Or do you feel you are righteous, without any sin? After many decades of feeling self-righteous, a man finally decided to go for confession. But he really did not know what to confess. So the priest tried to help him by asking him questions according to the ten commandments. At one point, the priest asked, “Do you entertain impure thoughts?” To which the man immediately replied, “No no, I don’t entertain them but they entertain me.” The Sacrament of Reconciliation is one of the seven sacraments of the church, efficacious signs of grace, through which the divine life is given. It is a sacrament for healing, the healing of the soul, mind and body. Every Wednesday and Saturday, Fr. Ambrose and I hear many confessions. We also get many appointments from people who want to confess. ...

Chapter 9 in the Book of Wisdom is titled ‘Prayer for Wisdom’. The pages of this chapter are the most well used in my Bible, because my mother used to tell me when I was younger, that by reading this chapter every day, I will become wise in life. And so I did, I read this chapter every day, I could even memorise every word of the Malayalam version, but did I grow wiser. I didn’t think so because simply reading it will not make me wise, only God can. Today’s first reading began, “Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord Intends?” And it ended with, “Who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high?” Yes, we can pray for it and ask God to grant us wisdom. God’s plan for humankind is great and wonderful, yet we can never fully understand His intentions and plans, unless we have wisdom from the Holy Spirit.  What is God’s intention for us? What is His plan? The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel struck me much, “if anyone...