Homily: January 30, 2023, Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

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“Then they began to beg him to leave their district.”

Why??

Jesus just did an amazing miracle, he cast out a multitude of demons in possession of a man and sent them all into nearby pigs. Jesus released the man from his horrible bondage so that he can live a free and fulfilling life.

Isn’t that a wonderful thing Jesus did? Wouldn’t they feel secure and safe with Jesus around, so no one will be afraid of demons again?

Why would they want to beg Jesus to leave them?

Once I was biking with a friend towards Minburn. As we got near, we can already smell a pork refinery. My friend asked me, “Father, do you know what smell is this?”

I said, “Yes, it is the smell of pork.”

He replied, “Yes, this is the smell of money.”

If you reared pigs, you would know what that smell is like. It is a very bad smell. To people from Middle Eastern cultures, including Jews, pigs are considered contaminated and unclean. 

But to the rest of the world, it is a popular meat to eat. People may not like real pigs, but they like its meat and farmers like the money that comes from the sale of pork.

The swineherds in today’s gospel were the same. Because of their own livelihood, their worldliness, their material possessions, they preferred their pigs to Jesus. They believed that having pigs will give them a better life than having Jesus. Even such a powerful miracle could not convert their hearts. 

What about us?

Would we prefer Jesus to stay on and change our life or would we rather keep Him out of our life so that we can continue living the same way?

The people in Gennesaret wanted Jesus to go away because of their ignorance and hardened hearts. 

But Jesus wants them, and us, to live a full life, He wants to shine light into our dark areas, he wants to live with us in our hearts, this is why He came to this world.

Having Jesus in our lives, in our homes, in our hearts is the best thing ever. So let us daily welcome Jesus and beg Him to stay.

Fr. Nivin Scaria 


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Homily: March 24, 2022, Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

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Homily March 20, 2022, Third Sunday of Lent Year A Readings (For RCIA)

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Homily: March 10, 2022, Thursday of the First Week in Lent

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Homily: October 31, 2022, Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Vain Glory).

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In St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he instructed them, “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vain glory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves.” Is it possible to regard others more important than ourselves? Is it possible to be selfless? Yes, highly possible, but highly difficult too. With God’s grace, we can. When I was serving at one parish in India, parishioners would give donations on the parish feast day. We would publish the names of donors in the parish bulletin board to acknowledge their generosity. One day, a lady came, gave her donation and said she prefer to be anonymous. Then she thought about it and gave her first name. After a short pause, she said again, “Father, then you must put my last name as well because there is another lady with the same first name.” For a moment before that, I thought she was a humble and modest donor, not seeking any glory for herself. But the final twist revealed that she did want to be acknowledged and made s
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Homily: March 6, 2022, First Sunday of Lent

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Homily: April 11, 2023, Tuesday in the Octave of Easter (Ignorance)

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"Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." We heard this from the first reading today, St. Peter made this declaration in his first preaching, on the day of Pentecost. Many of the Jews who demanded that Jesus be crucified were ignorant that Jesus was truly the Christ, and now Peter is declaring, so they will ‘know for certain’. Because they were unaware of scriptural prophecies about the Messiah which Jesus fulfilled, they blindly believed the false accusations made against Him by the Jewish leaders. Their ignorance led them to become co-conspirators of murder. St. Paul rightly said, "None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." (1 Cor. 2:8) Yes, if they had known for certain, they would not have killed Jesus. Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. Ignorance of Christ is ignorance of salvation. This ignorance is
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Homily: June 4, 2023, The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Trinity-Love-Power)

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