Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

Holy family School mass    "Take nothing for the journey." How many of you enjoy going out on a fun trip? What do you usually bring along when you go on a vacation or a long trip? Maybe extra clothes, money, possibly your favorite toy, and various daily essentials, right? It's logical to want to be well-prepared when we travel.  After all, in this world, we need these things to make our stay away from home as comfortable and secure as possible. However, Jesus expects His disciples to travel differently when they are sent out on mission. He told them to bring nothing with them. Yes, nothing, not even food and money. How could they survive? What will they do if they get hungry? Don’t they need to pay to stay in an inn? Jesus doesn't lie, and He is not joking.  He instructs His disciples to go empty-handed to other towns to preach the Gospel, to perform miracles and to heal people who are sick. Why? If you look at today’s Gospel reading carefully again, it begins with t...

 "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you." They wanted to see Jesus. Many people wanted to see Jesus. What about you? Do you want to see Jesus? I mean, seriously, do you want to see Jesus? When Jesus was told about His mother and brothers standing outside, wanting to see Him, He could have simply gone out to meet them. But He took this opportunity to deliver a powerful message about being His relative, to belong to Him. He explained that anyone who wishes to see Him, to truly encounter Him, must do more than just stand on the outside, they have to step onto the same side where He is and to simply do what He does - listen to God and obey Him. We will see Jesus face to face, on our last day when we meet Him in eternity, but we have to do more than just wish for it. We have to hear His word, receive it into our hearts, and act on it.  You see, the invitation to see Jesus and be with Him is extended to all of us, but it requires an active resp...

 “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: 'All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” The Israelites had been exiled and taken captive in Babylon for many decades. Then the king of Persia, King Cyrus defeated and conquered Babylon. Instead of continuing to keep the Israelites captive, this king did the unexpected. He released the Isrealites and sent them on their way back to Jerusalem, to rebuild their homeland and their temple. No king had ever done that. God heard His people’s cries and in His time, did the impossible. God's plans and actions often transcend human expectations and understanding. From the passage we hear in the first reading, it also seems that King Cyrus, a pagan king, actually recognised that the kingdoms he had conquered and built were given by the God of heaven. And he believed that this God of the Israelites had commanded him to build a temple for H...

 "Are you envious because I am generous?' Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last." Today it is so wonderful for us to be reflecting on the Gospel passage of the vineyard owner and his laborers, in the midst of the beautiful Iowa farmlands, in this Hmong Lao community center. Hiring workers in the marketplace may seem odd in American culture, but in the olden days and even in many countries now, this scene described by Jesus is quite common. Like in certain states in India I have visited, poor daily-wage workers would stand around in the marketplace in the morning, waiting for landlords who need workers for that day to arrive and select the workers they need. They would often choose the healthy and strong workers of course. Those not selected will get work and will not have any money or food to bring home that day. Is that fair? I too have personally experienced something similar. When I was a seminarian doing my theology studies in Rome, I would usually ...

 "For if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of the Church of God?" In the early days of the church, bishops and deacons chosen from the community could be married and had their own families. And there were situations where some of these chosen leaders of the church had neglected their families and failed in their duties as sons,  husbands and fathers. In time, the problems in their family became so detrimental that it badly affected their roles as church leaders. Isn't it true, that if a man cannot manage his own family, how can he manage the church. Although I don't have my own family, this phrase applies to me as well. My household is me, my prayer life, the state of my mind, my body, my emotions, my spiritual well being. Am I managing them well? As I have shared yesterday, I aspire to develop a consistent prayer life like my grandma and papa. I also need to improve my self-care,  protect my personal time and using my off days ...

 "It is my desire, then, that in every place, men should pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument." What a beautiful vision St. Paul had! Imagine if all people are prayerful and peaceful, no anger, no argument. The world would really be perfect. It is through prayerfulness that we learn to be deeply peaceful people, and I too desire to attain this. My papa and grandma were two great examples of prayerfulness for me.  Grandma was completely blind before I was born and she was living in my home. In my memory, she prayed the rosary all the time and she would spend hours reciting all the other prayers daily which she had memorized by heart. I have never seen her forgetting her prayers or skipping her rosary for even one day. My papa, too, had always kept a regular and consistent prayer routine. He read the Bible and devoted a good amount of time for prayer on a daily basis. I also do not recall seeing him miss a single day of his beautiful habit. I do regret though ...

 "None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord...”  What does it mean, to live and die for someone? There are many movies I have watched where characters declared ‘I would die for you’ and then they proceed to do the most dangerous tasks and take life threatening risks for the sake of helping or saving their loved one. Yes, they prove that they would truly be willing to die for the person they love by doing anything and everything for the good of that person. And that is what our Lord does for us. He lives and dies for us. He has proven it, He has done it, and He will keep doing it if that is what will save us from sin. Here in this second reading, St. Paul declares that he too would live and die for the Lord, that we all should do the same. Would you? Would you really live and die for the Lord? If you think your answer is ‘Yes’, then it means you really love the Lord more than your own life...

“For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily, and you share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every principality and power.” Today's first reading is truly inspiring, offering us a glimpse of life with Jesus Christ, life in the Spirit. The Christian life revolves around the Master’s teachings. Jesus who sacrificed His life for us, taught and showed us how to live like Him. His way is simply to give life, completely till the last breath. That is His way of true unconditional love. How should we respond to this powerful teaching of love? Follow Him, imitate Him, be like Him. It is when people realize they are loved that they want to worship, they come to church. And it is when people realize they are called that they want to follow, they become active disciples, they go out to preach. In today's gospel, we witness Jesus choosing His twelve apostles. Were they perfect? Far from it. Do they qualify? Not according to our criteria of good leaders, but yes, they...

“The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him”.  Today’s miracle healing took place in a synagogue on a Sabbath, the Lord’s holy day, in the Lord’s holy place. But when we follow this reading closely and try to visualize what the scribes and Pharisees were doing, we can really understand why Jesus considered them hypocrites. We also wonder, why did the Pharisees go to their synagogues? What was the Sabbath to them? The Sabbath is a day for prayer and thanksgiving to God for the week that passed, for rest and relaxation from a week of labor, a day to recall and recollect how God saved their forefathers from slavery and gave them hope of a Messiah. It is a day to fellowship with their fellow Jews to celebrate the blessings received, as one race, one people of God. However, sadly, the scribes and Pharisees here weren't even truly hearing the message of love, compassion, and mercy from Jesus ...

 Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "God forbid, Lord! May such a thing never happen to you." If we hear of someone predicting a terrible thing happening to them, or simply imagining a bad situation for themselves, we will say the same. It is natural. We would not wish anything bad to happen to anyone we love and treasure. Peter loved Jesus very much, and he was still expecting Jesus to overthrow the Romans and rebuild Jerusalem. Naturally and logically, he would not want anything bad to happen to his beloved master. He probably had in his mind to do all that he could to prevent Jesus from being killed, he was ready to fight the enemies surely. But Jesus' response was shocking. He called Peter, our first pope, ‘Satan’. That was a harsh one. Just before this, He had entrusted the keys of the kingdom to Peter, and now He considered him an opposition. What was happening? God’s ways are not based on our logic or rationale. God’s plans may not make se...