Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father!"  In today’s gospel event, when Jesus saw the woman ‘crippled by a spirit’, he immediately healed her, telling her she is set free. He saw her physical state, but He also saw the spiritual bondage which shows up in her physical infirmity. Her physical impairment is a result of sin. But when we look at Jesus on the cross, physically crippled by human cruelty and evil, it shows up our spiritual infirmity. Jesus’ physical deformity is a result of our sin. When we see Jesus on the cross, we see God, fully human and we also see man, fully divine. Physically He is nailed to the cross, but spiritually, he is free. Jesus shows us how we too can live free and live fully.  St. Paul said it plainly in the first reading, by calling God, “Abba, Father!” To imitate Jesus in the way he lives, as sons and daughters of the Father, exercising the ...

 "There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known." Do you have secrets? Are you worried about your secrets being revealed? Do you keep secrets for someone else? Have you been tempted to leak out the secret to another person? Something I realized growing up in a large family, is that in big families, there are no secrets, there is no way to hide any secret, not for long. Someone will somehow find out something. When I was in school, the period after exams is the secretive time. The teachers would enter our examination results in our school journal, to be shown to our parents for their signature, then return to the teachers next day. My brother and I would always get poor grades, and we would hide our school journals, with a plan to only show to our parents the next day just before leaving for school, so that there would not be much time for them to scold us, they could just sign and we would run off quickly to school. The plan never wor...

"Behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves."  Thousands of years before Jesus’ time, sheep became domesticated. While there still exists very few species in the wild, most sheep will never be able to survive on their own. Their lambs are even more vulnerable. If ever they fall prey to wolves, they will not be able to fight them. They need a shepherd to protect them, to keep them alive. Then why is Jesus sending his disciples out among wolves? Why send them into danger?  If we recall Jesus has told His disciples, “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Matthew 10, 28) Did His disciples understand their vulnerability? Should they fear being among wolves which can only destroy their bodies, while they are there preaching to save their souls? Today's first reading shows us how much danger discipleship faces. St. Paul was often beaten, persecuted, stoned, and...

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Luke, the evangelist.  First, let me ask you a few questions: 1) What is an evangelist? a) An angel who makes a list of all the good people; b) A Christian who is excited to tell everyone about Jesus. Very good! 2) How many evangelists are named in the Bible? Four! 3) Who are these four evangelists? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Well done! Matthew and John were also apostles of Jesus, they were following Jesus daily, and learnt a lot from him. They were sent by Jesus to preach to others. Thereafter, they wrote down all that they had seen, heard and learnt to teach and tell others about Jesus. These are known as the Gospel according to Matthew and the Gospel according to John. But Luke and Mark were not apostles. They were not sent by Jesus. Instead, Mark and Luke were followers of some of Jesus’ apostles in their missionary work as they went around to preach. Mark followed St. Peter, and Luke followed St. Paul. Thereafter, Mark and Luke wrote t...

"Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her."  Honestly, how many of you have had thoughts that probably Mary was lazy and chose the easier part so she could escape doing anything? I had that thought too. Many of us can instead easily identify and empathize with Martha. We work hard, are focused on our responsibilities, and take pride in accomplishing our tasks and duties, sometimes overwhelming ourselves. As a pastor, I often feel the weight of the parish on my shoulders and wish that more people would share this load with me. You might feel the same in your ministry, home or at work. And then we complain, like Martha. We not only complain to God, we also complain about God! When Jesus says, "Mary has chosen the better part," I can imagine how Martha feels. If I were Martha, I might say in exasperation, "Alright Jesus, you can continue talking to her. No dinner will be served then." And you know what? Jesus might even be happy abou...

 “But Jonah made ready to flee to Tarshish away from the Lord. He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went aboard to journey with them to Tarshish, away from the Lord.” How often do you hear of a prophet of God trying to get away from Him and going the opposite of where he was called? Not often, and today we hear of one. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, to preach and convert and save the people of Nineveh, to turn them from their wicked and evil ways.  Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. They were notorious for their cruelty and brutality and a constant threat to Israel, the northern Kingdom. No Israelite would ever want to go near to Nineveh. We would think a prophet would be different because he is someone chosen by God to be His messenger, someone who can identify with the will of God and would be obedient to represent God’s voice, to proclaim His messages and declare His intentions and plans. But Jonah was not! He understood God’s plan bu...

“The kingdom of God will be taken away from you  and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” We are now in harvesting season. Many months before this, we were planting and pruning, now we see the results, the fruits, the produce. Our two readings today are also about producing and harvesting fruits. In the first reading the vineyard produced wild grapes instead of good grapes. What went wrong? If the vineyard owner had done everything right, and yet the vineyard brought forth wild grapes, then the problem must have been the soil? Yet it was a land set on the fertile hillside. There is nothing the vineyard owner could do than to let it waste and be cursed. In the Gospel, the story is not about the soil which could not produce, but the tenants who refused to give the produce back to the vineyard owner. What went wrong? The produce must have been good, and the tenants might have become greedy, and wanted to keep all the harvest to themselves and even planned to kill to take ov...

 "Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus." What is the attitude of Christ? In today’s second reading, St. Paul described in much detail. This writing was known as the Christ Hymn in olden days. One phrase stands out very prominently for me: “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves”. This is Christ's attitude, in one word it is ‘humility’. But can we really have the same attitude in us? Is it possible for us to be selfless like Christ, and regard others as more important? Jesus emptied Himself to redeem us, He regarded our salvation as more important than His own life. When we look at the crucifix, we see true humility. In this world, we observe arrogance, pride, big egos and overpowering self-regard, few people are ready for compromise, many are easily offended, considering themselves and their opinions most important and valuable, anyone with a differing view becomes an enemy.  ...