Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

 “Come now, let us set things right, says the LORD: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow…” Today’s first reading is set at the time when the people of Judah had been rebellious against God, who had been providing for them. Prophet Isaiah spoke on behalf of the Lord, who though having been offended, was calling them to repentance and return to God. God wants to set things right with His people, and the way He will do it is to wash away all the sins and offences against Him, leaving no trace of the wrongdoings, becoming ‘as white as snow’, ‘as white as wool’. I have a friend who shared that when she was in high school, there was one year when she could never complete her school assignments. Her family was going through a rough time and it affected her studies. At one point the amount of schoolwork she owed her Math teacher was so much that she felt like dying, she knew she would never be able to complete all the outstanding work and it burdened her tremendo...

 In the first reading, it was during the time of exile in Babylon, when Daniel pleaded with God, saying, “But yours, O Lord, our God, are compassion and forgiveness!” In the responsorial psalm, we prayed, “May your compassion quickly come to us.” And the gospel passage for today began with this verse: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Our God is merciful, compassionate and always forgiving! How do you feel about this? I feel totally blessed and thankful. Because if our God is not, I would be condemned forever for my sins! Pope Francis published a book in 2016 titled, “The Name of God is Mercy”, reminding us to trust and always turn to God even in our unworthiness. The world exists today because of our God is loving, compassionate and merciful. If we look around and examine within ourselves, sin is everywhere. In this country alone, legal abortions would have hit 30 million since the turn of the millennium, not counting the illegal ones. Humanity continues to commit s...

 “And in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing— all this because you obeyed my command." This Sunday’s first reading ends with these words. This is so powerful. God promises Abraham that because of his obedience and faithfulness to God, all the nations of the earth all through the generations will be blessed. It was a very difficult test that Abraham had gone through, his only son who was born at his old age had to be sacrificed as an offering to God, and he was willing. How many of us would be willing to do the same? Abraham, a human father, was willing to sacrifice his only son to please God. Would not God, our heavenly Father be willing to sacrifice His only beloved Son to save His people? Thus, Abraham proved himself worthy to be the father of all the faithful. His obedience and faithfulness remain to this day, 4000 years later, a perfect model for all of us, his descendants. God called Abraham out of his comfort to a life of seeking the land promis...

 “Be careful, then, to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.” To be careful, is to put care and attention into what we do. It is to be mindful, to be intentional. This verse in the first reading today makes us reflect: we are ending the first week of Lent, have we been careful with our Lenten observances? Lent is a beautiful season during which the church recommends all the faithful to put in extra effort into our spiritual life, so that we can advance in holiness, to come closer to God. Abstinence, prayer, almsgiving, fasting. These are what we are called to practice every day of the year, but during Lent, these same activities are especially emphasized. We are called to be careful in doing these, to observe them with greater sincerity and effort. For example, abstinence from meat on Fridays. It is such a very simple and easy act, to be in sync with the universal church, and in solidarity with those who do not even have proper meals on any day of their lives. So...

Two phrases that struck me today are from the first reading. The first one is, “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy,” and the second one is: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” For a long time, I have always thought that holiness was something that I could never attain. I just felt it was too far and impossible for me to reach. When I was little, all the saints I knew about were born in countries a great distance from India, like St. Anthony of Padua, St. Dominic Savio, St. Padre Pio, and so on. I believed that people from other countries were holy, and Indians can never be. It is only recently that there are saints from India being canonized. I am sure there must have been many unknown, unnamed and uncanonized saints who lived and died in India throughout its history, but their cases were never brought to the Holy See for the canonization process. Similarly for many countries in Asia and around the world. After my ordination, as I encountered more people...

 "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." Jesus is crying out loud at the Jordan, the same place where John the Baptist was calling out to people before he was arrested. There is sense of urgency in the message, a kind of ‘do it now’ warning, a very clear call for action, “repent, and believe…” As we enter the first Sunday of Lent, this is the first call of Jesus to each of us. ‘Repent’ – have you? ‘Believe’ – do you? If not, what are you waiting for? This is usually the period when our catechumen and candidates go through their final stretch of preparation towards baptism, and this message of Jesus is also calling out to them to take action, to convert their hearts, to believe in Him, to wait no more. Today, during this Mass, we will have the rite of sending, to dispatch them to our bishop for the rite of election at St. Francis of Assisi Parish. They have spent many months learning about the teachings of the Cathol...

"Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity, it gives birth to death." What is the root of sin? It is in our desires. In the Gospel reading of last Wednesday taken from Mark 7:14-23, Jesus said, “From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.” And so, the evil desires from a person’s heart can lead to sin, and grave sin leads to death. Death is forever. Buddha rightly said, “Desire is the cause of all miseries.” What misery could be more final than death. In the garden of Eden, Satan tempted Eve, suggesting that she could become like God. That desire led her and Adam to disobey God, to pursue their desire and forgo their privilege. That desire which led to sin, made the immortal man mortal. Ever since that beginning, history continues to repeat itself. We see peace broken by greedy desires of leaders for more power, families t...

“Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” A good friend of mine battled with addiction to drugs and alcohol for many years. Finally, he was able to give up his destructive habits and began walking with the Lord. Was it all smooth and easy? No. He faced many other struggles in his new life. Often, he was tempted to go back to his old ways, with thoughts that his life with drugs and alcohol was more carefree. He knew it was a lie. He then began to involve himself in various ministries in his parish church to serve the Lord. Was it all smooth and easy then? No. He experienced many disagreements and arguments within the ministries. Why is it that serving God seemed to make life more difficult? Shouldn’t we be rewarded with a good and easy life? If we look at Abraham, we see that he had to go through many trials and challenges in obeying God’s call. He did not have it easy. The apostl...

 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” Leprosy is a terrible disease. Physically, it does not just affect the skin, but also the nerves, the respiratory tract and the eyes. When full blown, lepers look frightening to others. It is also infectious; thus people avoid any contact with lepers. In Jesus’ time, there was little knowledge about leprosy, so it was considered a curse and lepers were considered unclean and untouchable. Socially, lepers become displaced from family, community and normal life. In today’s first reading, Moses prescribes the rule for managing someone with leprosy. It keeps the leper away from others so that the condition can be contained and not spread to everyone in the community. The cry of the leper, “unclean, unclean” is a socially responsible action on the part of the leper, but is there mercy and compassion for the leper? Yes, there is. In today’s Gospel, Jesus does something unthinkable an...

 He put his finger into the man's ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" (that is, "Be opened!") Living in the shadow of the pandemic, we can’t help but agree that this miraculous healing is probably one of the more unhygienic ones Jesus has performed. I always wondered if he could have just performed the healing without putting his finger in the man’s ears or touching his tongue with spittle. Jesus could have healed him the same way as he healed the centurion's soldier, remotely without even needing to see the sick man. But here, Jesus takes extra steps. He put his fingers in his ears so that he could feel Jesus’ touch. He then put spittle on his tongue, so that he could taste Jesus. And Jesus spoke in Aramaic, "Ephphatha," so that he could see Jesus’ speaking. We do not know exactly why Jesus did the healing this way, many scholars have proposed some explanations, but to me, ...

He said, "LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below." Solomon is praising the God of Israel, acknowledging Him as the one true God. He sings a hymn of thanksgiving to God for dwelling in the temple he built. Solomon was especially blessed by God. In the earlier chapters of the book of First Kings, we read that God blessed Solomon with wisdom and all the riches of the world. Unfortunately, in the later chapters, Solomon failed God. He followed his pagan wives to worship other deities. The same lips which uttered those words of praise and thanksgiving began to praise other gods. What a pity. The Bible provides no mention whether Solomon repented of his numerous sins or tore down the pagan altars he built. Did he not turn back to the one true God He honored and worshipped? Was he tempted beyond the possibility of return? In the Letter to the Hebrews 6:4, it is stated, "For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlight...

"When the priests left the holy place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD.” All the forty years when the Israelites walked through the desert in exodus, God walked with them, in the form of a cloud in the day and in the form of a pillar of fire in the night. Now after the priests placed the ark of the covenant in the holy place, God again made Himself visible to them in the form of a cloud filling the whole temple. God’s presence is so visible and so real them. King Solomon, the priests at the temple, and the people of that time were so blessed to be able to see the glory of the Lord. I too wish I could see it with my own eyes and be in awe of God’s visible presence. A priest friend of mine, who loves the incense, would sometimes fill the sanctuary with the smoke of the incense. It probably looks like the cloudy temple, but I am sure the Israelite temple had a strong and powerful aura, because God was present. Yes, they were indeed blessed. Were they grateful and thankful tha...