Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

Preached During  Holy Family School Mass.  This week is a special week, do you know what it is known as? Yes, Holy Week! It is the holiest week in the whole year of the church. This is the week when the church follows everything that happened to Jesus, and studies seriously everything that Jesus did and taught, every day, up to Easter Sunday. Christians all over the world remember and celebrate the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus during this week. How many of you went to church last Sunday? Did you take back some palms? Great! So last Sunday was Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday. It remembers the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem sitting on a donkey and many people welcomed him with palms shouting, “Hosanna to the King of kings!” It is the beginning of Holy Week. Then we have Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday. And what is today? You are right, today is Holy Wednesday. But there is also another name to this day…anyone knows? Today is also known as Spy Wedne...

 "I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth." We can see light from the sun, we know what happens when we turn on the light switch in a room, we understand how it is like to walk in the night without any streetlight. But how does a person become a light to others and to the world? Yesterday we read from one servant song from Isaiah, meditating on the compassion, mercy, and love of the Messiah, who came as a suffering servant of God. Today we read a second servant song, which further iterates the mission of the Messiah to shine for the world and bring the salvation of God to everyone. God is light, in Him there is no darkness, and Jesus is the light of the world. How does His light shine in the world? During middle school, I read a short story titled ‘The Little Girl Who Spread Light’. It was based on a true story. It told of a businessman whose business failed terribly, he had no way out of the situation and decided to end hi...

“A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching.” There are four passages in the book of the prophet Isaiah known as ‘Servant Songs’, or ‘Songs of the Suffering Servant’.  Today’s first reading is taken from the first song. The next two days we will read from another two songs. These are prophecies about Jesus, written 700 years before His birth, and they reveal the mission and disposition of the Messiah. This first song describes the most important disposition of Jesus and His very purpose on earth. A bruised weed is a stalk of grain which is crushed and broken in such a way that it will never produce any grain again. It is a dying stalk. This refers to the poor and oppressed, so miserable is their life such that they can never on their own, rise above their poverty and neediness. Their only hope is having someone to lift them out of their situation. A smoldering wic...

 “But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph. In their failure, they will be put to utter shame.” Jeremiah is arrogantly confident of God. He boasts of God’s might and that He will fight Jeremiah’s enemies down and put them all to ‘utter shame’ for the sake of the prophet. Don’t we all wish to have a mighty warrior, like a bodyguard, watching our back and causing all our enemies to fear and tremble? During my school days, kids from my village had to walk two miles every morning and evening, to and from school. There were twenty kids from my village who had to walk that way together every day. And along the way we would have lots to talk, play and fight about. We talked about anything and everything, and we fought over small and simple things. But the fights never lasted long; very quickly we became friends again. There was this girl, who was also my sister’s classmate, whenever somebody fought with her, she would threaten the...

 Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works of Abraham.” Traditionally, children often follow the trades of their parents, learning the craft and skills and attitude. Apprenticeship was the prevalent education system. So, what were the works of Abraham? What did he do? Searching scripture for the answer, James 2:23 says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.” All of Abraham’s works were works of faith; it was not ‘what’ he did, but ‘how’ he lived. He lived in faithfulness to God, he lived in close relationship with God. His faithfulness made him the father of all the faithful for generations and generations. His faithfulness caused him to believe in God and in the impossible. When God called him out of his homeland, his birthplace and to move to an unknown distant land, promising him a child in his very old age, and having descendants like the stars of heaven. These were v...

“They suppressed their consciences; they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and did not keep in mind just judgments”.  Do you remember hearing these verses in today’s first reading? It is a very long reading so you might have missed it. These words made me recall something a very devout woman once said to me. She said, “Father, it is not easy to go to hell.” That got my attention because I have always thought that it is easy to go to hell but difficult to go to heaven, don’t you think so? She then continued and explained, “God has given us everything we need to help us get to heaven easily: a conscience, the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, many opportunities to perform good deeds, help, guidance, gifts and charisms from the Holy Spirit, and the list goes on. But to go to hell, we have to choose to go against all these intentionally.” What an interesting perspective! And she is not wrong. In today’s story about Susanna, the judges who were plotting evil, had to go a...

“And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” Are you drawn to Jesus? In the Gospel, we see that the Greeks want to see Jesus. Greeks were non-Jews, they were pagans. They did not know the prophesies about a Messiah who will come to save the world. But these Greeks are seeking out Jesus.  They might have heard of His wisdom, or witnessed the miracles He performed, or seen the number of people He healed. They might simply be curious, or they might really be drawn to this amazing person, so much so that they approached Philip to arrange for them to see Jesus. Do you also want to see Jesus? We are getting closer to Holy Week. This is already the fifth Sunday of Lent and traditionally, the church veils the crucifix from now till Good Friday. Some churches would veil the statues too.  How do you feel seeing, or rather, not seeing the crucifix and statues of Jesus and the saints in the church? Have you ever thought, what would this world be if Jesus had n...

 "Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?” Do you firmly believe in Jesus? Why? If someone in authority comes and questions you, “Why do you believe in Jesus? Have you been deceived?” Would you be shaken? Would you know how to answer? In today’s Gospel, we see many people believing in Jesus, even the temple guards were inspired, because “never before has anyone spoken like this man”, they say. They believe because they have seen and heard Jesus for themselves. What about us? Who brought you into this faith? For me, it was my parents. They were believers and their parents were believers too. And so, generations in my family all believe in Jesus because someone whom we trust introduced us to the faith. And I do not for one moment think they have deceived me. Most of us would have started our faith life the same way. We come to believe because someone we trust believes in God first, and we followed them. They are not people of author...

“Once more, he measured off a thousand, but there was now a river through which I could not wade; for the water had risen so high it had become a river that could not be crossed except by swimming.” The book of Ezekiel contains visions and prophecies of Ezekiel, called to minister to the Israelites who were in exile in Babylon. We get a glimpse of how they were living in those times. Having lost the temple in Jerusalem, the people felt they have lost God and were giving up on the traditions and practices to keep up their faith. This vision of Ezekiel led me back to my own childhood days. Everyone in my village knew how to swim. There were no swimming coaches nor life jackets, but children just learnt to swim by following what others did. There was a pond at our family farm, it was 20 feet deep and almost always full. My siblings and I would go there very often. They learnt to swim very fast, but I took a long time. I was afraid of the deep waters; I was fearful about drowning. While ot...

 "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe…" If you had been praying to God all your life, but never once were your prayers answered, would you still believe? My mother was diagnosed with cancer when I was still studying in Rome. I prayed hard for a miracle for my mommy to be healed and to live long enough to see me become a priest. But she died at age 62 in 2012, four years before my ordination. Then in 2018, my father was also diagnosed with cancer. He was 70 years old. Again, I prayed hard for his speedy recovery, since I was already a priest for two years, I desperately needed a miracle to believe in my priesthood. But he passed away just one week after his diagnosis. I was sad for my parents’ early death, but what I found very difficult to accept was that my prayers for miracles were rejected, or so I thought. Now fast forward to January 2024, finally I made my first trip back to India after four years in USA. One of my anxieties was my hundred-and-o...

“For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.” It is logical right? If we did something terrible, made mistakes or broke the rules, we really do not want to be exposed. It is embarrassing, shameful and so we hide. Either we do not want to face the consequences of punishment, or we are simply afraid that if others know about it, they will lose respect for us, look at us differently or stop loving us. A friend shared with me that once when he went for reconciliation, he sat in the confessional behind the screen and tried to change the tone of his voice so that he would not be recognized by the confessor who was his parish priest because he felt ashamed of his sins. At the end of the confession, after the absolution, the priest suddenly spoke to him to convey a message and called him by his name. He was recognized! Honestly, just to share with you as a priest, I really do not think too much about the sins y...

 “Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, 'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’” In today’s first reading, Moses exhorts the people of Israel to be carefully obedient to God’s Law. It is emphasized that if they remain faithful to these statutes, they will be a great nation, ‘truly a wise and intelligent people’. We know how the story developed after this - they became arrogant, rebellious, and disobedient to God, their glory did not last, eventually they ended up in exile and slavery. By nature, humans have been gifted with free will, and thus we do not like to be controlled, restricted, or bound by rules and laws. Yet, without boundaries, society or community will be in chaos. Everyone will be doing as they wish, there will be no order. Thus, laws are everywhere – in the church, in school, in every country, even in the family. It seems like we have no ...

"When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount." My family farm used to engage many workers from other Indian states who needed work. They were paid a daily wage. At the beginning of the farming season, these workers arrive at our farm without any money, so they would ask for some salary in advance as a loan and pay it off with their daily wage. However, if anyone with an outstanding loan went to ask for another loan, my papa would not allow it unless it was for a grave need. That way he could help them avoid accumulating more loans beyond their ability to pay back. Whenever I read this parable, I would recall my papa’s system and wonder why this King allowed his servant to accumulate such a huge amount of debt, knowing he would not be able to pay back. He could have required him to pay off his outstanding debt before taking up another loan. Did his generosity encourage the servant to borrow and spend more than he could earn and retu...

 “My father," they said, "if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it?" Naaman was expecting to be healed in dramatic ways, in his opinion, that would make his travel all the way to Israel worth it. He probably thought he didn’t travel all the way to go through simple tricks. But finally, the simple instructions did the job perfectly. Not what Naaman was expecting but a miracle indeed. There was a period in my childhood when I was terribly afraid of injections. I was terrified of the needles. Once, I had a fever. There was a primary health center just a few yards from my home. I went to the doctor, who was a good friend of my family. I told him confidently, "I have a fever, not a high fever, so I only need paracetamol, no injections needed." The doctor laughed at me, he was very amused and knew very well what I was afraid of. I wanted the doctor to heal me but, in my way, in my terms, so I thought I could advise him how...

 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” Could God ever be foolish? Is God ever weak? Recently, I've been listening to a podcast by a man who converted from Hinduism to Christianity. Interestingly, he became interested in the Christian faith after reading Hindu sacred scriptures. The Rig Veda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, and Atharvaveda, are Hindu sacred writings in Sanskrit from around 3500 years ago. What he found in these ancient writings were consistent references to a divine savior who would come into the world and die on a cross. Convinced that those prophecies were pointing to Jesus, he began fervently preaching about Jesus the Savior of the world, in the context of Hindu scriptures, until his passing. Growing up in a predominantly Hindu country, I always enjoyed narratives of Hindu deities, especially epic stories from the history of Hinduism. I admired their invincible power, repeated victories in battles, ...