Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

"I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me..."  Jesus is comforting His disciples before His passion and death. The disciples’ greatest fear was losing Jesus to the enemies. They needed Jesus to save them from Roman power and the abuse of the Jewish authorities. But Jesus knew His time with His disciples was limited, yet He assured them that the ‘ruler of the world’ had no power over Him. Jesus was speaking about Satan and his power. When Satan was an angel of God, he enjoyed power given to him to serve God. When he turned against God, God did not take back that gift. So, Satan retained power, but which can never overpower God who gave it to him originally. He has no power over Jesus. When we look around, we see a lot of evil committed by people, and which seem to spread more evil around. We see even believers, Christians, falling away, continuing in repetitive sin, giving in to addiction, giving up their faith.  Why i...

 "So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit." This is how today’s first reading ends. Paul and Barnabas were expelled from the city because the Jews were jealous of them preaching to the Gentiles. In the midst of these life-threatening persecutions and rejections, they were not depressed but “were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit”. The joy that emanates from the depth of a person’s soul can be so powerful that others around can feel the effect, positively or negatively.  The joy of the early Christians, which was a result of their total embrace of the good news and a gift from the Holy Spirit, was very contagious.  The disciples went around preaching and teaching with so much joy that even troubles and persecutions could not dampen their spirit. That joy became a powerful witness to the Truth and brought hope to those who converted and believed. The joy of the Christians ev...

Those who had been scattered by the persecution that arose because of Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. Antioch is approximately 300 miles from Jerusalem. So it seems that the good news of Christ had spread out far and wide very fast since the death of Stephen. Look at these early converted believers, how excited they are to receive and share the good news. When was the last time you were super excited about something and had to share it with everyone you know? A few days ago, a young friend of mine got enlisted into the US military, he called eagerly to tell me, "Father, I am a soldier." And in a few hours, he came to my office and told me again the same news. He was so excited, it was the best news he had been waiting for, and he went around telling all his friends about it within that morning. Little children are not good at containing their excitement. Often when my young nephews and nieces got new toys, they would immediately FaceTime with me to show...

So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers confronted him, saying, “You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.” This incident happened soon after the Pentecost event. Peter was going around Jerusalem and its neighboring towns thus most of the newly converted were Jews, Orthodox Jews who were strictly faithful to the Mosaic laws and Jewish traditions and practices like circumcision, separating from the Gentiles, and even religious dietary restrictions. They wanted to follow Christ but were not ready to let go of their old way of life. They were not ready to live alongside the Gentiles who also accepted Christ and so could not include them into their community. They embraced Jesus’ resurrection but could not discard their deep rejection of the Gentile people. If the apostles and their successors had also maintained the same disposition, the church would not have grown. It was only when the good news spread to the Gentiles and non-Jews that the chu...

 "I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me.” Out of the 150 Psalms, I memorized two which are Psalm 91 and Psalm 23. As you know, I grew up on a farm. Venomous snakes were very common, so as a family, we used to recite Psalm 91 during family prayer and before setting off to go to the farm. One of the verses in the Psalm reads like this: “You can tread upon the asp and the viper.” As children, we thought it was a powerful spiritual weapon so memorized it. At some point, Psalm 23 was also added to our family prayer. This family practice cultivated a beautiful prayer habit for me. And I especially love Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; nothing I shall want.” If Jesus is our shepherd, our Lord, we will have everything we need, because He gives us everything including His own life. He protects us and ensures we are safe with His life. He would rather die for us than to see us die. Each one of us is special to Him; thus, He knows us not as a flock of sheep all the same...

 "The Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. She was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit, she grew in numbers.” What peace did the early Church have? There was a period around when I was four or five years old, gangs of robbers were attacking the nearby villages. They came from a neighboring state and broke into many houses. They stole and robbed everything in these houses. The families who tried to fight back would be brutally killed. No one knew when they would suddenly attack again. My family was terrified because there was one family, whom my parents knew, was robbed and killed. We were afraid they would come to our village, to our home. We were afraid to be robbed and killed. We didn’t have any police protection, no helpline to call, no one to save us.  Some evenings when my papa was delayed in returning home from the farm, we children would be so frightened and anxious, worried that the r...

Holy family School Mass  “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me”.  Isn’t this wonderful? Jesus says that He will not reject anyone who comes to Him. This means that whoever goes to Jesus, whether they are naughty or nice, good or bad, He will accept them all and love them all. So, every one of you here, no one excluded, as long as you go to Jesus, He will accept you. This is truly good news! And this is what we are celebrating for Easter, Jesus died to save not just some people, but the whole world. During this season of Easter, we take readings from the Acts of the Apostles. We see how the Apostles were fervent and fearless in the way they go around to preach this good news and how thousands and thousands of people believed and were baptised. But it was not smooth and easy, we see in the first reading, how the early church was being persecuted. The enemies have killed Jesus, and they continue to kill those who believ...

"But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” Can you visualize this scene? His enemies were ready to stone him to death, but he was not at all afraid. He even seemed joyful to be dying, he was fearless as he continued to preach and give witness to Jesus with his dying breath. Such unwavering faith, such unshakable courage! I too wish to have faith and courage like that. I wonder if all the martyrs who died for Jesus could have seen with their own eyes the glory of God, like Stephen did, just before their death. That would have given them the strength because at that moment, nothing else mattered, they knew without a doubt who was there waiting for them and what they would gain from their dying - the glory of heaven. To become a martyr like Stephen, would imply living a life not compromising to the ways of the world. In fact, it would mean living a life in conflict with the world. Jesu...

But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world. I grew up in a big household, with 7 children, our parents, and our grandparents, totaling 11 of us altogether. Among my siblings, fights were very common, but most of the time, we would reconcile ourselves quickly and life got back to normal fast. There were occasions when our fights were intense, and the separation lasted much longer. Our grandpa had a special ability to sense that we needed external help to set things right again. He would simply call all of us together, made us take turns to apologize to one another with a hug and miraculously, we were back to normal again after that. Many times, I waited eagerly for grandpa’s intervention when we could not resolve it ourselves because I wanted to play again with my siblings, but I didn’t have the confidence to initiate reconciliation. A few years ago,...

"But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out, and said, “Go and take your place in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life.” I love this scene from the Acts of the Apostles. You can almost feel the excitement and experience a jaw-drop reaction when you visualize the prison doors suddenly open wide and a bright light leading them all out of prison. Free again! To continue preaching and spreading the Good News with greater fervor and conviction! It was not yet time for the apostles to stay in prison, they still had more work to do, so God sent His angels to set them back to the temple area, to reinstate them from being prisoners back to being preachers.  This is not a legend, not someone’s imagination, but it truly did happen. The truth is, such divine intervention is still happening in our time. Have you heard about the story of the beggar priest? I will share the gist  of it here. There was a priest who did s...

 "There was no needy person among them." Today’s first reading described how the early Christians lived, they shared everything, no one owned anything to their own name, and the apostles distributed everything equally among the people. Can you imagine living in such a community, in such a society? Wouldn’t it be wonderful? Because truly, there would not be any needy person, everyone’s basic needs would be provided for. In the first few decades after the resurrection of Jesus, there was a common belief that the second coming of Jesus would happen very soon. It is reflected in an old Aramaic prayer the people chanted regularly, “Maranatha” which means "Our Lord is coming". Because of that belief, the people did not cling on to their property or wealth.  However, as the number of Christians increased, it must have become a herculean task for the apostles to ensure equal and fair distribution. And when they came to understand later that the second coming of the Lord was...

 Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.” He takes away the first to establish the second. By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all. From the second reading, we hear about the ‘will’ and ‘consecration’. In the Gospel also, we hear the great Fiat of Mary, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word”. By choosing to unite her will to God’s, the incarnation took place, the long-awaited Messiah took on human flesh. Mary was a simple young woman from Nazareth who like all other Jews, had been praying for the coming of the Messiah. When God’s plan was announced to her, she did not give up her well, instead she chose to unite her will freely and totally to the will of God. At that moment, her life is no longer separate from God’s plan, instead her life became separated and set aside from the world. She has consecrated herself totally to God. As Jesus grew and began to exercise His ...

 Let the house of Israel say, "His mercy endures forever." Let the house of Aaron say, "His mercy endures forever." Let those who fear the LORD say, "His mercy endures forever." We sang these verses in today’s responsorial psalm. God’s mercy endures forever. ‘Forever’ means from the very beginning to the very end of time, God’s mercy ‘endures’. What does it endure? Does it endure just the length of time? No, more than that. It endures the breadth of our sins, and the depth of our hard-heartedness. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, they had to bear the consequences of their sins. Even then, we read the scene of God putting together some garments for Man and Woman to cover themselves, who became conscious of their nakedness. This is a beautiful sign of God’s affectionate and compassionate love for the man and woman He created. This is God’s mercy. Thereafter throughout the whole of history, from Abraham to Moses, to Jesus till today, God continues to pur...

Thank you all for continuing to come for Saturday morning Mass. When I was little, my family used to attend Saturday morning Mass together and will always end with the Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. To me, that is a beautiful devotion for the whole family. I have wanted to start Saturday morning Mass when I first came to SAC but didn’t know if it will catch on with the parishioners. Last year, I attended an evening talk about Our Lady of Fatima at St. Augustine Parish and came to know about the First Five Saturday devotion, and I was again motivated. Finally, today being the first Saturday of the month, we can begin. Let me share a bit more about this devotion. Sr. Lucia was one of the three shepherd children visionaries to whom our Blessed Mother appeared for six months in 1917 in Fatima. Later when Lucia grew up and joined the convent in Spain, our Blessed Mother appeared to her again on December 10, 1925, with this message, “Behold, my daughter, my Heart encircled with thorns...

 Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb, weeping. Today’s gospel begins by describing the emotional state of Mary. We can all visualize and identify with this scene. Mary Magdalene is very sad, to the point of experiencing deep emotional pain which triggers tears. This is love.  I recall when my papa died within a week of discovering his illness. It was unexpected, we were all unprepared. All my sisters wept on the day he died, and into the days after his burial. They cried again, very emotionally, when we visited his tomb thereafter and I recited the Office for the Dead. I, too, cried a lot at papa’s death. Love is a powerful emotion. It stirs our heart to feel the pain of loss, which works up our brain to trigger the release of tears, to help reduce the emotional pain. God gave us tears to help us manage our pain.  Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus, and before He entered Jerusalem, and at the garden of Gethsemane. His love for humanity stirred up deep emotional pain, s...