Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

 “Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” The Assyrians had already encamped themselves near Judah, ready to march into the city and take over the nation, like how they had already taken over the other ten tribes of Israel. Only Judah and Benjamin were left. This statement is from the letter which the Assyrian king Sennacherib sent to Hezekiah, king of Judah. It did not just warn Judah that they were coming to take over Judah by force, but was also mocking that the God of Israel will be helpless and a fake. What should King Hezekiah do in such a situation? It was a fact that the Assyrian army was huge, Judah was simply too small to fight them.  Logically, it would make sense to surrender to Sennacherib to avoid bloodshed and accept the disgrace and the capture. All the neighboring countries had already lost to the Assyrians. In our own life, have we also faced such situations before? Stuck and u...

“Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God.”  Some people do go through life tougher and rougher than others. I personally know some such people who lived the whole of their lives literally toiling and working till they die. My own parents lived like that. Since young they were already laboring to help their own families. When they got married, they labored every day from morning till night to provide for us. Before they even got a chance to rest and retire, they fell ill and passed on. They did not accomplish anything spectacular and daily life was simply hardship from beginning till the end. They have never experienced a good life, but they have discharged their duties and responsibilities fully. Is such a life meaningful? Looking at Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John the Baptist, they might not have lived in extreme poverty, but they toiled in other ways. For a woman to be barren ...

 “So, whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” Old is gold. Many products in the past were created by skilled craftsman, they were made with pride and made to last a long time. Many old memories were filled with innocence and simple pleasures. Friendships that can last the test of time are treasures, valuable as gold. However, nowadays, many things and devices are made to be replaced, because if they last too long, businesses will not get new sales and will not survive. Even relationships develop into intimacy very fast but break up even faster, because people look for immediate gratification and have no patience to grow together. Memories are made up of more regrets than rewards. The pace of life is so fast that everything is new, because there is no time for anything to stay long enough to become old. Disposables are now so common, acceptable and practical. But then again, is old always good? Not everything. And is ev...

 "But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil." ‘Tomorrow will take care of itself’; do you trust that? But note the verse that came before it, ‘seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness’. When Pope John XXIII decided on the convocation of the Second Vatican Council, which was a huge historical event seeking to renew and restore the Church back to its roots, our late holy father had great difficulty falling asleep the night before the announcement to the whole church. He later told that he finally convinced himself this way: “Giovanni, why don’t you sleep? Is it the pope or the Holy Spirit that governs the Church? It’s the Holy Spirit, right? Well then, go to sleep, Giovanni!” and then he fell asleep and slept well.  If the Pope was able to entrust the work of the whole Universal Church to the Holy Spirit a...

"Since he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his time. I will bring the evil upon his house during the reign of his son."  This verse from the first reading really struck me. Our sins have far-reaching consequences beyond our imagination. We all carry original sin in us before we are baptized. Original sin is the consequence of Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God and passed down through next generations. We read in the 2nd Book of Samuel how King David committed grave sins but later repented sorrowfully because of prophet Nathan’s revelation. However, the consequence of his sins was him losing his son to death soon after his birth. In today’s reading, Ahab too repented in remorse for his sin, but the consequence of that terrible murder remained in the house of Ahab, even though he did not commit the act himself. Just as Jesus warned the Pharisees: "Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and c...

 “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” This is so true. Jesus was not just talking about Satan but He is also referring to his own Jewish community, particularly the Pharisees, who were causing divisions in society and among the Jewish people. If they fully understood the word of God, they would have recognized Jesus and not be persecuting Him. Being united is powerful; any community or organization which is divided is weak and bound to break up, including families and relationships. In the first chapters of Genesis, we can already see that division. Satan tempted Eve when she was alone, to turn her against God and against her husband. Thereafter, having herself sinned, she too convinced Adam to turn against God. With the same selfish attitude to defend self and push the guilt and responsibility to others, the division in relationship worsened as we see Adam blaming God, s...

“Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory.” Before Paul was converted, he was enjoying success, recognition, authority and power as a Christian persecutor. But when he encountered Jesus and began to love the Lord and His sheep with all his heart, all his understanding, and all his strength, the sufferings also began to come to him, and he had to ‘bear with everything’. We all suffer in one way or another. We all have our own crosses to carry, but it is important to know whether we are carrying a cross because of salvation or because of our own wrong actions. There is an effect to every cause, and a consequence to every action. The consequence of wrong decisions, foolish actions, prideful deeds, selfish greed, over-ambitious endeavor, unhealthy relationships, financial mismanagement, and addictive habits is suffering. And these are self-inflicted sufferings, they...

 “For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.” ‘Stirring into flame’ was one of my daily tasks when I was a young boy. In my family, every meal was cooked with firewood. There was no electricity, no gas. To heat up our kitchen stove, we had to keep the firewood burning, my mother would always ask me to blow through a small steel pipe to stir up the flames of the firewood. That was my job every day when mommy cooked. Mommy’s cooking took hours. Then there was the local blacksmith who sharpened our spades, sickles and axes. Whenever I brought our farm tools to him for sharpening, I would also have to help him keep the heat up for the sharpening process. I had to keep swinging the handle of a pump to force air into the fire to keep it burning for as long as the sharpening was on-going. Based on my childhood experiences, to “stir into flame” is hard work. My cheeks and mouth were always tired and painful from the ki...

Holy Family School Mass "He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to His own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began." There are many important points to note in this verse, I will highlight four: One, God saved us. Two, we are called to a holy life. Three, not by our works, but by God’s design. Four, and by the grace of Jesus Christ. Let me check your general knowledge. Can you name some well-known religions in the world? Yes, Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. Do you know any friends who believe in any of these religions? Well, I did too when I was in school. That was in India. I had school friends who were Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists. Although I attended a Catholic school, majority of the students were Hindus, Catholics were a minority. We had school Mass on Fridays, right before the lunch break. During this time, the Muslim students w...

“But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” We all have our hobbies, areas of passion and interest. At one point in my life, I was very interested in cars, and I followed closely all the new technologies and happenings in the car industry. I could identify every car on the street and knew all their technical aspects. Although now I'm not as crazy as before, I still pay attention to new makes and models of cars launched. I am sure you too have your passion in sports, music, the arts, or other areas of interest, and you would also follow closely all the updates and changes relevant to your interest. What you know about this area would be more in-depth and extensive than the normal person. What about the knowledge of God? The Catholic Church? The faith? Do we also put in much effort to know, understand and follow closely all that involve and are relevant to our faith? In today’s first reading, St. ...

 “"But shall we say, 'of human origin'?" - they feared the crowd, for they all thought John really was a prophet.’ One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is ‘Fear of God’. Our God is a loving Father, and we are His beloved children, so should we live in fear of Him? No, we should not. Then what is this gift about? It is a respectful fear and deep reverence. It is a heightened awareness that “my heavenly Father watches over me and sees everything that I do.” It is also the deliberate and intentional acceptance of and surrender to God’s will, His authority, His power over our life. It is living in mindfulness of the Final Judgment of God at the end of time, which is a judgement of love. You can thus imagine having this gift of ‘fear of God’ in our lives, we will be able to live truly free from sin and in steady progression towards holiness. Without this gift, we would be living in fear of other material obsession or other persons, in the sense of worshipping them and givin...

Today we are celebrating a very, very special and joyous occasion, do you know what that is? Yes! Our second graders received their First Holy Communion! So a school famliy we celebrate their joy. Now why is this so special and so joyous? Because receiving Holy Communion is really receiving Jesus Himself, to be united with Him heart in heart, body in body, totally and fully. Can you imagine the powerful King of the Universe, who loves you very, very much, so much that He is willing to become so small so that He can enter into your heart and stay with you? That is so wonderful! Something hard for us to fully understand but yet it is true! Jesus wants so much to be with us always, forever and ever. He wants to bless us and give us everything that we need for our souls to be saved. Do you think Jesus would give us everything we ask for?  Like what we heard in the gospel passage today, James and John went to Jesus and boldly asked Him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask...