Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

 “But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.”  Poor Pharisees. They held onto an unrealistic dream that all Israelites would know the law as well as they did. But the reality was that most people were living in poverty, under oppression, and with fear. They didn’t have the same access to education or religious instruction. Sometimes, I feel something similar in my own life. People often talk to me about TV shows, baseball, or football, assuming I’m familiar with what they enjoy. But the truth is, I don’t even know the basics of those games, I don’t follow any American TV shows except The Chosen.  I live in America, and many assume I share the same interests. But just like the Pharisees in Jesus’ time, it’s easy to forget that not everyone fits into the same mold. In today’s Gospel, the people including the guards were amazed by Jesus’ words. They praised Him for His miracles. But the Pharisees? They weren’t interested. They were so focused on studying the L...

 “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be well?’” I have to be honest, I really didn’t like the man who was healed, when I first read the event in today’s Gospel text. Jesus asked him a simple and direct question: “Do you want to be well?” All he needed to do was to answer yes or no. I would expect him to be enthusiastic and respond yes! But he didn’t answer the question directly. Instead, he complained. He blamed it on the fact that there was no one to help him get to the pool, and that someone else would always get in before he did. Again, after he was healed, when the authorities told him off for carrying his own mat on a sabbath, he blamed it on Jesus, for telling him to pick up his mat, and caused Jesus to be persecuted. Wasn’t he grateful for being healed? Did he want to be healed at all? It seems to me that he was a complainer, someone who doesn’t own up and puts the blame on others. But I paused and re...