Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

 “Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged! The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior.” These powerful words from the prophet Zephaniah are just as timely today as they were when first declared. Indeed, it is a much-needed message for the Church today. At the last NCYC, one of the bishops began his talk, addressing the youth, with three simple words: “Joy over Fear.” And those words captured the attention of over 13,000 teenagers; it sure captured my attention too. We all listened to him keenly for more than an hour because deep inside every one of us, we yearn to have courage over fear, we long for joy over sorrow, and we all live in the hope that all will be well and good at the end of our days. Every day we wake up to some bad news, so it is very easy to slip into anxiety, fear, sadness and hopelessness. Even when we look at our church, observe its declining numbers and its silent community, it is easy to think that God is far away, Jesus is in the distance and we are he...

(Holy family School Mass) In today’s Gospel, Jesus says something very interesting to His disciples. He says, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you to all truth.” Do you know what Jesus is trying to tell His disciples and us? He is really saying that there is so many, many things that He wants to teach all of us, but right now, we are just not ready for all of it. Why? Because we will not be able to understand it all. But He continues to assure His disciples and us, not to worry because He is going to send someone to help us understand it all. Who is that someone? That’s right, the Holy Spirit! Do you know when did the disciples receive the Holy Spirit? They received the Holy Spirit on a very special day we call “Pentecost”. It sounds like a big word. Can you say that with me? Pen-te-cost. Very good! And do you know what happened to the disciples when they received the Holy Spirit? Their hearts were filled with...

 “No slave is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” There is no doubt: every Christian who follows Jesus truly and live fully obedient to His commandments will face some form of persecution. The stories of the saints and martyrs throughout history confirm this reality. If we genuinely live according to the values of the Gospel, persecution is inevitable. Why? Because the world lives in opposition to the Gospel values. We all love Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She is now a canonized saint of the church but before she even died, she was already recognized as a living saint. She responded to the call of Jesus with extraordinary faith, humility and full obedience. She lived the Gospel in a powerful and real way, she showed mercy, compassion and solidarity with the poorest of the poor, living with them in the poorest of conditions, feeding them from the poverty she embraced but embracing them with the fullness of Christ’s love through the congregati...

(Holy Family School Mass) “He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”  Do you know what is pruning? If you ever see a gardener or farmer carefully cutting some parts of the plants, very likely he could be pruning the plant. He is definitely not killing it! In today’s reading Jesus tells about pruning grapevines. Now I am not very familiar with pruning grapevines, but I do know a little about pruning tea plants from my farming experience in my childhood years. When I was a young boy, my family had a few acres of tea plants on our farm. Every five years, toward the end of summer, we would prune those tea bushes. We carefully cut away all their leaves. Yes, all the leaves. So after pruning, the plants would look lifeless as if dead, with no leaves, nothing to admire, just bare branches and short. Seems very cruel and crazy, isn’t it? But then something amazing would happen soon afterward. In just a few days...

 “Men, why are you doing this? We are of the same nature as you, human beings.”  Paul and Barnabas were in serious trouble. After fleeing persecution in Iconium, they arrived in Lystra, only to face another challenge. But this time, it was not violent persecution, it was overwhelming appreciation. The people there were almost worshipping them as gods. The people of Lystra, who had long been worshipping Zeus, Hermes, and other deities, thought that the gods had finally come down in human form when they saw the miracles performed by Paul and Barnabas. They believed only divine beings could do such wonder. Truly so, but Paul and Barnabas were ordinary men, made of the same flesh and blood. Yet there was something different about them, the miracles they performed were truly acts of God, working through human beings. Paul and Barnabas were true and faithful followers of Jesus; thus they were filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered to perform great works for God. In today’s Gospel...

 “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these.” Jesus prophesied and it all came true. We read the Acts of the Apostles and can see the amazing work of the Holy Spirit through the first disciples who believed. The disciples did do all the works that Jesus did, they performed miracles, they preached fearlessly, and in fact, they did greater, they converted more people than Jesus did during His earthly life. His teachings through the disciples spread across countries and continents at astounding speed. Remember, they didn’t have technology, internet or social media. As we heard in the first reading, even the Gentiles embraced Jesus and His teachings in multitudes. That’s really something great. But we wonder, why didn’t Jesus convert as many followers during his own time on earth? The answer is in understanding clearly Jesus’ true mission. Jesus came not to start a huge following or establish a large institution. H...

 “The hand of the Lord was with them.”  This phrase from today's first reading moved me deeply. In the Eastern tradition which I grew up, children in the family always receive blessings from their parents and grandparents daily. When I was living at home, every morning as we leave for school, my grandfather would lay his hands on my head to give me a blessing for the day. He did that every day until he passed away. Grandma too but she passed away when I was in 4th grade. Every one of my six siblings also received the same blessings daily. Our parents continued the tradition, and now I see my siblings blessing their children every morning. It is a powerful act, a beautiful tradition, a divine gesture. I truly believe that the blessings I received from my parents and grandparents stayed with me, strengthened me, and gave me peace for the day. On rare days when I left home without my grandfather’s blessing, I would feel like something was missing, like I had forgotten something v...

"You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.”  Why was it such a big issue for the Apostles to be with uncircumcised people? During our First Communion retreat recently, we acted out the Last Supper scene. I took the role of Jesus, and some of the First Communicants sat with me at the table pretending to be the disciples. When I broke the bread and held up the chalice of grape juice, I repeated the words of Jesus: “This is my Body… This is my Blood.” And then passed the bread and drink around for all to consume. One little girl, sitting beside me, didn’t drink the grape juice. After the session, I asked her, “Did you enjoy it?” She quickly replied, “Not at all! I don’t drink blood.” I tried to explain to her that it wasn’t blood, it was juice, and we were just acting. But she insisted, “Well, I heard you say it was blood!” She was right, those were Jesus’ words, and she believed. I tried to explain again that it’s only at Mass that the wine becomes the Preciou...

 “The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.”  This line always impacts me greatly. Imagine being filled with both joy and the Holy Spirit, especially while facing intense rejection and persecution. That’s not something ordinary. That’s something supernatural - something that comes only from God. I have five sisters. One of my sisters will start singing without a care in the world and won’t stop – when she drinks just a glass of wine! Another sister becomes the queen of jokes, jokes one after another, creating a funny scene – simply after having a glass or two. What about me? I just have a good sleep when I get more drinks. The point is, they’re not normally like that. Normally they are too shy to sing or too dull to say anything funny. But wine or alcohol seem to melt away their mental or social blocks making them mentally high and socially carefree. In the Acts of the Apostles, we see Peter and the other apostles giving their first big preaching, and people thou...

“Simon Peter answered him, ‘Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’” We are blessed to receive a new pope two days ago, Leo XIV (14th), the 267th successor of St. Peter. In the days leading up to the election, the media was constantly speculating who the next pope might be, some even came up with their own selection of top ten potential cardinals. Let us not forget it is the Holy Spirit who guides this choice, just as Jesus Himself chose Peter to be the first leader of the Church. Now, was Peter the best choice by world standards? Not at all. Peter was impulsive, hot tempered, sometimes timid, and he might even have had a habit of promising too much without being able to fulfil. Even though he had affirmed that Jesus was the only person He would follow, Peter still denied having anything to do with Jesus when He was arrested. But Jesus did not give up on Peter, because He sees beyond the superficial, deeper than the exterior and far into the future. So Jesus c...

 "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." The courage of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, always amazes me. Where did he get such strength? How was he able to withstand the big solid stones being thrown at him?  Imagine the heavy and harsh hits on the face, the head, the chest, everywhere on the body – breaking skin, damaging flesh and smashing the bones. Pain aside, how could he still pray for them who were hurting and killing him at that moment? What gave him such strength? It was what he believed, his firm and steadfast faith. Stephen knew who was waiting for him in heaven. As we heard at the beginning of the reading: “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.” He saw Jesus, the King of Martyrs, waiting for him in glory. Jesus was waiting to receive Him. Surely Stephen’s ...

 “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.”  Once, an influential and wealthy man shared with me something which struck me deep and unforgettable. He said, “I wish I had just a few real friends. Just friends. No expectations. No pressure. Just someone to talk to. To love and be loved.” It was obvious then that he was not deprived of money, wealth, possibly not power also, but he was deprived of good relationships, relationships which are real and meaningful. Instead, he was surrounded by people who expected things from him. Because of his wealth and influence, people saw him as someone they can benefit from, someone advantageous for their needs, instead of someone they can simply be friends with. That’s exactly what Jesus is calling out in today’s Gospel. He tells the crowd, “You are looking for me not because you saw the signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” They were following ...

 “Their message goes out through all the earth.” This is what we repeated in today’s Responsorial Psalm, and it aptly describes the missionary coverage of the apostles and disciples. They truly brought the message of Jesus’ Resurrection, the Good News of God’s redemptive love everywhere, to all corners, through all the earth. All the way to India, St. Thomas brought the Gospel, that’s how many of my ancestors became Catholic, and the faith has been handed down to the generations thereafter. Peter and Paul went to Rome. Luke went to Egypt. Matthew stayed and preached in Judea. Asia, Africa, even China received the Gospel. Today we celebrate the feast of the apostles James and Philip. James, the son of Alphaeus, also known as James the Lesser, is hardly mentioned in Bible, only when the twelve chosen apostles were listed. James wrote an epistle to his name. But Philip appears more often. When some Greeks came looking for Jesus, it was Philip who informed Jesus about it. At the multip...