Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

 “He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.” Some of us would have experienced the grace of God in a very real way at some point in our lives. Perhaps after a very sincere confession, or during a spiritual retreat, maybe during deep prayer, or some may have felt it at Mass. Different people would experience it differently. It could be a sense of lightness when the heaviness of a grave sin has been lifted, an indescribable feeling of deep peace, a sudden vision of clarity. Sometimes we would most undoubtedly know that God is close. There’s probably a certain quiet joy within. There are so many possible signs. If you have ever experienced that unusual but wonderful feeling, you would know what I mean. And if you have not, try to make a good confession, I mean seriously, do it as if today is your last day, and you desperately want to be free from all sin, what we often call ‘deathbed confession’. And you might just get ...

 “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” People fast for various reasons. Many people fast for health, fitness and vanity reasons by doing intermittent fasting, detox diets, or weight loss programs. Some prominent figures use fasting as a form of silent protest. Leaders like Gandhi used hunger strikes to fight injustice. And sadly, some people are simply not eating, they are starving not by choice but because of poverty. Christian fasting is different. It is spiritual fasting and is not primarily about the body. It is about the spiritual heart. Jesus’ disciples were not fasting like the disciples of other preachers, and He told them that when the bridegroom is taken away, they will fast. Because their fasting will be an sign of longing, a spiritual desire to be re-united with their master, it expresses the deep sorrow of separation. Later, when the disciples could not cast out a demon, Jesus reminded them: “This kind can only come ...

 “Return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is He, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.” If you were to choose someone to be your BFF – Best Friend Forever - what qualities would you be looking for? For me, one of the first qualities I would look for is kindness. I do not want someone who will be cruel and rough with me, or someone who would bully me or always get angry with me. I am sure you would agree that it is easy to be long-time friends with someone who is patient, slow to anger, gracious, and merciful. We are drawn to people who forgive quickly, who do not keep scores, who love generously. And today the prophet Joel tells us: that is exactly who God is: Gracious. Merciful. Slow to anger. Rich in kindness. Yes, we are sinful people, we have done and might continue to do many things which are not pleasing to God. But the good news is God is not waiting to punish us. In fact, He is waiting for our friendship. Many of us feel ashamed of ou...

 “Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity, it gives birth to death.” St. James gives us an important teaching today. Desire, he says, can conceive and thereafter give birth to sin. If allowed to grow, it can reach a point of maturity, with the ability to take control and set direction, leading to death. The consequence of sin is death. Are all desires sinful or evil? 2,500 years ago, Buddha taught that desire is the cause of suffering. Because people almost always desire what they do not yet have. To be able to achieve the object of our desire, will sometimes bring us satisfaction, but when unable to achieve what we desire, will cause a sense of failure, a feeling dissatisfaction, the beginning of suffering. Many Buddhists today desire freedom and justice, in places which do not have freedom and justice. The desire stems from a real need, and that is nothing bad or wrong. What could go wrong is the way such a desire is pursued. To desire is a norma...

 “For you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” When I read this passage from St. James, one thought came to my mind: faith that gets tested is invaluable, and so necessary for our journey towards holiness. St. James reminds us that trials are not meant to destroy us. They are not even meant to weaken us. Instead, they strengthen us. They produce in us the persevering spirit. Without testing, we are happy being complacent, we take for granted our faith, and other gifts. But when tested, we guard our gifts, we check our faith, and we want to defend it. That helps me keep focused on growing our faith. Repeat that, and we develop a maturity that can handle anything and everything in life. At the end of this reading, something else struck, which warned of the consequence of not being tested, of being in comfort and complacency: the one who works only for riches will vanis...

 “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” Every one of our Christian journey begins with a very simple thing: “Yes”. At baptism, the priest asks the parents or the candidates three questions: Do you renounce Satan? Do you reject sin? Do you reject all that leads you away from God? If the answer is Yes, Yes and Yes, then he asks three more questions to confirm our belief, the profession of our faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yes, Yes and Yes. And from that moment, we belong to God totally. Our new relationship with God, our new life as a Christian begins. Do we then live happily ever after? Realistically, this is where the struggle also begins. Growing up, I have said many “Yes’s” to God. Often, I have also said “No” to Him. But more often, My Yes’s were compromised, unaccomplished, unreliable. Often, they were conditional “Yes’s”. I negotiated and bargained with God, I procrastinated and made excuses. They would so...

 “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” Today’s first reading takes us back to the time of King Jeroboam. He was afraid that his people would keep going to Jerusalem and finally lose their loyalty to him, thus he made two golden calves and told the people: “Here is your god.” Jeroboam committed two serious sins. First, he created false gods. Second, he led others into sin, to worship what was lifeless and false, and to believe that this false god brought them out of Egypt. Are those two golden calves evil? If you go to parts of North India, you will see random cows roaming freely on the roads. Any car driving near must stop and give way to these cows, even if it meant waiting some time for them to slowly move out of the way. Causing harm or injury to a cow will lead to serious legal consequences. In fact, if you slaughter a cow, you might end up in prison. because cows are considered sacred in the Hi...

 “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” Jesus said something very honest today and I think it is very true. I am your priest and I love all of you. I also truly feel loved, appreciated, and respected here at school. It is a real joy for me to celebrate Mass with you, to pray with you, and to spend time with you. I feel very blessed and am very grateful for this. Now, let me tell you about another group of people in my life. I have more than a dozen nieces and nephews, aging from 2 years old, right up to 18 years old. Majority of them are around your age. They have known me since they were born, so they know a lot more about me than you do. They know the nice and the ugly sides of me. Of course, they love me too but honestly, I think you respect me and listen to me more than they do. Every time I get together with them, they would make fun of me a lot. They give me funny, and not very nice nicknames. They love to tease...

 “The king was shaken, and went up to the room over the city gate to weep.” Separation by death of a loved one is painful. But for a parent to grieve the loss of a child, it is deep anguish. The pain reaches deep into the core of the being. King David wept. The tears did not flow from his eyes, but from the depth of his very soul. No matter how strong, the king broke down and was completely helpless at the death of his own beloved son. No matter how powerful, this king could not bring back the life of his son. In the Gospel today, we meet another grieving parent. Jairus, who had just lost his beloved daughter. But there is one major difference. Jairus was not helpless, he had Jesus to turn to. And Jesus has the power to bring back life. A friend once shared her experience with her neighbor who lost a family member. Wanting to comfort the family, she visited them and enquired with the children, “Do you know what happens after death?” The children replied simply, “We become dirt.” Th...

“Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation.” This Canticle of Simeon, is short, simple yet so deeply profound, beautifully capturing the very essence of the longing of our soul for salvation, such that it is used in the night prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. Every night, the church retires with the Canticle of Simeon, as we lay to rest, confident and contended, ready to go in peace should the Lord calls, because through the eyes of Simeon, we have seen salvation.  Simeon had waited his whole life for the arrival of the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise of salvation. And when Mary and Joseph brought the Child Jesus into the Temple for presentation, Simeon could recognize Him as the Messiah through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What more did he need in his life? To be able to see the Messiah, and hold him in his arms, feeling the full presence of God in human form, he had seen the promise of G...

“Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth… seek justice, seek humility.” Let me begin with a simple but important question: What are you seeking in your life right now? It does not matter how old you are. It does not matter what stage of life you are in. What do you seek? What do you wish to have? According to the Gospel of John, the very first question Jesus asked when He started His public ministry was exactly this: “What are you looking for?” It is a simple, yet important question. Jesus asked his first disciples, He is also asking us today. A job? A promotion, a home, a family, children, a spouse, good health? A new direction, a decision, an explanation? Our concerns are very real, very human. Yet today, through the prophet Zephaniah, God gently redirects our hearts: “Seek the LORD.” Not one thing among many — but the one thing that makes everything else fall into place. If you have God in your life, you have everything you need. If you do not, nothing else will ever fully satisf...