Fr. Nivin's Homily Blog

 “For at that moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy”. When I was studying in the minor seminary, news that my eldest sister was pregnant with her first child was announced. My siblings and I were very excited. According to local Indian tradition, at the seventh month of the pregnancy, the husband’s family would have to send his wife back to her parents’ home to prepare for birth of the child.  So, my eldest sister came home and stayed with us for three months before the delivery and another three months after the birth of her first-born son. my sister was the only pregnant woman I have ever had close encounter with. The most exciting experience I had was when I actually saw the movements of my nephew, still in her womb. And whenever me and my siblings came close to talk to my sister, her baby would make movements in her womb. So even a little baby in the womb can sense the presence of other people near the mother. Amazing, isn’...

 As Jesus was about to ascend to heaven in the presence of his disciples, he told them, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Could the disciples be good witnesses? Who can be a good witness? Some of you may already know, my official name is Nipin but my original name is Nivin. Typo error is easy to correct, but written error on official documents become permanent. That was the situation with my name. I also have two birth dates: one is the actual date of when I was born, which was stated in the birth document. The other date was chosen and used to enrol me into school earlier, instead of a year later. It is a common practice in India. This date was stated in school documents and all other official documents. It became my official date of birth. Now in USA, part of my immigration process requires my birth information, so the discrepancy in the dates needs to be rectified. Who can prove my actual date of birth? My parent...

Jesus said to His disciples, “And when the Advocate comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me.” Not believing in Jesus is sin. Believing in Jesus is salvation. In the first reading, St. Paul and Silas told the jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved”. Did the jailer believe? Yes. Did he do something concrete with that belief? Yes. He took in Paul and Silas, who were prisoners, took care of them and served them even though his and his family’s life would be in great danger.  They then accepted baptism, and they rejoiced for having received their faith. The jailer believed in Jesus, and he acted courageously according to his belief. If we truly believe in Jesus, we will live life active in the Spirit of Christ. If we truly believe in Jesus, we will act according to His commandments of love.  If we truly believe in Jesus, we will stand firm in the teachings of the...

 “They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God”. This warning of Jesus came true. In this Easter season, the first readings are taken from the Acts of the Apostles. From the accounts, we can see what happened to the disciples after the Resurrection. The Apostles were often being thrown out of the Synagogues. They were also killed. Stephen was the first to be martyred, stoned to death for refusing to deny his faith in Jesus. As he was dying, he echoed the same forgiveness for those who killed him, like Jesus did on the cross. Jesus, and Stephen, knew that those people were ignorant. They believed they were ‘offering worship to God’ with their killings. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “It is not wisdom that saves, it is ignorance. If we knew what we were doing when we crucified the Lord, we would never be saved.” That was at the point of the Lord’s crucifixion. Can we still be ignorant after Hi...

 “I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb”. This vision of St. John is so powerful! God Himself is the temple, His glory is the light for the world. So, there is no need for the sun or the moon. Probably there is no need for food and drink also, since Jesus’ body and blood is the real food and drink. God provides. There is a popular quote: “If God is all you have, you have all you need.” This is true not just at the end of time, but in our lives today. Do you believe? I have a good friend, Terry, who is the sole bread winner of her family. She works as a sales-person and her income fluctuates according to the sale she makes. During the year when Covid-19 first hit, everything slowed down. Her income suffered. But household expenses did not go down. She tried to find ways to make ends meet and dug into her savings. Then in May th...

 “Remain in me as I remain in you.” The word ‘remain’ is repeated eight times in today’s Gospel text. I am not big on sports. When I first came to USA, I was introduced to baseball, and very quickly recruited into the Chicago Cubs as a follower. I knew nothing about baseball, other than it is similar to cricket which I used to play in India. So, I was an ignorant new Cub fan. Within the first few weeks of my ‘enrolment’, I found out there is another baseball team ‘Cardinal’. Some parishioners suggested that I switch. They reasoned that the name ‘Cardinal’ sounds more Catholic! But my Cub introducer advised me sternly, “Father, Once a cub, always a cub. Remain.” And to seal that ‘covenant’, he gave me a little cubby. Yes, till today, I have remained a cub. What does it mean to ‘remain’? Collins  dictionary defines it as: ‘stay’, ‘continue’, ‘do not change’. That is what our Lord wants of us, to stay with Him, continue with Him, do not change our following. But note that He says...

 “But when the disciples gathered around him, he got up and entered the city”. In the first reading, St. Paul had just been stoned by a crowd and dragged out of the city as dead. Try to imagine the physical condition of St. Paul. His body must be badly bruised, probably swollen and bleeding. Some of his bones might even be broken. Yet, he managed to get up from all his wounds and near-death condition, then walked straight back into the city where he just got stoned! He must be crazy. St. Paul firmly declared in Romans 8:35-39, “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?... No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.” Indeed. Nothing could stop Paul and the disciples from preaching the gospel. They were crazy for God. They looked forward to the reward of eternal life and couldn’t care less for the sufferings and death in this temporal life. They feared noth...

 “We are of the same nature as you, human beings.” St. Paul had to emphasize this to the people of Lystra. They had just witnessed a miracle performed by Paul. Indeed, no human person can perform such a miracle, only God can. Jesus performed many such miracles in His life, but the Jews did not recognise His divinity, they were spiritually blind. Now St. Paul performed the same, did he also have divine power? A new bar was under construction in a small town, right across the street in front of a church. The local priest launched a campaign for his parishioners to pray against the new bar from opening. As construction works progressed, prayers intensified. One week before the opening, lightning struck the almost completed new bar and it burned to the ground. The whole church celebrated, but the bar owner brought the church to court, charging her for causing the loss of his building and business. The church denied all responsibility, defending herself for having no such power to cause...

 Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment: love one another.” Why is this a new commandment? What was the old commandment? When I was in 8th grade, I failed to attend a one-day course conducted by the diocese, because I was running a fever on that day. The following Sunday during Mass, my parish priest called out those who did not attend the course. There were three of us. He made us stand in front of the altar, with our hands raised for five minutes, to shame us in front of the congregation, to punish us for being absent. Although I had a valid excuse, he crumbled my leave of absence note and disregarded it. The three of us were so angry and felt unjustified. After that incident, I hated that parish priest and church. A few weeks following that, I skipped Sunday Mass and went to play cricket with my friends. Some months later, that priest was transferred out. I often recalled that incident with pain but thankfully after many years, I was able to forgive him and the hurts I felt i...

 “If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?” We continue our first readings from Acts of the Apostles. Today we read from chapter 11. We begin to see problems rising within the new church community.  Last two weeks we read about the Jews protesting against the apostles and trying to stop their preaching. Now we see converted Jews not getting along with converted Gentiles. Two practices from the Jewish tradition were the issues. Regarding circumcision and eating what was considered unclean meat. Finally, Peter’s spiritual vision and wisdom settled it. Even after twenty-one centuries, we still see the same issues in the Church.  When I was studying in Rome, we had Italian language classes. I remember during one class, we had to express in Italian, what our favourite foods were. And because we were from different countries, many interesting cuisines were shared.  Th...

 Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” I grew up in a farm. We grew spices and we also had cows. I had a favourite cow. She was born when I was in kindergarten and I claimed her as my personal cow. Her name was Manikutty, which roughly means ‘little sweetie girl’. All our cows were named. Whenever I called out to Manikutty, she would respond and show me love and affection. I played with her every day after school, talked to her and gave her special treats like bananas. She trusted me and would follow if I led her somewhere. If a simple cow could respond to her young master’s call, and sheep know their shepherd’s voice from a stranger, would we intelligent humans be able to recognise our true master’s voice, from the noises of the world? Jesus also said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.” When I was in second grade, Manikutty gave birth to her first calf. Things changed from then. She was not...

 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip?” There is an excellent radio program on EWTN known as: “Called to Communion”. It is a live call-in show where non-Catholics and lapsed Catholics can ask Dr. David Anders all sorts of questions about being Catholic. And people really asked many interesting questions. I always wonder, if I were to be asked those same questions, would I be able to answer them? Even though I have been a Catholic all my life, and studied theology extensively, there are still many things I am ignorant of in my faith. There are still so much about Jesus that I do not know. Do you know everything about Jesus? I doubt so. Jesus lived with the disciples daily for three years and still they did not know him fully. While we have the benefit of hindsight and two thousand years of revelation, yet we can’t claim to know it all. I like drinking coffee. In my previous assignment, I used to drink coffee every day in th...

 So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of the Lord, that you believe in the one he sent.” Is discipleship really so simple? That the only work we need to accomplish for God is simply to believe in Jesus? But don’t we have a lot to do to be a good Catholic? Sunday obligations, frequent reconciliations, obeying commandments and church authorities, ministries, tithing, loving our neighbours, even enemies, fasting, praying, works of mercy… Do you feel burdened? When I was young, I used to help mummy in the kitchen. My duty was to chop big logs of wood into smaller pieces of firewood for mummy’s cooking. Since mummy cooked all meals every day, there were a lot of firewood to cut. It was hard labor. Many children hated that. But I enjoyed it. Why? Because mummy once told me that cutting wood would help me build big muscles. I would become strong. So, I was motivated and I would do as much as I could. I did...

 Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.” My mummy cooked our family meals the traditional Indian way, preparing all ingredients from base, and using firewood. She spent most of her time in the kitchen cooking for her seven children. She had to work in the family farm too. Yet, every day at every mealtime, when her cooking is done, she would call out to all of us, “come and eat”. Even when we did not behave well or were naughty, even when she was angry and upset with us, when the food was ready, mummy would call. She must have called out to us over thousands of times till the day she was laid to rest. My mummy’s mealtime invitations still echo clearly in my heart. Another Indian tradition, my mummy never sat to eat with us when we had guests. she had to wait till we, including papa and the guests are done with our meal before she had her meal. My mummy always made sure we are fed well. That was how she showed love. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve...

 Jesús les dijo: “Vengan a almorzar”. Mi mamá cocinaba nuestras comidas familiares a la manera tradicional de la India, preparando todo con ingredientes frescos y cocido a la leña. Pasaba la mayor parte de su tiempo en la cocina cocinando para sus siete hijos. También trabajaba en la granja familiar. Sin embargo, todos los días, a la hora de comer, cuando terminaba de cocinar, nos llamaba a todos: “vengan para comer”. Incluso cuando no nos habíamos portado bien o cuando estaba enojada y molesta con nosotros, siempre que la comida estaba lista, mamá llamaba. Ella debe habernos llamado miles de veces hasta el día en que fue enterrada. Las invitaciones a la hora de comer de mi mamá todavía resuenan claramente en mi corazón. Otra tradición india, mi mamá nunca se sentaba a comer con nosotros cuando teníamos invitados para cenar, tenía que esperar hasta que nosotros, incluido papa y los invitados termináramos de comer antes de comer ella. Mi mamá siempre se aseguraba de que estuviéramos...

 “And all day long, both at the temple and in their homes, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Christ, Jesus”. Even after being flogged, all day long, the disciples continued teaching and preaching everywhere… Amazing, isn’t it?  These past few days, we have been reading from Acts of the Apostles. We see how the Jewish leaders and high priest tried to stop the apostles from preaching in the name of Jesus. But they failed. The Pharisee Gamaliel rightly said, “if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.” How true. The church is from God. The disciples did not stop teaching and proclaiming. They even rejoiced at being flogged for what they were doing. They were on fire for Jesus. They were so eager and excited to tell everyone about Jesus. What about us? If there is a new restaurant serving delicious food or a store is having a great end-of-summer sale, we would hear many people talking about it. Some w...

  “Knowing that your brothers and sisters throughout the world undergo the same sufferings”. Is this true? If we look around us, and into our own lives, what St. Peter says in this first reading is probably true. Everyone seems to have one or some of the same problems that cause suffering: health conditions, emotional situations, mental stress, financial troubles, family issues, natural disasters, man-made wars and so on. Sufferings are unavoidable in this life. They became part of human life when the very first sin of disobedience was committed. Sin entered human life, destroyed harmony and peace between people, and everyone is subjected to death. Why do we have to go through all these? Why should there be suffering and all kinds of problems in the world? Why can’t God just snap His fingers and let everything be restored to perfection? I once asked a friend these questions and she replied thoughtfully, that if our earthly life was without any problems, would we ever yearn for the ...

 Homily preached during  First communion mass  Dear children who are receiving first holy communion today, are you excited? I am very happy for you dear children. Today is a very special and important day of your life. It will be unforgettable. I hope you will remember the special and most beautiful moment when you receive Jesus fully, heart in heart. I still remember vividly my own first communion. I remember the lessons the nuns taught us, the rehearsals and even what I wore that day. Since my family was poor, I did not get a new white shirt and black pants, but I wore what my older brother had for his first communion. But it's ok, that is not the most important. What I treasure is that very moment when I received Jesus on my tongue, the taste, the smell, the feeling. I felt so amazed that Jesus was inside of me. God came into my being. It was really special. My father too remembered his own first communion clearly. He was only 7 years old. My grandfather had just moved...

 “By what power or by what name have you done this?” The chief priests, the elders and the scribes asked the disciples this question. Why? Following the first readings of these two days, we saw that Peter healed a crippled man. Peter told him, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” In the name of Jesus and by the power of Christ, the disciples are able to do the same things Jesus did. The Jewish leaders must be really anxious. They thought by killing Jesus they would have put an end to the amazing works which threatened their authority. But look at the miracles the disciples are performing. Look at the massive conversions at their preaching. As you know, every third Wednesday of the month we have healing service here at St. Ambrose. The prayer leaders truly have the gift of healing like the disciples. I witnessed many people getting healed during the sessions, all through the invocation of the name o...

 Last night, while preparing this homily, I was reading the Collect of this Mass and this phrase struck me, “O God who give constant increase to your church by new offspring”. The words ‘constant increase’ and ‘new offspring’ made me think deeper. Around us, we do hear of people who leave the church or stop practicing the faith. There are still many who do not know God and do not believe in Christ.  Yet, around the world, the Holy Spirit is working wonders. 2019 Vatican statistics recorded an increase of 16 million baptisms in that year. And on Saturday, during Easter Vigil in our little parish community here, we witnessed 9 baptisms and 13 confirmations. Out of these 22 catechumens and candidates, 18 are from Eritrea. Some of them could not even recite the profession of faith because they have never had any formal education. They were born in the refugee camps and lived some 20 to 25 years there. But deep within their hearts, and within the difficulties of their lives, they k...

 “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good.” In the first reading, Peter did not preach the divinity of Christ, but spoke about the man named Jesus, who ‘went about doing good’. This strikes me deeply. Do you know anyone who went about doing good? At the end of my third-year philosophy studies, one of my seminarian brothers, Joice, got into an accident and died. He was only 20 years old. We were together for 6 years in the seminary and all that time, he had always been a fun-loving and easy-going person. He was always helpful and generous. I have never witnessed anything negative about him. I believe he would have become a saintly priest if he didn’t die so soon. He was doing a lot of good. We see a lot of evil in this world, yet we also see many people going about doing good. They may not be big saints with great deeds, but they bring light into someone else’s life, they touch hearts in their simple ways. Peter remembered Jesus as the...

 There are four poems in the book of Isaiah about the suffering servant. Today’s first reading is taken from the first poem. In it is written, “I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations”. And in today’s responsorial psalm, we responded four times “The Lord is my light and my salvation”.  Indeed, our Lord Jesus is our light and our salvation. There is a book titled ‘Healing Through the Mass’ written by Fr. Robert Degrandis. It is a collection of many miraculous stories and life-changing encounters of the Holy Eucharist. One story was about NASA scientists doing a study on the changes of energy level in the human body. They placed a special camera in a hospital room to observe a dying patient and found that the energy orbit radiating from the body, known as the aura, becomes thinner as the person becomes weaker. One day, a visitor with a broad aura entered the room and the camera captured another aura from his shirt pocket. When the object wa...

 REFLECTION FOR PROCESSION READING “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” The multitudes declared as Jesus enters Jerusalem. We too declare ‘Praise the Lord!’ when something we have been praying for is answered according to our wish. What would we say if our prayers were not answered in the way we expected it? What did the people say about Jesus just a few days after this triumphant entry? Palm Sunday leads us into Holy week, our final week of Lent, Jesus’ final week of His earthly life. Jesus is indeed the King, the Messiah, the One who is to save all people, but not in the worldly sense. When we discover the truth about His kingship, would we still declare Him our Lord and God? HOMILY Imagine, if you were not a Catholic, nor a Christian, and today is the first time you hear about God and Jesus in this Gospel narrative, what would you think? Jesus seems weak, lowly and was finally defeated. His disciples seem so lost and helpless too. And God did not seem to do a...