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...

“Set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” St. Peter advises the people to focus on grace, to set their hopes completely on it. But what is grace, really? Surprisingly, Google provides a very appropriate and theologically accurate answer. It says grace refers to “God’s favor toward the unworthy” or “God’s benevolence on the undeserving.” So unworthy are we, yet God’s favor rests on us. We are graced. So undeserving are we, yet God is lovingly benevolent towards us. We are graced. So deep in sin are we, yet God sent His Son to die so that we are redeemed from eternal death. We are graced. In his suffering, St. Paul pleaded with the Lord to spare him the thorn, but Jesus comforted and encouraged St. Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Indeed, it was grace that helped St. Paul go through his pain. Similarly, for all of us, God’s grace is sufficient, with it we overcome everything, we overcome sin, we overcome death. Where can we fi...

"Do not complain, brothers and sisters, about one another, that you may not be judged… Indeed, we call blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord." I really wish we had more scripture texts by St. James the Apostle. His short epistle is full of wisdom. He was the earliest among the apostles to receive martyrdom, which is why he did not get to write much. Look at today’s reading and you can see how much he understood the human condition and was able to preach effectively with relevance to people’s lives. His advice for his listeners in those days is still applicable and very relevant for us in our time. We still struggle with the same issues even after 2,000 years. Do not complain but count every blessing! That is my constant reminder for myself. Although most of the time, I just needed to vent my anger and frustrations to someone who understands, yet I would always regret it after complaining. Thank ...

First, congratulations to all of you for successfully completing middle school! Are you happy that you are graduating? I graduated from middle school in 1999. That was twenty-five years ago! We did not have a graduation ceremony like this because my school provided pre-K to grade 12 classes all on the same campus. So, we did not leave school, we just moved up to another grade, another class, but thankfully, our teachers organized something simple for us to celebrate that milestone. I remember during my school days, the hours in class seemed to pass very slowly, but now I look back, time seems to fly by with rocket speed! It will be the same for you, so enjoy being a student now, these could be the best times of your life! Here, you are the seniors of the school, soon, you will be freshmen in high school, you will be the juniors. You will again look up to the seniors and learn from them. In middle school, your teachers gave you a lot of attention and took care of you. When you go to hig...

 "If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that." One expression I learnt in Spanish is “primero Dios.” Literally, the words mean ‘God first’, which is used like the American expression, ‘God willing’. Some of my Mexican friends would always add “Primero Dios” in expressing their thoughts about the future. It must be uniquely Mexican because I have not heard it used in other Spanish-speaking countries. There is also no similar equivalent in my native language or other Indian languages.  I think it is a beautiful expression! Knowingly or unknowingly, they are expressing an attitude which is deeply rooted in their faith culture, that is to always surrender everything to God, to His most holy will. It is an attitude of recognizing that things may not always go according to our plan, and of accepting God’s plan above their own. St. James, in his epistle, exhorts us to have the same attitude: "If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that."  We all have...

“The man called his wife Eve because she became the mother of all the living.” According to the book of Genesis, we are all children of Eve, the first woman. This first woman fell easily into temptation and became disobedient to God. Looking at ourselves, aren’t we the same? We are generally easily tempted and fall into sin. We seem to contain deep rebellion in us and so we tend to be disobedient. We see the same trend of disobedience through all the biblical stories. We are just like our first mother of the earth. God, the creator of the first man and woman, has a plan of redemption. In the fullness of time, He got ready the second Eve, to prepare for the second Adam’s coming. Mary, is like Eve in every way including being born without original sin. She was subject to temptations the same, but the difference is Mary overcame all temptations and remained consistently obedient to God, even all the way along the painful road to Calvary right till at the foot of the cross.  God’s seco...

Preached at Holy family school.  How many of you watch movies? Have you seen movies where someone who knows a big secret gets killed to stop him from revealing the truth? But sometimes the movie gets exciting when the dying person would say a few words about the secret and then dies. So, the last words of people are very important. It could be a big secret, it could be an important message with words of wisdom, it could be a powerful blessing with a prayer. The dying person knows that it must be said because there won’t be another chance. My grandpa gave me a blessing before he died because to him, that was his final gift to me. My parents too told me their greatest wish before they died, so that I may fulfil it in my lifetime for them. Jesus told His disciples many important teachings before He died on the cross and before He ascended into heaven. In today’s first reading, St. Paul also told the church in Ephesus something very important, before he went to Rome and died there. It ...

"It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you”.  Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Matthias, who was not at first one of the twelve nor part of the inner circle of Jesus. He was chosen later into the college of apostles, to take the place of Judas. In the first reading, we saw how the apostles prayed and asked the Lord to show them whom He had chosen, someone who had accompanied them ‘the whole time’. They then cast their lots and God’s choice was revealed. Did God choose Matthias only at that point when the apostles had to replace Judas? Or did God already planned and prepared Matthias ‘the whole time’ when he was following Jesus throughout His ministry, and remained in the community even after the crucifixion? St. Paul says, “He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world…” Can you imagine, right up to this point in your life and mine, you and I are present right now in this holy place not by chance, but by choice. Through our own decisions nevertheless, but not w...

"Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you." Whenever you pray for a specific intention, do you ask in your own name or do you ask in Jesus’ name? I pondered this as I prepared this homily. Most of my prayers are directed to Jesus, so I would end off like a normal conversation. But now Jesus is advising us in today’s Gospel, "…ask the Father in my name…” It is as if Jesus is telling us to write an appeal letter to God, the Father, and to sign off in Jesus’ name, not our own name. Wow! He is simply saying, use His name! Of course, His Father would never deny Him of anything, because He is the obedient and beloved Son. Every second Saturday during our healing services, Tim and Graeson will always conclude their prayers with “In Jesus’ name we pray.” And thus we see so many miraculous healings from the services. The Church also prays the same way. Holy Mass is the perfect sacrifice we offer to God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son. Listen to the prayers...

 "About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God…” I cannot even imagine this scene. How could they still pray and sing in such a situation? Whenever I have a slight headache, ear infection, or a little upset stomach, I would already be very disturbed. I would not even want to talk to anyone during those moments. If I had something worse, I might not even be able to pray. If you look carefully at my left eyebrow, you will notice a scar. During my seminary days in Rome, there was once when I was late for class, and I ran so fast into the classroom that I crashed into the glass door without realizing it was closed. I shattered the glass and a piece of it cut deep across my eyebrow. Thankfully it missed my eye. I was so in pain, shock and bleeding that I could not talk to anyone for a while, and I definitely was not in the mood to sing or pray. But look at Paul and Silas. They had just been attacked by a crowd, were then stripped, and beaten with rods. Aft...

 “One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.” The Easter readings are truly remarkable. We witness how the Holy Spirit did amazing works through the acts of the apostles. The apostles simply went about sharing about the life of Jesus and spreading the good news. They were unperturbed by rejections or persecutions, and their persistence and bold proclamations won more hearts than objections. And we also see how the Holy Spirit converts not always in the same way but through many ways according to the charisms of the preachers as well as the unique situations of the listeners.  On Pentecost day, we saw a massive conversion of three thousand people all in one day through one event. Today we encounter the story of a single conversion: that of Lydia, a woman from Thyatira. We are told she was a dealer in purple cloth, that meant she had d...

“Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number.” This was the observation made by the author of today’s first reading, reporting about how St. Paul and companions went about preaching the good news, teaching the faith and building the church communities. If the same author were to be here today, looking at what is happening in the church communities now, how would he report? What would he say about the churches here? Churches are closing, religious vocations are decreasing, few people are sharing faith, young people in the families are not attending Mass, people are choosing churches that align with their ideologies not based on truth. It looks like the first 300 years in the history of the Church were the most glorious and productive. What happened thereafter? Why such a great difference? What is missing? What went wrong? Is this the same situation in churches around the world? Is there any hope that the church will grow again, in strength and spirit? Yes, ...

 "A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” Did you remember hearing this from today’s first reading? This verse really struck me. The ‘woman clothed with the sun’ mentioned, do you know who this woman is? Yes, it is referring to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. St. John the Apostle had this vision and he described the mother of the Jesus as ‘clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her heard a crown of twelve stars’. Who would usually wear a crown? Yes, a king or a queen.  It is a symbol of their authority over everyone in the country, a sign of the power vested in them to rule the people and for them to obey their rule. So, Mother Mary is a queen, who wears a crown of twelve stars. Why twelve? Do you know what in the Bible are twelve in number? Yes, there were twelve tribes of Israel and Jesus had twelve apostles. The twelve tribes of Israel descended from the twelve chi...

"I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me..."  Jesus is comforting His disciples before His passion and death. The disciples’ greatest fear was losing Jesus to the enemies. They needed Jesus to save them from Roman power and the abuse of the Jewish authorities. But Jesus knew His time with His disciples was limited, yet He assured them that the ‘ruler of the world’ had no power over Him. Jesus was speaking about Satan and his power. When Satan was an angel of God, he enjoyed power given to him to serve God. When he turned against God, God did not take back that gift. So, Satan retained power, but which can never overpower God who gave it to him originally. He has no power over Jesus. When we look around, we see a lot of evil committed by people, and which seem to spread more evil around. We see even believers, Christians, falling away, continuing in repetitive sin, giving in to addiction, giving up their faith.  Why i...

 "So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit." This is how today’s first reading ends. Paul and Barnabas were expelled from the city because the Jews were jealous of them preaching to the Gentiles. In the midst of these life-threatening persecutions and rejections, they were not depressed but “were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit”. The joy that emanates from the depth of a person’s soul can be so powerful that others around can feel the effect, positively or negatively.  The joy of the early Christians, which was a result of their total embrace of the good news and a gift from the Holy Spirit, was very contagious.  The disciples went around preaching and teaching with so much joy that even troubles and persecutions could not dampen their spirit. That joy became a powerful witness to the Truth and brought hope to those who converted and believed. The joy of the Christians ev...

Those who had been scattered by the persecution that arose because of Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. Antioch is approximately 300 miles from Jerusalem. So it seems that the good news of Christ had spread out far and wide very fast since the death of Stephen. Look at these early converted believers, how excited they are to receive and share the good news. When was the last time you were super excited about something and had to share it with everyone you know? A few days ago, a young friend of mine got enlisted into the US military, he called eagerly to tell me, "Father, I am a soldier." And in a few hours, he came to my office and told me again the same news. He was so excited, it was the best news he had been waiting for, and he went around telling all his friends about it within that morning. Little children are not good at containing their excitement. Often when my young nephews and nieces got new toys, they would immediately FaceTime with me to show...