Let me share here my reflection submitted to a confrere's blog for the Christmas season. Thanks Frs. Jerome and Randolf for the initiative to have this series of reflections.
The nursery home in every hospital has always been a very amusing place. That is especially true when the father gets to see his son for the first time. Together with his wife, they would look at the baby and oftentimes say the following words: Father: “Look at his nose, it looks like mine.” The wife would say, “Yes, look at his forehead, very much like yours and your father’s. He really is your son.”
Though we know that St. Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, there appear traces of Joseph’s influence on his foster child. Hoping that we can get some model for our fatherhood on our sons (and daughters, and modeling for motherhood as well for those matters), let’s look at some of them:
1. Joseph must have been really in love with Mary, his wife-to-be. The Scriptures we have just read tell us that he “was unwilling to expose her to shame.” He knew that a woman in Mary's situation would have very easily landed in a very precarious situation – being killed by stone-throwing at the city gate. But Joseph’s love became her security and that of the baby Jesus in her womb. Her honor was something that Joseph must have really treasured in his heart. When a man really loves a woman, that love is best expressed in protecting her honor and dignity before others. Haven’t we heard many a man with chivalry say that “this is the woman I married” ("siya ang pinakasalan ko"). Isn’t this the content of the covenant sealed in the sacrament of marriage – when both husband and wife pledge love and loyalty and preserve the good honor of the other?
Joseph’s love for Mary, a woman, may have become the primal example of the Lord Jesus’ sound respect for women. Didn’t he have a lot of women following and serving him in his many journeys? Didn’t he literally free the woman caught in adultery (“in flagrante delicto” as lawyers would love to quote) by saying that “if nobody is left to accuse you, neither would I.” This would have been Joseph’s line spoken to Mary, had the evangelist Matthew allowed a dialogue between them during this stage in their lives.
Before I bring in the second point, allow me to share a text message I had just received the other day. It reads: “Now it can be told why Jinky cried ang was very emotional during the homily at the Mass after Manny’s historic victory over Cotto. The priest pala made a mistake. Nasabi daw ng pari: “Manny, Jinky, ito ang payo ko sa inyo: hayaan ninyo na nasa gitna lagi ninyo si Krista.” Of course the priest was supposed have told Jinky and Manny to allow Christ – Kristo – to stay in their midst, in their marital life.
2. Joseph must have been a very God-fearing righteous man. From the example of Joseph we see two qualities of a righteous man: respect for the law, and fear of God. The law contains a capacity to make us in society live in order and decency. When we live against it or have committed an infraction against the law, we are accountable to its sanctions and penalties. However, we may notice that the law can be really cruel, particularly in the case of the law that imposes the death penalty. That is why the fear of God has to go side-by-side with our respect for the law. We often hear that “what is legal may not necessarily be moral.” The sound foundation of morality rests on the primacy of God over everything, and our fear of Him Who knows everything. Hence, we are shown in the readings today Joseph in a dream. As psychologists would love to say, dreams often tell us something about the conscious activities of every one during our waking hours. When something really bothers us, it can continue into the dream state. We can then imagine Joseph searching and asking questions like “How do I solve this problem (like Maria, as in that famous song)?” His heart must have been reaching out to God for an answer, and even praying “not as I will but as you will, O God,” which God answers through the dream.
When we extend that unwritten prayer dialogue between Joseph and his God, we may actually hear Jesus Himself, on the night before He died, in the garden of Gethsemane, praying to His Father, “take this cup away from me, but not as I will but as You will.”
We know the rest of the story of Joseph. He may not have been the biological father of Joseph, but we can see his evident impact on the way Jesus lived his life: Joseph’s love and respect for Mary’s honor became the sound bed of Jesus’ love and respect for the women who came into his life. Joseph’s righteous life is seen in Jesus’ willingness to do the will of God in his own life.
Fathers, and mothers included, your role in the lives of your children is very important. Live your lives with respect for each other’s honor, and always do your best to make sure the will of God is alive in your lives so your children will live as you do. In this way we can really say “As the tree, so the fruits.”
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
You owe more? Love more!
On my way to the 1st Mass today, I wore my cassock. People I passed by greeted me (whereas before when I was in casual wear no one would even greet me!); the beggars went and asked that I touch them. The vendors likewise extended their hands and asked that they kiss my hand (Mano Po Father!). Before I turned right to enter the compound of the Church, I heard loud voices coming from two women who were apparently in an argumentative mood (very early in the morning!!!), and I noticed that they toned down their voice as soon as they saw me coming closer. I thought “My cassock must be bringing to these people the awareness of God with us!
How I pray that this presence of God be likewise felt in the presence of every person. For that is what we have been given in Christ: the dignity of man, restored in Christ brings to us the enduring love and salvific presence of God!
Yes, that is what we have been given in Jesus: His sacrifice on the cross, His rising from the dead, His sending us the Holy Spirit after his Ascent into heaven, has given us back our dignity as beloved. Therefore, we each carry the love of God in our bodies and selves. That is why the Church stands for this dignity: in the one newly conceived in the mother’s womb, up to the one about to exhale the last breath (we even respect the dead, how much more the living!). Thus, every one of us alive has that dignity as a beloved who is called to live in love as He has loved us.
Therefore, the 1st reading challenges us to cherish the gift of salvation we have been given in Christ. St. Paul exhorts Timothy to always rekindle the fire of the Spirit of service bestowed on him upon ordination, when the hands of the elders were laid on him. No one is now so young as not to be able to stay focused on one’s ministry with much fidelity and conscientiousness. The Word for today thus calls us towards nurturing our dignity as beloved so it grows and bears much fruit – the salvation of all. To stay faithful and true to the One Who calls us until He comes again – that is the enduring challenge given everyday.
Interestingly, the Gospel reveals a reality each one of us is in: we owe God so much. But since we cannot pay back what we owe, God has forgiven us in His Son. Thus, the challenge is to love as much as we have been forgiven those debts. Loving is really that measure of being loved: we love as much as we have been loved. We love as much as we are conscious of our being loved. We love in as much as we acknowledge being loved. So we ask and pray for as much as we need in order to be able to love back.
Surprisingly, this Word today reminds us of St. James’ word last Sunday: you have faith? Have good works too! If we say we believe, we are thus called to also do good. As we have been loved, so we have believed! And as we believe, we live out our faith in loving works to those God sends us everyday.
May God bless us all. Amen
How I pray that this presence of God be likewise felt in the presence of every person. For that is what we have been given in Christ: the dignity of man, restored in Christ brings to us the enduring love and salvific presence of God!
Yes, that is what we have been given in Jesus: His sacrifice on the cross, His rising from the dead, His sending us the Holy Spirit after his Ascent into heaven, has given us back our dignity as beloved. Therefore, we each carry the love of God in our bodies and selves. That is why the Church stands for this dignity: in the one newly conceived in the mother’s womb, up to the one about to exhale the last breath (we even respect the dead, how much more the living!). Thus, every one of us alive has that dignity as a beloved who is called to live in love as He has loved us.
Therefore, the 1st reading challenges us to cherish the gift of salvation we have been given in Christ. St. Paul exhorts Timothy to always rekindle the fire of the Spirit of service bestowed on him upon ordination, when the hands of the elders were laid on him. No one is now so young as not to be able to stay focused on one’s ministry with much fidelity and conscientiousness. The Word for today thus calls us towards nurturing our dignity as beloved so it grows and bears much fruit – the salvation of all. To stay faithful and true to the One Who calls us until He comes again – that is the enduring challenge given everyday.
Interestingly, the Gospel reveals a reality each one of us is in: we owe God so much. But since we cannot pay back what we owe, God has forgiven us in His Son. Thus, the challenge is to love as much as we have been forgiven those debts. Loving is really that measure of being loved: we love as much as we have been loved. We love as much as we are conscious of our being loved. We love in as much as we acknowledge being loved. So we ask and pray for as much as we need in order to be able to love back.
Surprisingly, this Word today reminds us of St. James’ word last Sunday: you have faith? Have good works too! If we say we believe, we are thus called to also do good. As we have been loved, so we have believed! And as we believe, we live out our faith in loving works to those God sends us everyday.
May God bless us all. Amen
Monday, June 22, 2009
Fathers Day 2009 Homily
This is to just account for the sharing or homily I delivered on June 21, 2009, the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the 3rd Sunday of the month of June when we celebrate Fathers' Day. The Gospel then was from Mark where he described Jesus sleeping in the boat as it was crossing the Sea of Galilee.
Homily:
On this Fathers' Day, I'd like to share in this homily stories about fathers.
1. A few days ago, a friend told me about her family experience. They were 8 children, and after their father was assassinated, their mother single-handedly brought them up with such strength and discipline. They had to keep the curfew, study well their lessons, and always obey what they were told as children. Immediately after a low score was received, the mother would let them go up to the highest floor of the house where the picture of their father was there. They would be asked to kneel in front of that picture, and ask forgiveness for not doing well in class. Their mother was always noted for these words: "Your father has done everything good for you. He is a well-respected man in our village that even people from Taiwan come and pay respect to him when they come to the Philippines. So, do nothing to blur that good name. Do nothing to disrespect his good name."
Hence, their doing good in class, their coming home on time, their behaving well among themselves (although they'd quarrel every now and then the way siblings normally do) was always in view of the charge to keep their father's good reputation.
I believe that we as children need to remember this good motivation to keep the good reputation of our parents. As good Catholics, it would be good to live like Christ Who only gave good witnessing to the good reputation of His Father Who loves us all.
2. The "Divine Word" in our congregation name has a father-inspiration background. St. Arnold Janssen, when he was still a boy, remembered those times of storm and low harvest, and even when their cows were getting sick, when his father would call the whole family to kneel around the altar as he proclaimed the Prologue of St. John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God..." The same father would even share at supper with his children the homily of the priest at Sunday Mass. Hence, when Rome tried to disagree with the name he wanted to give our congregation, St. Arnold simply asked them "How come you agreed with Society of Jesus?..."
St. Jude Catholic School and St. Jude Archdiocesan Shrine, two institutions built by our Chinese confreres here beside Malacanang, all have a father-background. The name of the father of one of the school founders happened to be Jude. I haven't heard anything about him, although I would like to believe that had it not been for the good they had left on their children, these children would have never even thought of extending their legacy in their lives.
Hence, this is a challenge for all fathers (and mothers for that purpose): you are their first catechists of your children. Teach them by way of your witnessing to our Catholic faith. Be good role models to your children who will most likely protect your good reputation and most of all, even extend your posterity to the generations behind the children.
3. The third father is a handsome priest my friend mentioned having met at the University of San Carlos in Cebu as a college freshman. "Father, I was an atheist before, but when I saw that handsome priest, I thought "God must exist." Why? Because such a handsome man was willing to offer his life in His service. If God did not exist, surely living like that would be utter foolishness." So, this friend of mine started really learning the catechism until baptism was chosen and administered.
We are really called to make others know that God exists, and that He is with us in our journey.
The early Church had many experiences of trials and tribulations. They were really scary moments, which the storms and the squalls one meets at the Sea of Galilee best symbolize. Jesus "sleeping in their midst" was a figure in their lives which became their refuge. They just had to "awaken Jesus" from slumber, awaken themselves to the fact that indeed they need not be afraid but trust because He is there to calm the storms and give us peace.
I hope this year's Fathers' day will bring us closer to our fathers, challenge us to be good fathers, and give us courage to life for the Father in heaven Whose only will is that we live and have our lives lived to the fullest in His Son.
Homily:
On this Fathers' Day, I'd like to share in this homily stories about fathers.
1. A few days ago, a friend told me about her family experience. They were 8 children, and after their father was assassinated, their mother single-handedly brought them up with such strength and discipline. They had to keep the curfew, study well their lessons, and always obey what they were told as children. Immediately after a low score was received, the mother would let them go up to the highest floor of the house where the picture of their father was there. They would be asked to kneel in front of that picture, and ask forgiveness for not doing well in class. Their mother was always noted for these words: "Your father has done everything good for you. He is a well-respected man in our village that even people from Taiwan come and pay respect to him when they come to the Philippines. So, do nothing to blur that good name. Do nothing to disrespect his good name."
Hence, their doing good in class, their coming home on time, their behaving well among themselves (although they'd quarrel every now and then the way siblings normally do) was always in view of the charge to keep their father's good reputation.
I believe that we as children need to remember this good motivation to keep the good reputation of our parents. As good Catholics, it would be good to live like Christ Who only gave good witnessing to the good reputation of His Father Who loves us all.
2. The "Divine Word" in our congregation name has a father-inspiration background. St. Arnold Janssen, when he was still a boy, remembered those times of storm and low harvest, and even when their cows were getting sick, when his father would call the whole family to kneel around the altar as he proclaimed the Prologue of St. John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God..." The same father would even share at supper with his children the homily of the priest at Sunday Mass. Hence, when Rome tried to disagree with the name he wanted to give our congregation, St. Arnold simply asked them "How come you agreed with Society of Jesus?..."
St. Jude Catholic School and St. Jude Archdiocesan Shrine, two institutions built by our Chinese confreres here beside Malacanang, all have a father-background. The name of the father of one of the school founders happened to be Jude. I haven't heard anything about him, although I would like to believe that had it not been for the good they had left on their children, these children would have never even thought of extending their legacy in their lives.
Hence, this is a challenge for all fathers (and mothers for that purpose): you are their first catechists of your children. Teach them by way of your witnessing to our Catholic faith. Be good role models to your children who will most likely protect your good reputation and most of all, even extend your posterity to the generations behind the children.
3. The third father is a handsome priest my friend mentioned having met at the University of San Carlos in Cebu as a college freshman. "Father, I was an atheist before, but when I saw that handsome priest, I thought "God must exist." Why? Because such a handsome man was willing to offer his life in His service. If God did not exist, surely living like that would be utter foolishness." So, this friend of mine started really learning the catechism until baptism was chosen and administered.
We are really called to make others know that God exists, and that He is with us in our journey.
The early Church had many experiences of trials and tribulations. They were really scary moments, which the storms and the squalls one meets at the Sea of Galilee best symbolize. Jesus "sleeping in their midst" was a figure in their lives which became their refuge. They just had to "awaken Jesus" from slumber, awaken themselves to the fact that indeed they need not be afraid but trust because He is there to calm the storms and give us peace.
I hope this year's Fathers' day will bring us closer to our fathers, challenge us to be good fathers, and give us courage to life for the Father in heaven Whose only will is that we live and have our lives lived to the fullest in His Son.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The Holy Trinity Reaching Out to Us
I may be late in writing this reflection because we had already celebrated last Sunday June 7, 2009 the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. But nonetheless, I'd like to share these thoughts here for those who are searching for some ideas about the Holy Trinity from an experiential perspective. They so spontaneously came as I was administering psychological exams to a seminarian in Tagaytay City. The seminary in Tagaytay is simply so serene and I savored it so much. As the examinee was answering the tests, I just made my silent prayer and reflection in preparation for the Sunday Mass homily as I walked outside the testing area. Thank God indeed for inspiring me with these thoughts which I shared in my Mass that Sunday at the Corinthian Hills. It was even a great coincidence(?) that the readers of that day were the Garcia family: the father, the mother and their only daughter. The human trinity?
As we celebrate one of the tenets of the Christian faith, an indispensable core of our faith and life, i.e., the Blessed Trinity, maybe it is good for us to ask WHO and WHAT is the Trinity for us as Christian. Yes, this dogma in Christianity is not so easy to understand, but the Holy Trinity is very much related to us, and yes, it is relating to us. There is this story of St. Augustine who wanted to go into the depths of the Holy Trinity, that he dreamt walking along the seashore and seeing a child digging a hole in the sand. He stopped and asked the boy what he was doing. The boy said, "I am digging this hole so that I can put the water of the sea into it." St. Augustine was supposed to have exclaimed, "Impossible!" At that the boy was supposed to have disappeared, and lo! he realized that it was an experience of the impossibility of understanding the truth of the Holy Trinity.
From our catechism we all know that the Holy Trinity is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let me delineate here the three Persons in this One God, the Holy Trinity.
1. The Father, the First Person in the Holy Trinity is the Source and Origin of life - our life and the life of all around us. Isn't He called the Creator - of heaven and earth. Everything that we are, have and will be, everything above us, below us, and with us, both the seen and the unseen - came from Him, God the Father. We were taught that He created everything IN LOVE, OUT OF LOVE, FOR LOVE. Without Love, He wouldn't have created; without Love, He wouldn't be Father. The Father is thus, LOVE.
This implies that individually and socially, even globally, we all came from God. We have a divine origin, and a divine end. The Father is where we all came from, and we hope to end in Him.
2. The Son, The Father's Only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ - is the Second person of the Holy Trinity. In Him, God for us became a human person, a MALE one (why not female? Please ask God when you meet Him), born of a woman like all of us, had a body, mind and spirit. He walked, He talked, felt, related with others like and me do. The God that we have in Christ is no longer simply an idea. In Jesus Christ, we have seen how it is to live the life of a human person. If we'd like to really live as a human person, we have in Him an excellent MODEL - the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity.
This Jesus, our Lord, suffered, died and was buried like you and me. Everyone of us has sufferings, and we will all die. And how we hope to be buried. He died the most ignominious way of dying - the most shameful way - ON THE CROSS. Jesus Christ really showed us the truth of our lives, that we are all crucified to our sins and will die in them.
Yet this Jesus Christ rose from the dead to show us that our lives, borne from God, are not only meant for dying. He showed us that we are meant to live eternally, to rise from our own graves and deaths, living the Resurrection itself in our lives. He ascended into heaven. His life was brought up to heaven. And when we live like Him and follow Him, we are called to likewise go to heaven and be with Him at the side of the Father. Just look at His Mother who was assumed into heaven.
3. The Holy Spirit is the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity. He was sent from above by the Father and the Son. He witnesses and points to the Son so we can follow and serve Him. he breathes on us the Father's Love Itself.
If the Father created us and gave us a model in life, He gave us the Holy Spirit to abide by us, protecting us, sustaining us. It is the Holy Spirit Who inspires us to pray, to be good to others, to love them and grow as human persons. When we are in the Holy Spirit, indeed we are blessed in every single moment of our lives. We are not alone, not abandoned when the Holy Spirit is with us. While we believe that God the Father and Son are in heaven, God the Holy Spirit tells us that He is with us, in us, and even through us.
When we look at the sacramental life we live in the Church, the Holy Spirit is there and has been given to us.
At Baptism, the Holy Spirit has made us children of God.
At Confirmation, the Holy Spirit strengthens us.
At the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Spirit gives us the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
At the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession, the Holy Spirit inspires us to be contrite of heart, amend our lives, and He forgives us.
At the Anointing of the Sick, the Holy Spirit heals us of our ills and restores us to health and life.
At Matrimony, the Holy Spirit makes the couple Jesus Christs, loving and being loved in their mutual service as husband and wife, in their love for their children, like Him Who gave His life for the service of everyone in the human race.
At Holy orders, the Holy Spirit shows us His preference for us, His Choice for us to belong to Him. He continues to teach and renew us.
Just looking at these celebrations of our life in Christ, it is the Holy Spirit Who leads us in every moment of our lives.
Hence now we see that the Holy Trinity is no longer simply an idea of God for us. God is a Person, in fact 3 Persons reaching out to us: in love, loving and constantly abiding. Indeed the Holy Trinity tells us that God is alive, the God of the living. He started life, gave us life, and will lead our lives to eternal life.
That is why we say WE LIVE FOR the FATHER, WITH the SON, IN the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Trinity is really our God, and we belong to Him, Amen.
God bless
As we celebrate one of the tenets of the Christian faith, an indispensable core of our faith and life, i.e., the Blessed Trinity, maybe it is good for us to ask WHO and WHAT is the Trinity for us as Christian. Yes, this dogma in Christianity is not so easy to understand, but the Holy Trinity is very much related to us, and yes, it is relating to us. There is this story of St. Augustine who wanted to go into the depths of the Holy Trinity, that he dreamt walking along the seashore and seeing a child digging a hole in the sand. He stopped and asked the boy what he was doing. The boy said, "I am digging this hole so that I can put the water of the sea into it." St. Augustine was supposed to have exclaimed, "Impossible!" At that the boy was supposed to have disappeared, and lo! he realized that it was an experience of the impossibility of understanding the truth of the Holy Trinity.
From our catechism we all know that the Holy Trinity is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let me delineate here the three Persons in this One God, the Holy Trinity.
1. The Father, the First Person in the Holy Trinity is the Source and Origin of life - our life and the life of all around us. Isn't He called the Creator - of heaven and earth. Everything that we are, have and will be, everything above us, below us, and with us, both the seen and the unseen - came from Him, God the Father. We were taught that He created everything IN LOVE, OUT OF LOVE, FOR LOVE. Without Love, He wouldn't have created; without Love, He wouldn't be Father. The Father is thus, LOVE.
This implies that individually and socially, even globally, we all came from God. We have a divine origin, and a divine end. The Father is where we all came from, and we hope to end in Him.
2. The Son, The Father's Only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ - is the Second person of the Holy Trinity. In Him, God for us became a human person, a MALE one (why not female? Please ask God when you meet Him), born of a woman like all of us, had a body, mind and spirit. He walked, He talked, felt, related with others like and me do. The God that we have in Christ is no longer simply an idea. In Jesus Christ, we have seen how it is to live the life of a human person. If we'd like to really live as a human person, we have in Him an excellent MODEL - the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity.
This Jesus, our Lord, suffered, died and was buried like you and me. Everyone of us has sufferings, and we will all die. And how we hope to be buried. He died the most ignominious way of dying - the most shameful way - ON THE CROSS. Jesus Christ really showed us the truth of our lives, that we are all crucified to our sins and will die in them.
Yet this Jesus Christ rose from the dead to show us that our lives, borne from God, are not only meant for dying. He showed us that we are meant to live eternally, to rise from our own graves and deaths, living the Resurrection itself in our lives. He ascended into heaven. His life was brought up to heaven. And when we live like Him and follow Him, we are called to likewise go to heaven and be with Him at the side of the Father. Just look at His Mother who was assumed into heaven.
3. The Holy Spirit is the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity. He was sent from above by the Father and the Son. He witnesses and points to the Son so we can follow and serve Him. he breathes on us the Father's Love Itself.
If the Father created us and gave us a model in life, He gave us the Holy Spirit to abide by us, protecting us, sustaining us. It is the Holy Spirit Who inspires us to pray, to be good to others, to love them and grow as human persons. When we are in the Holy Spirit, indeed we are blessed in every single moment of our lives. We are not alone, not abandoned when the Holy Spirit is with us. While we believe that God the Father and Son are in heaven, God the Holy Spirit tells us that He is with us, in us, and even through us.
When we look at the sacramental life we live in the Church, the Holy Spirit is there and has been given to us.
At Baptism, the Holy Spirit has made us children of God.
At Confirmation, the Holy Spirit strengthens us.
At the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Spirit gives us the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
At the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession, the Holy Spirit inspires us to be contrite of heart, amend our lives, and He forgives us.
At the Anointing of the Sick, the Holy Spirit heals us of our ills and restores us to health and life.
At Matrimony, the Holy Spirit makes the couple Jesus Christs, loving and being loved in their mutual service as husband and wife, in their love for their children, like Him Who gave His life for the service of everyone in the human race.
At Holy orders, the Holy Spirit shows us His preference for us, His Choice for us to belong to Him. He continues to teach and renew us.
Just looking at these celebrations of our life in Christ, it is the Holy Spirit Who leads us in every moment of our lives.
Hence now we see that the Holy Trinity is no longer simply an idea of God for us. God is a Person, in fact 3 Persons reaching out to us: in love, loving and constantly abiding. Indeed the Holy Trinity tells us that God is alive, the God of the living. He started life, gave us life, and will lead our lives to eternal life.
That is why we say WE LIVE FOR the FATHER, WITH the SON, IN the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Trinity is really our God, and we belong to Him, Amen.
God bless
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Ash Wednesday 2009
Today, we break the cycle of the 7th week in Ordinary Time as we enter the Lenten season. We will not hear the bell anymore until it rings again on Easter Vigil; no more Alleluias until we say it again on Easter Sunday. The stole of the priest will be violet in color. We are encouraged to have more silence than ever in order to promote an atmosphere conducive for sober reflection.
The rites are so rich that they dispose us to start these 40 days with a spirit of openness to the life God wants to bestow on us fully in Christ. With this openness, we are shown and given the gift of humility, acknowledging our sinfulness. At the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we will receive His mercy and forgiveness, a reconciliation made possible only with Christ's ultimate sacrifice on the Cross and consequent Rising from the dead. With fasting, prayer and almsgiving, we spend this day in His presence so that we may see the glory He is preparing us for: the Resurrection and life in the Spirit.
The ashes tell us about this fact of life: that whatever we have today, like the palms we waved in last year’s Palm Sunday, will all become ashes in death. The specter of death always looms ahead, awaiting us like a hole in the cemetery, ready to close us in total isolation, unreachable to the loving hands of people who love us, making us unable to reach out and beg for help. It is only Christ, Whose Hands, stretched out on the cross, Who can bridge that hole in the cemetery of our lives with eternity in God the Father, making us see the light again, making us belong again, making us alive again. Indeed, these ashes have power to bring us back to our senses, making us ask ourselves again (who knows this may be the last time we are given to face and raise this question): WHAT IS IT THAT REALLY MATTERS TO US INDIVIDUALLY, COMMUNALLY AND UNIVERSALLY? It is only when we have known the love of this Hand and seen for ourselves its power to forgive, accept, and grant us a new life that we shall experience how it is to be saved. And knowing and believing we are saved, we proclaim this Good News. We thus pray that He abides by us through these 40 days so that we will celebrate His victory over death that keeps us locked in the darkness of being unloved.
The rites are so rich that they dispose us to start these 40 days with a spirit of openness to the life God wants to bestow on us fully in Christ. With this openness, we are shown and given the gift of humility, acknowledging our sinfulness. At the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we will receive His mercy and forgiveness, a reconciliation made possible only with Christ's ultimate sacrifice on the Cross and consequent Rising from the dead. With fasting, prayer and almsgiving, we spend this day in His presence so that we may see the glory He is preparing us for: the Resurrection and life in the Spirit.
The ashes tell us about this fact of life: that whatever we have today, like the palms we waved in last year’s Palm Sunday, will all become ashes in death. The specter of death always looms ahead, awaiting us like a hole in the cemetery, ready to close us in total isolation, unreachable to the loving hands of people who love us, making us unable to reach out and beg for help. It is only Christ, Whose Hands, stretched out on the cross, Who can bridge that hole in the cemetery of our lives with eternity in God the Father, making us see the light again, making us belong again, making us alive again. Indeed, these ashes have power to bring us back to our senses, making us ask ourselves again (who knows this may be the last time we are given to face and raise this question): WHAT IS IT THAT REALLY MATTERS TO US INDIVIDUALLY, COMMUNALLY AND UNIVERSALLY? It is only when we have known the love of this Hand and seen for ourselves its power to forgive, accept, and grant us a new life that we shall experience how it is to be saved. And knowing and believing we are saved, we proclaim this Good News. We thus pray that He abides by us through these 40 days so that we will celebrate His victory over death that keeps us locked in the darkness of being unloved.
Reflections for Feb. 24, 2009
Feb. 24, 2009
In our Mass today we include our seminarians in Tagaytay who are having their comprehensive exams. We know how good it was for us when we were seminarians to know that people are praying for us.
When we listen to the Readings today, we hear in the book of Sirach a father telling his son to be ready for difficulties once he ventures into serving the Lord. It’s like the Father telling His Son Jesus to be ready for his own sufferings and never forget the God Whose ways are evident throughout history. The Gospel shows Jesus telling his disciples about his impending suffering and death but the followers appear unmindful and unable to understand.
We are listeners of the same Word of God and are challenged today to keep in mind that history is the field where God shows us His saving power. When we learn this, may we grow in courage to face our own struggles and difficulties.
In our Mass today we include our seminarians in Tagaytay who are having their comprehensive exams. We know how good it was for us when we were seminarians to know that people are praying for us.
When we listen to the Readings today, we hear in the book of Sirach a father telling his son to be ready for difficulties once he ventures into serving the Lord. It’s like the Father telling His Son Jesus to be ready for his own sufferings and never forget the God Whose ways are evident throughout history. The Gospel shows Jesus telling his disciples about his impending suffering and death but the followers appear unmindful and unable to understand.
We are listeners of the same Word of God and are challenged today to keep in mind that history is the field where God shows us His saving power. When we learn this, may we grow in courage to face our own struggles and difficulties.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
17th Sunday 2008 Year A Reflections
Today's readings are easy to remember. The first reading is from Solomon's experience with God Who asked him what he wanted. Solomon, realizing the weight of David's legacy on his youth (David being the greatest King Israel ever knew), as well as the fact that his mother was Bathsheba whose husband Uriah David had ordered killed, must have found himself in utter helplessness. Not asking to be born into this situation, yet he must rule amidst any controversy for the good of Israel, Solomon asked for an understanding heart. God thus bestowed on him the wisdom none has ever had and may ever have. Note that God was particularly struck that Solomon did not ask for riches or power or even the life of his enemies. Solomon really seemed in search for that which can truly make him happy. And God granted him way beyond what he could ever ask for.
The second reading quotes St. Paul's "Everything works for the good of those who love Him." This message of St. Paul becomes an overarching principle in God's generosity.
The Gospel has three parables about the Kingdom of God. The first is about a man who found a hidden treasure which he buried again and bought back after selling everything he owned. He must have realized that such a treasure was of such a value that it was worth everything he owned, hence his investment to own that piece of land where the treasure was. The second parable is on the Pearl of Great Price which the man found and also bought with everything that he had. These two parables alone speaks about the value of the Kingdom - that it is that essential such that nothing can compare with it. Everything else counts as nothing before these treasures. The third parable is about the net that was thrown into the sea catching as much as it could, and at the shore, the fishermen collected the ones that were good and threw away those that were useless. This last parable has an eschatological dimension in it. There will be on the last period of all life a judgment such that those who do evil shall be thrown away while those who've done good shall be collected into eternal life.
Fr. Munachi's homily today mentions that of the summum bonum or the highest good to which all other goods gel together like the hen that can gather all chicks together. I am always reminded of the figures 1 and 0 every time these two parables of the Kingdom are mentioned. 0 stands for all that perishes and vanishes, and 1 for God. If we choose only the material, only those that vanish in death, we choose 0; no matter how many zeroes we choose ahead of God will lead us with nothing at the end. However, if we choose God first, all the zeroes that come after Him will only make us richer.
Indeed, God seems to be asking each and every one of us what is it that we would like to have? Like the question he asked Solomon, He also breaks for us this question: what shall make us happy? What is our highest good? What is it that our hearts seek for? If our hearts love God first, then everything else we so choose or seek for will only make us even better. Seek first the Kingdom of heaven, and all the rest will fall in line, as the song goes.
Reversing the Parable
It just dawned on me: has God made humanity created in His image and likeness something like the Pear or the Hidden Treasure? When I look at the Crucifix and the sacrifice He made if only to gather us back unto Himself, I realize the meaning of these parables of the Kingdom. We must have been so important, our salvation so imperative that He had to sacrifice even His divinity if only to own us back. Think about it.
God bless
The second reading quotes St. Paul's "Everything works for the good of those who love Him." This message of St. Paul becomes an overarching principle in God's generosity.
The Gospel has three parables about the Kingdom of God. The first is about a man who found a hidden treasure which he buried again and bought back after selling everything he owned. He must have realized that such a treasure was of such a value that it was worth everything he owned, hence his investment to own that piece of land where the treasure was. The second parable is on the Pearl of Great Price which the man found and also bought with everything that he had. These two parables alone speaks about the value of the Kingdom - that it is that essential such that nothing can compare with it. Everything else counts as nothing before these treasures. The third parable is about the net that was thrown into the sea catching as much as it could, and at the shore, the fishermen collected the ones that were good and threw away those that were useless. This last parable has an eschatological dimension in it. There will be on the last period of all life a judgment such that those who do evil shall be thrown away while those who've done good shall be collected into eternal life.
Fr. Munachi's homily today mentions that of the summum bonum or the highest good to which all other goods gel together like the hen that can gather all chicks together. I am always reminded of the figures 1 and 0 every time these two parables of the Kingdom are mentioned. 0 stands for all that perishes and vanishes, and 1 for God. If we choose only the material, only those that vanish in death, we choose 0; no matter how many zeroes we choose ahead of God will lead us with nothing at the end. However, if we choose God first, all the zeroes that come after Him will only make us richer.
Indeed, God seems to be asking each and every one of us what is it that we would like to have? Like the question he asked Solomon, He also breaks for us this question: what shall make us happy? What is our highest good? What is it that our hearts seek for? If our hearts love God first, then everything else we so choose or seek for will only make us even better. Seek first the Kingdom of heaven, and all the rest will fall in line, as the song goes.
Reversing the Parable
It just dawned on me: has God made humanity created in His image and likeness something like the Pear or the Hidden Treasure? When I look at the Crucifix and the sacrifice He made if only to gather us back unto Himself, I realize the meaning of these parables of the Kingdom. We must have been so important, our salvation so imperative that He had to sacrifice even His divinity if only to own us back. Think about it.
God bless
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
June 25, 2008 Reflection
The date for this reflection is a day faster than the one this blog site uses - apparently American, hence I entitle this sharing with the date I actually wrote it since it is so here in the Philippines. The readings are taken from the 12th week in Ordinary Time Year 2.
1st Rdg - 2 Kgs 22: 8-13. 23: 1-3
Gospel - Mt 7: 15-20
In the Gospel, Jesus warns us about "false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them...Every good tree bears good fruit, and rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit... By their fruits you will know them."
The Israelites in the first reading have heard again the Word of God, the Torah which was found in the Temple. The king asked the priersts and his servants to consult the Lord for him "about the stipulations of this book that was found" for he realized that "our fathers did not obey the stipulations of this book, nor fulfill our written obligations." The king together with all the Israelites, they made a covenant with the Lord to "follow HIm and observe HIs ordinances, statutes and decrees with their whole hearts and souls,..."
Much like their experience in the first reading, one feels humiliated and challenged to ask oneself: "What fruits do/did I bear?" No one wants to be a false prophet and thus bear bad fruit. And yet this Word today challenges us to do something - remove the bad fruit and try our best to bear good fruit, lest we risk being cut and thrown away into the fire.
Going on deeper, it dawned on me that God must have wanted to show us that His fruits are good fruits. Look at His creation - all the filth that we see nowadays seemingly much similar to those at the time of Noah - and all the acts the Old Testament have shown us - remember Moses and Yahweh when the Yahweh wanted Moses to wipe them away, angry at their idolatry in the desert while Moses was in the mountain receiving the Decalogue? Can we then say that since we may not have been good fruits, then He must be a bad Tree?
Indeed, God must have been challenged by Christ's word, and showed us the Resurrection - His fruit is LIFE, and if we follow Christ, we can be this good fruit too - our own Resurrection - even on a daily basis, from our deaths and evil.
Today, He challenges us to start bearing good fruit if we are to really participate in the prophet-hood of Christ. For as baptized, we share in the kingly, priestly, and prophetic roles and identities of Christ, our Saviour.
God bless
1st Rdg - 2 Kgs 22: 8-13. 23: 1-3
Gospel - Mt 7: 15-20
In the Gospel, Jesus warns us about "false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them...Every good tree bears good fruit, and rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit... By their fruits you will know them."
The Israelites in the first reading have heard again the Word of God, the Torah which was found in the Temple. The king asked the priersts and his servants to consult the Lord for him "about the stipulations of this book that was found" for he realized that "our fathers did not obey the stipulations of this book, nor fulfill our written obligations." The king together with all the Israelites, they made a covenant with the Lord to "follow HIm and observe HIs ordinances, statutes and decrees with their whole hearts and souls,..."
Much like their experience in the first reading, one feels humiliated and challenged to ask oneself: "What fruits do/did I bear?" No one wants to be a false prophet and thus bear bad fruit. And yet this Word today challenges us to do something - remove the bad fruit and try our best to bear good fruit, lest we risk being cut and thrown away into the fire.
Going on deeper, it dawned on me that God must have wanted to show us that His fruits are good fruits. Look at His creation - all the filth that we see nowadays seemingly much similar to those at the time of Noah - and all the acts the Old Testament have shown us - remember Moses and Yahweh when the Yahweh wanted Moses to wipe them away, angry at their idolatry in the desert while Moses was in the mountain receiving the Decalogue? Can we then say that since we may not have been good fruits, then He must be a bad Tree?
Indeed, God must have been challenged by Christ's word, and showed us the Resurrection - His fruit is LIFE, and if we follow Christ, we can be this good fruit too - our own Resurrection - even on a daily basis, from our deaths and evil.
Today, He challenges us to start bearing good fruit if we are to really participate in the prophet-hood of Christ. For as baptized, we share in the kingly, priestly, and prophetic roles and identities of Christ, our Saviour.
God bless
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Christianity & Religious Behavior
This is a rephrasing of my first reflection which I thought was erased after publishing and losing it. Am thankful that it was saved in the previous post. Anyway, for comparative purposes let me have it published here so we can document this computer glitch today.
June 18, 2008
2 Kgs 2, 1.6-14 / Mt 6, 1-6.16-18
The Gospel speaks of three behaviors in religion: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Jesus practiced these Himself. Didn't we hear Him tell Judas, when Mary (Lazarus' and Martha's sister) at Bethany a few days before He was crucified "The poor you will always have but me you will not" (Jn 12, 8). The Gospel of Mark even adds "...and you can be kind to them whenever you wish" (14,7). We have read that Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and even shared them (and us too) His own prayer - the Our Father. He fasted too, didn't he? 40 days after His baptism at Jordan!
When the words in today's Gospel Matthew attributes to Jesus hint at is the pride and false belief these three religious behaviors can give us. The legalese in these pious behaviors can make us so self-righteous before God and deride others before the divine Presence. Didn't Jesus tell us to beware of the Pharisaical attitude: "I thank you Lord for I am... not like this tax collector..." It can make us think that our prayer can make God work for us. Our fasting can make God have mercy on us.
What Jesus came to tell us what the fact that God Has His will, and a plan which He Himself came to fulfill, respecting Him in its disposition - didn't He tell the apostles that "sitting at my right is not for me to give for it is reserved by my heavenly Father...," that the restoration of Israel is not up for me to decide but it is the Father's (see Acts, in Luke's account of the Ascencion). No amount of our piety can ever manipulate God to act. Our bargaining - I do this if you do that - therefore is something we may really need to rethink and reconsider.
What is then left for us to do is this: when we pray, we are called to be sensitive and docile to His will, making ourselves as ready and willing as Christ to live out that will for us. Our fasting is to make us master ourselves so that we live not as we like but as God likes. And our fasting is to make us remember that whatever we have is not for ourselves alone but for those whom He gives us to share "whenever we wish."
Indeed, Christ came to bring us the freedom of the Kingdom, for in Him we have all become beneficiaries of His generous mercy and love.
"May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace, and may the Heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen."
- St. Arnold Janssen
June 18, 2008
2 Kgs 2, 1.6-14 / Mt 6, 1-6.16-18
The Gospel speaks of three behaviors in religion: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Jesus practiced these Himself. Didn't we hear Him tell Judas, when Mary (Lazarus' and Martha's sister) at Bethany a few days before He was crucified "The poor you will always have but me you will not" (Jn 12, 8). The Gospel of Mark even adds "...and you can be kind to them whenever you wish" (14,7). We have read that Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and even shared them (and us too) His own prayer - the Our Father. He fasted too, didn't he? 40 days after His baptism at Jordan!
When the words in today's Gospel Matthew attributes to Jesus hint at is the pride and false belief these three religious behaviors can give us. The legalese in these pious behaviors can make us so self-righteous before God and deride others before the divine Presence. Didn't Jesus tell us to beware of the Pharisaical attitude: "I thank you Lord for I am... not like this tax collector..." It can make us think that our prayer can make God work for us. Our fasting can make God have mercy on us.
What Jesus came to tell us what the fact that God Has His will, and a plan which He Himself came to fulfill, respecting Him in its disposition - didn't He tell the apostles that "sitting at my right is not for me to give for it is reserved by my heavenly Father...," that the restoration of Israel is not up for me to decide but it is the Father's (see Acts, in Luke's account of the Ascencion). No amount of our piety can ever manipulate God to act. Our bargaining - I do this if you do that - therefore is something we may really need to rethink and reconsider.
What is then left for us to do is this: when we pray, we are called to be sensitive and docile to His will, making ourselves as ready and willing as Christ to live out that will for us. Our fasting is to make us master ourselves so that we live not as we like but as God likes. And our fasting is to make us remember that whatever we have is not for ourselves alone but for those whom He gives us to share "whenever we wish."
Indeed, Christ came to bring us the freedom of the Kingdom, for in Him we have all become beneficiaries of His generous mercy and love.
"May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace, and may the Heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen."
- St. Arnold Janssen
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Christianity & Religion
June 18, 2008 Reflection
2 Kgs 2, 1. 6-14; Mt 6, 1-6, 16-18
The Gospel mentions three things religion is usually associated with: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Jesus learned these things himself. Didn't he say "The poor you will always have, but me you will not always have" (Jn 12, 8). This was when Mary (Lazarus' and Martha's sister) annointed her with expensive aromatic nard and Judas wished it were sold and given to the poor. We read of Jesus' going alone to the mountain to pray; and most especially, the 40 days he fasted after his baptism prior to his active ministry. In a way we can say that Jesus was every inch trained and lived a religious and pious life.
As he lived out these three things though, he saw how these became the leverage in one's relationship with God. Didn't he tell us how the Pharisee made it an object of pride before God and a reason to deride others - "...I thank you Lord for I am unlike this tax collector; I fast twice a week, pay tithes on all I get..." (Lk 18, 11-13). The legalese in religious behavior seems to make one so self-righteous as to forget that God cannot be manipulated by our religiosity. God remains to be God, simply an Other Whose acts are not effects of our acts. Yes, He hears our prayers and grants them when it is His will. What we do then in prayer is to seek for His will, giving time and space in our lives so that we become familiar and docile to His plans for us. Fasting then becomes sorrow for our sins, for the loss of the Savior in our lives. And almsgiving is not so that others may have some good impression of us, but that we may remember that whatever we have is not only for us.
The faith Christ came to sow in us then is one that makes us know Who God is and respect and fear Him and His ways. It calls us to master ourselves, and most of all reach out to those He gives us in our lives. In this way our religiosity becomes God Himself in our midst - generous, loving and forgiving.
"May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace and may the Heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen."
St. Arnold Janssen
2 Kgs 2, 1. 6-14; Mt 6, 1-6, 16-18
The Gospel mentions three things religion is usually associated with: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Jesus learned these things himself. Didn't he say "The poor you will always have, but me you will not always have" (Jn 12, 8). This was when Mary (Lazarus' and Martha's sister) annointed her with expensive aromatic nard and Judas wished it were sold and given to the poor. We read of Jesus' going alone to the mountain to pray; and most especially, the 40 days he fasted after his baptism prior to his active ministry. In a way we can say that Jesus was every inch trained and lived a religious and pious life.
As he lived out these three things though, he saw how these became the leverage in one's relationship with God. Didn't he tell us how the Pharisee made it an object of pride before God and a reason to deride others - "...I thank you Lord for I am unlike this tax collector; I fast twice a week, pay tithes on all I get..." (Lk 18, 11-13). The legalese in religious behavior seems to make one so self-righteous as to forget that God cannot be manipulated by our religiosity. God remains to be God, simply an Other Whose acts are not effects of our acts. Yes, He hears our prayers and grants them when it is His will. What we do then in prayer is to seek for His will, giving time and space in our lives so that we become familiar and docile to His plans for us. Fasting then becomes sorrow for our sins, for the loss of the Savior in our lives. And almsgiving is not so that others may have some good impression of us, but that we may remember that whatever we have is not only for us.
The faith Christ came to sow in us then is one that makes us know Who God is and respect and fear Him and His ways. It calls us to master ourselves, and most of all reach out to those He gives us in our lives. In this way our religiosity becomes God Himself in our midst - generous, loving and forgiving.
"May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace and may the Heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen."
St. Arnold Janssen
Monday, April 21, 2008
Sufferings & Peace: April 22, 2008
There are two lines in today's readings that particularly struck me. From the readings taken from Acts 14:19-28, St. Paul's exhortation to the early Christians sounds very encouraging indeed: "It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God." He had just had a traumatic experience after "Jews from Antioch and Iconium...stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city supposing (him to be) dead." Had it not been for his fellow disciples who gathered around him, he could not have risen back. Did he remember what he did to the Christians when he was still the Saul breathing with a murderous heart? In this case, he must have thought, "what happened is not even enough to pay for all their lives." But knowing that he has been forgiven in Christ may have given him the realization that suffering indeed is inevitable if he was to be a faithful follower of the Master, Jesus Who suffered death on the cross. This experience of Paul has made him one, in solidarity with the other Christians who constantly live in suffering, constantly under the threat of death.
The second line is quite consoling. "Shalom" or peace Christ gives His followers, "not as the world gives" (Jn 14: 27-31a). It is a peace that wells from the heart of Someone Whose love cannot be taken away from us, that will never give up, that will "call back to life" the dead who live in suffering. Hence, Jesus could tell His disciples "Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid."
Indeed, as we follow the Lord faithfully, we may not be spared of sufferings, either in payment for our sins, but mostly because if we have to be really followers of Christ, we are not to be spared of sufferings. So, I have to brace myself up for sufferings to come. If it is God's will, then peace will be with me. Peace will be with the Church as each one of us takes up our crosses, our sufferings, "suffering for the Name" as the early Christians valued. If we are to enter the Kingdom of heaven, we better be realistic. The way there is narrow, hence, we have to be ready for suffering, even if these are not what we want but He may want for our salvation, and growth in His love.
God bless
The second line is quite consoling. "Shalom" or peace Christ gives His followers, "not as the world gives" (Jn 14: 27-31a). It is a peace that wells from the heart of Someone Whose love cannot be taken away from us, that will never give up, that will "call back to life" the dead who live in suffering. Hence, Jesus could tell His disciples "Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid."
Indeed, as we follow the Lord faithfully, we may not be spared of sufferings, either in payment for our sins, but mostly because if we have to be really followers of Christ, we are not to be spared of sufferings. So, I have to brace myself up for sufferings to come. If it is God's will, then peace will be with me. Peace will be with the Church as each one of us takes up our crosses, our sufferings, "suffering for the Name" as the early Christians valued. If we are to enter the Kingdom of heaven, we better be realistic. The way there is narrow, hence, we have to be ready for suffering, even if these are not what we want but He may want for our salvation, and growth in His love.
God bless
Sunday, April 20, 2008
April 20, 2008 Easter 5th Sunday Cycle A Homily
Every time I celebrate a funeral Mass, I particularly love to proclaim the Gospel we heard in today's liturgy: "Do not be troubled, you have faith in God, have faith also in me." Death can be so disconcerting an experience, to say the least. It was one question that haunted the husband of a friend in Taiwan, making him wonder what will happen after his last breath, and what about his father and uncles and grandparents, and constantly finding in Christ some little consolation. And since death is something that basically scares each one of us, the words Jesus says can give a calming effect. In fact, if I am not mistaken, the line He spoke connotes the same meaning which is 365 times used in Scriptures: "Do not be afraid." Faith thus becomes our courage in the face of such a powerful enemy as death, and fear that ensues with it.
This brings us to the fact that in Jesus, human nature has nothing to hide before God. For those among us who are more sceptical, the evidence that God truly understands us is this: In Jesus, He has truly taken a human body; hence His speaking about not becoming troubled before He would be crucified was to show us this basic nature in us - that we can be troubled when someone close to us goes away in death, or in any separation for that matter. I remember my first day in school way back 1970. While seated where I was assigned, I would now and then look back to see my sister who sat at the back. The moment I missed her because she had to go for her classes, I cried. Hence, for parents who would be bringing their kids to school the first time, talk to them about it weeks before so they can ready themselves for this must-happen situation, and begin to know that he needs to stand on his own and find himself and his security as he faces the world. We will be there for him, that's for sure, just as Jesus assured His disciples that He goes ahead to prepare a place for us and will come back to take us with Him wherever He is.
The same logic goes for those among us who are thinking of going abroad to earn more. I remember Paul, one of our guys involved in caring for our old and sick confreres, who once approached me years ago if I could lend his wife some capital so she could go to Taiwan. Before addressing his immediate concern, I asked him: have you talked about it? As a couple, they had. But to their children, they haven't. This may be one of the key factors that make children feel even more isolated nowadays because parents don't consider the reactions they have with their absence, particularly for years, and the effect on them of growing without their parents there when they so need their mom or dad. Let's not look at children only from the monetary or material angle. Let's keep this tip from Jesus Who's shown us something about ourselves, and let's talk about it so we are prepared. Come to think of this: even after He had told them about His imminent departure and death, the apostles ended up scatted in fear when He was crucified. But as shown by Peter, it was not difficult for him to acknowledge where he failed because he knew ahead of time what was going to happen. Remember how Jesus told him that he would three times deny knowing the Lord before the cock crows? This is in the same line as "Do not be troubled." Assure each other then of your empathic stance for the other so that fear need not permanently destabilize us.
Indeed, what Christ did for us, was to raise our dignity back to its original state: that of a beloved. He created each one of us in His own image. Thus, in Christ Jesus, the human person, particularly the believer, the follower of Christ is something sacred, precious. In the words of Peter in the second reading, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." We have been ransomed by His blood. Therefore, let's live within this dignity and not allow ourselves to stay enslaved to whatever keeps us from living the life of a beloved, someone special and very important for God.
Now in Christ, the other is really entitled to our respect. None of us is then given the right to hurt the other. Or as in the experience of the early Christian community, we have no more right to simply neglect the others. The more we know what's inside of us, what's taking place in our emotional life in particular, the more free we become because we need not act out our anger, our rage at the other. Once we know what's inside of us, we can make a choice as we search for better ways to solve problems than create new ones because of the carelessness we do when disrespecting the other by our shouting or cursing at or belittling the other. If only we can learn from the lessons of history, of the ruins that lay announcing the destruction of our careless disrespect for the rights and dignity of the other. Followers of Christ are really rational people, those are more calm than the rest, those who know better what other alternatives to choose to protect the human right of the other, one which we will ourselves appreciate when guaranteed by the other. The more we do this, the more peace we have as we await our ultimate and complete salvation in Christ.
God bless and take care
This brings us to the fact that in Jesus, human nature has nothing to hide before God. For those among us who are more sceptical, the evidence that God truly understands us is this: In Jesus, He has truly taken a human body; hence His speaking about not becoming troubled before He would be crucified was to show us this basic nature in us - that we can be troubled when someone close to us goes away in death, or in any separation for that matter. I remember my first day in school way back 1970. While seated where I was assigned, I would now and then look back to see my sister who sat at the back. The moment I missed her because she had to go for her classes, I cried. Hence, for parents who would be bringing their kids to school the first time, talk to them about it weeks before so they can ready themselves for this must-happen situation, and begin to know that he needs to stand on his own and find himself and his security as he faces the world. We will be there for him, that's for sure, just as Jesus assured His disciples that He goes ahead to prepare a place for us and will come back to take us with Him wherever He is.
The same logic goes for those among us who are thinking of going abroad to earn more. I remember Paul, one of our guys involved in caring for our old and sick confreres, who once approached me years ago if I could lend his wife some capital so she could go to Taiwan. Before addressing his immediate concern, I asked him: have you talked about it? As a couple, they had. But to their children, they haven't. This may be one of the key factors that make children feel even more isolated nowadays because parents don't consider the reactions they have with their absence, particularly for years, and the effect on them of growing without their parents there when they so need their mom or dad. Let's not look at children only from the monetary or material angle. Let's keep this tip from Jesus Who's shown us something about ourselves, and let's talk about it so we are prepared. Come to think of this: even after He had told them about His imminent departure and death, the apostles ended up scatted in fear when He was crucified. But as shown by Peter, it was not difficult for him to acknowledge where he failed because he knew ahead of time what was going to happen. Remember how Jesus told him that he would three times deny knowing the Lord before the cock crows? This is in the same line as "Do not be troubled." Assure each other then of your empathic stance for the other so that fear need not permanently destabilize us.
Indeed, what Christ did for us, was to raise our dignity back to its original state: that of a beloved. He created each one of us in His own image. Thus, in Christ Jesus, the human person, particularly the believer, the follower of Christ is something sacred, precious. In the words of Peter in the second reading, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." We have been ransomed by His blood. Therefore, let's live within this dignity and not allow ourselves to stay enslaved to whatever keeps us from living the life of a beloved, someone special and very important for God.
Now in Christ, the other is really entitled to our respect. None of us is then given the right to hurt the other. Or as in the experience of the early Christian community, we have no more right to simply neglect the others. The more we know what's inside of us, what's taking place in our emotional life in particular, the more free we become because we need not act out our anger, our rage at the other. Once we know what's inside of us, we can make a choice as we search for better ways to solve problems than create new ones because of the carelessness we do when disrespecting the other by our shouting or cursing at or belittling the other. If only we can learn from the lessons of history, of the ruins that lay announcing the destruction of our careless disrespect for the rights and dignity of the other. Followers of Christ are really rational people, those are more calm than the rest, those who know better what other alternatives to choose to protect the human right of the other, one which we will ourselves appreciate when guaranteed by the other. The more we do this, the more peace we have as we await our ultimate and complete salvation in Christ.
God bless and take care
Thursday, April 17, 2008
April 18, 2008 Reflection
St. Paul speaks today at the synagogue, telling his listeners (including us today) that despite all that Jesus did for the people, these same people were the ones who had Him crucified, took him down from the cross, had him buried, but God raised Him back to life. And those who followed Him now proclaim Him as God's appointed One for our salvation.
I am amazed with this magnanimity of God in Christ. Imagine, if Jesus was only human, like anyone among us, it would have been normal for him to just stay away from those who killed him, feeling so unsafe and living in fear. But no, the divinity in Him gave Him life, a new one, which shows what the Resurrection can do for us: it can wash away the pain, take away the hurts, and restore us back to life sans the revenge and the hatred.
Maybe there was still pain like most healing usually gives that sensation, but with the proclamation of Him for our salvation, the revenge is out of the picture. The hatred is gone too. What remained was love, for all even the ones who nailed Him to the tree. If this is not love, then what is it?
This is another scriptural evidence of the love of God in Whom we find our healing, our strength and our courage. Without His love, we will just be "normal" in our fears, in our anger, and in our bitterness. May today's Word of God give us life.
This is what the Church does - START OVER - in the Eucharist. As Jesus says in the Gospel, have faith in Him too if we have faith in God. He has prepared for each one of us a room in His Father's place. And mind you, only He has guaranted us this promise which He will definitely fulfill.
May we live our lives starting today always thinking that in Christ we are destined for heaven. We are not hated by God and He doesn't intend to avenge His Son's death. All He wants since He created us is that we live our lives to the full. "I came that they might have life to the full." (John 10:10)
God bless and take care
I am amazed with this magnanimity of God in Christ. Imagine, if Jesus was only human, like anyone among us, it would have been normal for him to just stay away from those who killed him, feeling so unsafe and living in fear. But no, the divinity in Him gave Him life, a new one, which shows what the Resurrection can do for us: it can wash away the pain, take away the hurts, and restore us back to life sans the revenge and the hatred.
Maybe there was still pain like most healing usually gives that sensation, but with the proclamation of Him for our salvation, the revenge is out of the picture. The hatred is gone too. What remained was love, for all even the ones who nailed Him to the tree. If this is not love, then what is it?
This is another scriptural evidence of the love of God in Whom we find our healing, our strength and our courage. Without His love, we will just be "normal" in our fears, in our anger, and in our bitterness. May today's Word of God give us life.
This is what the Church does - START OVER - in the Eucharist. As Jesus says in the Gospel, have faith in Him too if we have faith in God. He has prepared for each one of us a room in His Father's place. And mind you, only He has guaranted us this promise which He will definitely fulfill.
May we live our lives starting today always thinking that in Christ we are destined for heaven. We are not hated by God and He doesn't intend to avenge His Son's death. All He wants since He created us is that we live our lives to the full. "I came that they might have life to the full." (John 10:10)
God bless and take care
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE: The Call to Faith
It's April 9, and this day's Gospel shows us Jesus telling His listeners that He is the Bread of Life. People were looking for him after He had just fed 5,000 men with the five loaves and 2 fish, and He noticed that they wanted to make Him King. So He kept distance from them, but they searched for Him. In their dialogue, Jesus tells them to do the work God wants: Believe in the One He sent them. They say that Moses gave them bread, the manna in the desert, so what sign has Jesus got for them? Jesus tells them that it wasn't Moses who gave them bread, it was God the Father Himself. He thus says: "I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me willnever thirst...Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day..."
This dialogue reminds me of television commercials or advertisements showing a mother worried about her child who doesn't eat but only loves to play. One particular ad says "When Sabina was this age, she only loved to eat hotdog, hotdog, hotdog. If not, she wouldn't eat. It's good I shifted to ...(the milk brand)." This ad seems to carry with it a message which by analogy we can use in the Father's giving us His Son as Bread of Life. Like a mother, God has always searched for and done ways so that we His creatures would live. Since we are all His creatures and He created us in His image and likeness, hence we can see some of our own actions and values contain in them the divine intention and plan. His giving us His Son as Bread of Life is really to ensure that all who go to Him in faith has life. This thus reminds me the Church's constant running back to the table of the Eucharist from which it gets its life. Now I understand why the Church has such a long life. May we live faithfully our faith in Jesus.
God bless
This dialogue reminds me of television commercials or advertisements showing a mother worried about her child who doesn't eat but only loves to play. One particular ad says "When Sabina was this age, she only loved to eat hotdog, hotdog, hotdog. If not, she wouldn't eat. It's good I shifted to ...(the milk brand)." This ad seems to carry with it a message which by analogy we can use in the Father's giving us His Son as Bread of Life. Like a mother, God has always searched for and done ways so that we His creatures would live. Since we are all His creatures and He created us in His image and likeness, hence we can see some of our own actions and values contain in them the divine intention and plan. His giving us His Son as Bread of Life is really to ensure that all who go to Him in faith has life. This thus reminds me the Church's constant running back to the table of the Eucharist from which it gets its life. Now I understand why the Church has such a long life. May we live faithfully our faith in Jesus.
God bless
Friday, April 04, 2008
Fears, Worries & Conflicts
FWC - fears, worries & conflicts - these are three experiences which none of us is spared from. They can debilitate us, paralyze and in the end destroy us unless we take a second look at our helpless, devastated selves. When we're into these three, we lose sight of what we have and feel so small and unable to cope. We make the problem bigger than it really is. This makes me remember one text message I received quite a few times: "When you have a problem, don't say 'God I have a big problem;' rather say 'Problem, I have a big God.'
The apostles in the boat today were scared at seeing someone on the water approaching them. In a parallel text from the Synoptics, this seems like the experience of Peter who asked the Lord, "Lord, if it is really you, tell me to cross the water." Walking on the water then signifies being able to weather through all fears, worries and conflicts. The words of Christ, and Scriptures for that matter since "Fear not" is mentioned in there 365 times - once a day it seems said for us! When in the midst of FWC, keep the thought back.
The Early Christian community experienced conflict wrought by the folly of human weakness. But when the apostles came together and talked about it, they found a solution which we are still using up to now! Imagine what a long-lasting solution the Lord gives!
The message seems clear: The Lord has truly Risen! He triumphed over death! What other lesser power can conquer Him? He has shared us that new life, so what is there for us to really be afraid? As we entrust our lives to the Lord, so we trust in His mercy. "Lord, let your mercy be on us as we place our trust in You," says the Responsorial Psalm.
God bless
The apostles in the boat today were scared at seeing someone on the water approaching them. In a parallel text from the Synoptics, this seems like the experience of Peter who asked the Lord, "Lord, if it is really you, tell me to cross the water." Walking on the water then signifies being able to weather through all fears, worries and conflicts. The words of Christ, and Scriptures for that matter since "Fear not" is mentioned in there 365 times - once a day it seems said for us! When in the midst of FWC, keep the thought back.
The Early Christian community experienced conflict wrought by the folly of human weakness. But when the apostles came together and talked about it, they found a solution which we are still using up to now! Imagine what a long-lasting solution the Lord gives!
The message seems clear: The Lord has truly Risen! He triumphed over death! What other lesser power can conquer Him? He has shared us that new life, so what is there for us to really be afraid? As we entrust our lives to the Lord, so we trust in His mercy. "Lord, let your mercy be on us as we place our trust in You," says the Responsorial Psalm.
God bless
Monday, March 31, 2008
"To Be Born From Above" & Fr. Francis Maddhu, SVD
On this day, April 1, one year ago, which was a Palm Sunday (why is it Tuesday today and not Monday? - it's because 2008 is a leap year!), Fr. Francis Maddhu, SVD was shot at close range shortly before he was to celebrate the Palm Sunday Mass in a mission station in Barrio Mabongtot, about 4 hours walk from his parish in Lubuagan, Kalinga. He arrived in the Philippines exactly a year, if the liturgy were the basis of this chronological account. He arrived in the Philippines in 2006 also on a Palm Sunday! The killing was senseless as there seemed no apparent reason for shooting him. His dying seemed senseless as well. Until this time, the case has not been solved. The last time I read about his case mentioned that the suspect ran scot free after a few days ofbeing arrested.
From the human point of view, vengeance is the immediate feeling upon realizing this current situation. Justice remains to be served for him. But as it is, a year after his death, justice for his death remains an illusive dream! It is good that he was a priest; hence the thought that Someone knows what has happened can give some consolation. Wasn't Christ likewise killed almost senselessly? But today he speaks about being "born from above."
To be born from above is to be born of the Spirit. It is to live, knowing that our life is not simply our own. Someone owns us, Someone knows us. Hence, to remember that by virtue of our baptism this being "born from above" has indeed taken place, that God has taken us unto Himself through His Son, Jesus, is to realize that living now our lives is living for Christ, for God. Hence, whatever way we die, if it be as God allows, doesn't really matter. What matters is how we live this life of "being born from above." I'd like to believe that Fr. Maddhu was born from above because he lived his life as a priest, and died a priest as well.
To be born from above is to be begotten by the One Who has recreated us anew. Hence, the human person being an image of the Creator, undergoes an identity and reality that surpasses all we can ever imagine about ourselves, that is worthy of respect and valuing. Indeed, if I can say it here, the human person can be higher than the priest simply because the person born from above is the image of God Himself, even today in our midst. Whoever fails to see this reality fails to live his life of being born from above.
To be born from above is also to live as Christ lived. The Crucifix appears to be the best way to show what it is to be born from above. He who hung on the Cross is above all. Hence, it is from this perspective that life has meaning, has direction and has worth. The film "The Passion of the Christ" showed Jesus really hanging from on high on the Cross. Living our being born from above from this angle can really show us lots of insights and meaning. The experience of being abandoned, in pain, thus gains some vicarious benefit. Sometimes the pain and the abandonment can defocus us from this fact and make us forget that we are "above" already with Christ. May our knowing that while "above" in our pains and sufferings we have Christ, may we be strengthened to do the will of the One Who has sent us as He Himself was sent to show us how it is to be "from above."
God bless
From the human point of view, vengeance is the immediate feeling upon realizing this current situation. Justice remains to be served for him. But as it is, a year after his death, justice for his death remains an illusive dream! It is good that he was a priest; hence the thought that Someone knows what has happened can give some consolation. Wasn't Christ likewise killed almost senselessly? But today he speaks about being "born from above."
To be born from above is to be born of the Spirit. It is to live, knowing that our life is not simply our own. Someone owns us, Someone knows us. Hence, to remember that by virtue of our baptism this being "born from above" has indeed taken place, that God has taken us unto Himself through His Son, Jesus, is to realize that living now our lives is living for Christ, for God. Hence, whatever way we die, if it be as God allows, doesn't really matter. What matters is how we live this life of "being born from above." I'd like to believe that Fr. Maddhu was born from above because he lived his life as a priest, and died a priest as well.
To be born from above is to be begotten by the One Who has recreated us anew. Hence, the human person being an image of the Creator, undergoes an identity and reality that surpasses all we can ever imagine about ourselves, that is worthy of respect and valuing. Indeed, if I can say it here, the human person can be higher than the priest simply because the person born from above is the image of God Himself, even today in our midst. Whoever fails to see this reality fails to live his life of being born from above.
To be born from above is also to live as Christ lived. The Crucifix appears to be the best way to show what it is to be born from above. He who hung on the Cross is above all. Hence, it is from this perspective that life has meaning, has direction and has worth. The film "The Passion of the Christ" showed Jesus really hanging from on high on the Cross. Living our being born from above from this angle can really show us lots of insights and meaning. The experience of being abandoned, in pain, thus gains some vicarious benefit. Sometimes the pain and the abandonment can defocus us from this fact and make us forget that we are "above" already with Christ. May our knowing that while "above" in our pains and sufferings we have Christ, may we be strengthened to do the will of the One Who has sent us as He Himself was sent to show us how it is to be "from above."
God bless
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Why We Need To Forgive
The Gospel of the 2nd Sunday of Easter always brings us that scene in the Upper Room where for fear of the Jews the Apostles stayed locked and in the dark. I've been in that room myself when I had the chance to visit the Holy Land way back year 2000. Jesus comes and greets them "Peace be with you" three times. On the second time, he breathed on them and gave the Holy Spirit. "As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Whose sins you forgive shall be forgiven, whose sins you hold bound, they are held bound."
Why must we forgive?
Before I answer that question, I'd like to share what I read lately. Last month I underwent a personal crisis, and in the process of healing myself, I chanced upon in the internet a journal article entitled "Interpersonal Forgiving in Close Relationships: II. Theoretical Elaboration and Measurement" by Michael E. McCullough, et al. (1998) in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology vol. 75, 6, 1586-1603. If I may summarize here what particularly struck me, it was the dynamics of the experience of being hurt. According to the study which asked people about their experience of being hurt, avoidance of the person who had hurt them, or withdrawal from contacts with them was a common experience. (Now I understand that keeping distance has a self-healing end. Thus, it is a challenge for me to understand the other when he starts to keep away from me when I shall hurt that person.) While alone, the rumination of thought took place. Revenge was a common experience as well among those who've been hurt.
But asked if those who've experienced hurt had forgiven those who hurt them, asking apology by the "hurter" was a common factor in forgiveness. This seemed to be a common denominator for forgiveness to be truly given. And those who forgave tended to have had close relationships with the "hurter."
Come to think of this: how come it is those who are close to us who dare to hurt us? What makes anyone among us think we have the right to hurt those we love? Is there really love when we hurt the other? Accepting the apology of the "hurter" seems to convey the following victim's message: "Ok, I accept your forgiveness, and hope you don't do it again. Because we've had some good times together, and for the sake of those times, we can start again. I am here to help you understand yourself in your process of learning how to control yourself."
Indeed, to forgive is to give the other another chance to grow and become better. Hence, the Resurrection becomes that great opportunity to really extend our patience at the other who's hurt us, and also a challenge for us to stop the hurting of others as well.
But why forgive?
In the many times I've been hurt myself, whenever the hurt was done in public, there was in me the need to be vindicated also in public. I remember one classmate who had hurt me in the presence of my other classmates. Even now, after I told that classmate to apologive in public, no public apology had come. Indeed, there seems to be too much self-enhancement in the person that may have kept that other from apologizing in public! But I remembered one scene, so poignant it sent shivers down my spine. That scene was when Pope JPII went to the jail cell of his assassin, Ali Agca Memet. Pope JPII had been hurt in public, but he forgave his "hurter" in public. I bet the Crucifixion experience of Christ that public forgiving God has given us. The Crucifixion is a public declaration of God that He has forgiven us in the many times we have hurt Him. Having been forgiven, having been sown the seed of forgiveness by the Lord Himself, we are then taught and challenged to make that seed of forgiveness bear fruit in forgiving the other. This is believe is the reason for forgiving.
Dr. Schlesinger of Australia, a forensic psychologist once in 1996(?) came to the Philippines. He brought with him the Spiral Test he himself had invented in order to identify those who are truly suffering from whiplash injuries from those who are simply malingering. I remember very vividly the directions he gave me since I volunteered to take the Test myself. The Spiral Test went this way: In front of me was a plate-size round object on which was printed the Spiral. The moment he put it on, I watched as it rolled clockwise. After some moments, he announced to me that he had stopped it. From that time, he started counting the time until I pushed a button to signify it had stopped. To my surprise, when he announced that he had put off the Spiral, the spiral in my head continued to move, but this time counterclockwise. I pressed the button after this movement stopped.
This experience helped me understand the nature of the rumination process. Like the epxerience of those who've gone through trauma, the coming back of thoughts and memories about the incidence seems to be a natural part of the brain's reaction to the experience. I remembered the spring of the notebooks we have. Once freed from being twisted, it recoils back until it has gone back to its former form. The rumination process seems to be that recoiling process of the brain in order to achieve a state of equilibrium and stability.
Sometimes, the rumination seems not just a physiological process, but a psychological process as well. For how do we account those who don't seem to have forgotten even after some time? For me, when we shall have gone through the insight of why something happened to us, the lessons shall have become the receptacle which ensures the "forgetting" of the experience.
Thanks be to God Who started this forgiving process, or else what a life to live without being forgiven! Truly, the Lord is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia.
Why must we forgive?
Before I answer that question, I'd like to share what I read lately. Last month I underwent a personal crisis, and in the process of healing myself, I chanced upon in the internet a journal article entitled "Interpersonal Forgiving in Close Relationships: II. Theoretical Elaboration and Measurement" by Michael E. McCullough, et al. (1998) in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology vol. 75, 6, 1586-1603. If I may summarize here what particularly struck me, it was the dynamics of the experience of being hurt. According to the study which asked people about their experience of being hurt, avoidance of the person who had hurt them, or withdrawal from contacts with them was a common experience. (Now I understand that keeping distance has a self-healing end. Thus, it is a challenge for me to understand the other when he starts to keep away from me when I shall hurt that person.) While alone, the rumination of thought took place. Revenge was a common experience as well among those who've been hurt.
But asked if those who've experienced hurt had forgiven those who hurt them, asking apology by the "hurter" was a common factor in forgiveness. This seemed to be a common denominator for forgiveness to be truly given. And those who forgave tended to have had close relationships with the "hurter."
Come to think of this: how come it is those who are close to us who dare to hurt us? What makes anyone among us think we have the right to hurt those we love? Is there really love when we hurt the other? Accepting the apology of the "hurter" seems to convey the following victim's message: "Ok, I accept your forgiveness, and hope you don't do it again. Because we've had some good times together, and for the sake of those times, we can start again. I am here to help you understand yourself in your process of learning how to control yourself."
Indeed, to forgive is to give the other another chance to grow and become better. Hence, the Resurrection becomes that great opportunity to really extend our patience at the other who's hurt us, and also a challenge for us to stop the hurting of others as well.
But why forgive?
In the many times I've been hurt myself, whenever the hurt was done in public, there was in me the need to be vindicated also in public. I remember one classmate who had hurt me in the presence of my other classmates. Even now, after I told that classmate to apologive in public, no public apology had come. Indeed, there seems to be too much self-enhancement in the person that may have kept that other from apologizing in public! But I remembered one scene, so poignant it sent shivers down my spine. That scene was when Pope JPII went to the jail cell of his assassin, Ali Agca Memet. Pope JPII had been hurt in public, but he forgave his "hurter" in public. I bet the Crucifixion experience of Christ that public forgiving God has given us. The Crucifixion is a public declaration of God that He has forgiven us in the many times we have hurt Him. Having been forgiven, having been sown the seed of forgiveness by the Lord Himself, we are then taught and challenged to make that seed of forgiveness bear fruit in forgiving the other. This is believe is the reason for forgiving.
Dr. Schlesinger of Australia, a forensic psychologist once in 1996(?) came to the Philippines. He brought with him the Spiral Test he himself had invented in order to identify those who are truly suffering from whiplash injuries from those who are simply malingering. I remember very vividly the directions he gave me since I volunteered to take the Test myself. The Spiral Test went this way: In front of me was a plate-size round object on which was printed the Spiral. The moment he put it on, I watched as it rolled clockwise. After some moments, he announced to me that he had stopped it. From that time, he started counting the time until I pushed a button to signify it had stopped. To my surprise, when he announced that he had put off the Spiral, the spiral in my head continued to move, but this time counterclockwise. I pressed the button after this movement stopped.
This experience helped me understand the nature of the rumination process. Like the epxerience of those who've gone through trauma, the coming back of thoughts and memories about the incidence seems to be a natural part of the brain's reaction to the experience. I remembered the spring of the notebooks we have. Once freed from being twisted, it recoils back until it has gone back to its former form. The rumination process seems to be that recoiling process of the brain in order to achieve a state of equilibrium and stability.
Sometimes, the rumination seems not just a physiological process, but a psychological process as well. For how do we account those who don't seem to have forgotten even after some time? For me, when we shall have gone through the insight of why something happened to us, the lessons shall have become the receptacle which ensures the "forgetting" of the experience.
Thanks be to God Who started this forgiving process, or else what a life to live without being forgiven! Truly, the Lord is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Reflection for March 28, 2008 Duc In Altum
The Gospel for today March 28 speaks about Jesus' 3rd apparition after He rose from the dead. St. John starts the text by showing us Peter telling his 6 other companions that he intends to go fishing. These six others decide to join him. However, they caught nothing for the night. While they were getting near the shore, Jesus asked them if they caught anything. They did not recognize Jesus yet and replied in the negative. Jesus told them to throw the net into the starboard side, after which they caught a haul-full! It was the beloved John who recognized Jesus, and told Peter, "It is the Lord."
In the Scriptures, the Synoptics mention this account before Jesus rose from the dead. The apostles' experience of Jesus' telling them to throw the net again ["Duc in altum"] was particularly striking for Peter, because he seemed to not have given Jesus the adulation He deserved when the latter told him to fish again. Didn't Peter tell the Lord that they had gone out to fish the night before and got nothing? But after they got a big catch, didn't Peter kneel down and tell Jesus, "I am a sinner." This catching fish then, being his way of life in the first place, has become for Peter something altogether personally significant because here he encountered Jesus so concretely and personally. This could have been one of the foundational experiences for Peter's later confession after being asked by the Lord "Who do you say I am?" "You are the Messiah, the Son of God."
In the Gospel of John, this catching fish episode is mentioned after Jesus rose from the dead. Note too that Peter had just denied Jesus three times as the latter predicted during the Last Supper.
In both instances, Peter showed the Lord the worst of himself - his tired self in the Synoptic accounts, and his denial of knowing Him to those who asked if he was in His company. And yet, here the Lord approaches him, again, and telling him to catch "men" from then on. It is indeed a poignant scene, one that sends shivers down the spine. The Lord has truly Risen, He who doesn't mark out our offenses but sees the many possibilities in us if only we are open to aligning our wills with God's, like He definitely did.
In the Scriptures, the Synoptics mention this account before Jesus rose from the dead. The apostles' experience of Jesus' telling them to throw the net again ["Duc in altum"] was particularly striking for Peter, because he seemed to not have given Jesus the adulation He deserved when the latter told him to fish again. Didn't Peter tell the Lord that they had gone out to fish the night before and got nothing? But after they got a big catch, didn't Peter kneel down and tell Jesus, "I am a sinner." This catching fish then, being his way of life in the first place, has become for Peter something altogether personally significant because here he encountered Jesus so concretely and personally. This could have been one of the foundational experiences for Peter's later confession after being asked by the Lord "Who do you say I am?" "You are the Messiah, the Son of God."
In the Gospel of John, this catching fish episode is mentioned after Jesus rose from the dead. Note too that Peter had just denied Jesus three times as the latter predicted during the Last Supper.
In both instances, Peter showed the Lord the worst of himself - his tired self in the Synoptic accounts, and his denial of knowing Him to those who asked if he was in His company. And yet, here the Lord approaches him, again, and telling him to catch "men" from then on. It is indeed a poignant scene, one that sends shivers down the spine. The Lord has truly Risen, He who doesn't mark out our offenses but sees the many possibilities in us if only we are open to aligning our wills with God's, like He definitely did.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Towards a Morally Rebuilt Nation
Here is the Bishops' Statement for Palm Sunday 2008 here in the Philippines courtesy of Frt. Felmar Castrodes, SVD who had this posted in his blosite at http://fielsvd.blogspot.com/2008/03/towards-morally-rebuilt-nation.html yesterday Saturday March 15, 2008. Happy reading!
Today we are experiencing a social and political mess. This however goes beyond the question of truth to the search for probity. Probity is about the integrity of all, the accuser and the accused. We are unhappy and we feel betrayed. And yet as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us “in spite of our great disappointment our great hope can only be God who has loved us and who continues to love us to the end, until all is accomplished”, (Spe Salvi, 27). We also know that together we have the capacity to correct and purify the nation by starting with ourselves.
The Model for Change is the Desert.
The history of salvation teaches us that the long road to freedom inevitably passes through the desert of purification and conversion. Having escaped from Pharaoh, via the miraculous crossing through the Sea of Reeds, the Israelites considered themselves liberated. But they were not yet free, because they wanted to go back to their old ways in Egypt. “Should we not do better go back to Egypt?” (Numbers 14: 2-3).
The chosen people hesitated at the shores of the Sea and remained enslaved. So Moses led Israel away from the Sea of Reeds, and they entered the desert of Shur. (Exodus 15: 22). Believing that Pharaoh was the idolater refusing them the worship of the true God, it was in the wilderness where the people discovered that they too were guilty worshipers of golden idols. (Exodus 32: 1-29). People were disciplined and converted from their greed (Exodus 16: 17-21); and the desert which the Israelites feared to enter became for them a place of purification, discipline and conversion, before they could enter the promised land of freedom, forty years later. There are yet no proven easy short cuts to conversion and renewal.
Looking back at EDSA I, euphoric and heroic as it was, it appeared that the event became the Filipinos’ day of crossing to freedom; but that was only the first step that hardly anyone knew. The “desert” awaited the people who would be purified and converted, before they become fully liberated. But people preferred the convenient streets as the easier route to an imagined freedom, and feared the “desert experience” that awaited conversion and new beginnings.
Corruption as the cancer of the nation.
We cannot add more to the wrath of God for lies, untruth, injustice and evil. Conscience, as the voice of God within, already tells us of what good there is to pursue and what evil to avoid. Our people are known to be God-fearing and God-loving; sadly, they fight, deceive and kill for money.
Shamefully we have been known to be a nation whose prime industry has been identified as politics simply because politics is the main route to power, which, in turn, is the main route to wealth (1). In this country people use politics to get money, and more politics to protect more money. “Corruption radically distorts the role of representative institutions, because they become an arena for political bartering between clients' requests and governmental services. In this way political choices favor the narrow objectives of those who possess the means to influence these choices and are an obstacle to bringing the common good of all citizens.” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 411).
The subordination of the public good to individual or group interests is what corruption is all about. In whatever form it takes, the practice of corruption is both immoral and unjust. Corruption is worse than lies, because lies are employed only to cover it. Whenever Government money is stolen or whenever suppliers or contractors’ money is offered as bribe to secure projects, to the disadvantage of the Government graft or corruption is committed. Graft is the acquisition of gain by dishonest, unfair and sordid means through the abuse of one's position in politics, business, etc., while corruption is the improper enrichment of politicians or civil servants or those close to them by the misuse of public power entrusted to them. [BIR, Revenue Memo Circular 12-2005]. As an injustice to the Government and people graft and corruption are against the Seventh Commandment and have the added element of betraying one's country.
The Universal and All-time Application of the Seventh Commandment.
The Seventh Commandment, “Thou shall not steal”, applies to all, as individuals or as groups. Thus, if one holds on to money or its equivalent that is not his or hers (or theirs), justice demands restitution of the stolen or bribe money to the owner. (CCC, 1459). If the owner can no longer be located, then the money should be given to the poor, or to a credible institution that will give the money for the poor or give true services for the poor.
Restitution was the constant teaching in relation to the violation of the Seventh Commandment in the Bible. “If anyone steals..., he will pay back”. (Exodus 21: 37).“Look Lord, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount”. With this confession, the Lord Jesus blessed Zacchaeus with salvation. (Luke 19: 8-10). The teaching of the Church on stealing is this: No Restitution, no Absolution. In the words of Jesus: with Restitution, there is Salvation. (Luke 19: 9). An authentic conversion demands willingness to restore what has been stolen and the resolve not to steal again.
The penitent should not be so complacent about one's faith as to consider oneself truly absolved before God on account of faith alone, even if one has no contrition... For faith without penance would effect no remission of sins. (Council of Trent).
The mandate of the Seventh Commandment is also addressed to traders and ordinary citizens in all practices of business, commerce and trading. Fraud in business, over pricing, bribery in contracts, cheating in scales, cheating in legitimate taxes and the smuggling of taxable goods, including also the smuggling and trafficking of substances for abuse to damn the innocent and the weak members of society, etc. --- all these are among the many forms of violating the Seventh Commandment.
Our Response: Our desert experience.
The old and the young, from kindergarten through high school on to the tertiary level of education till up to the licensure exams, are all to be formed and guided towards integrity, trained never to cheat in studies and exams. The “discipline of the desert” is to be taught and applied, if anyone is to succeed at any level towards “the fullness of life.”
The Seventh Commandment covers not only the present corruption deals that have been recently exposed, but also all deals, at all levels of government service, of all administrations and governance, no matter what came out of the past or will come out of the present or future inquiries. “Thou shalt not steal” covers also all trading of even ordinary citizens.
We suddenly notice that the widespread corruption we see in others is also the corruption we detect in ourselves.
Corrupt practices and fraud prevailed in the cities, towns and even in small Barangays. In the last two generations there had been tens of thousands of graft-ridden contracts in Government, the biggest single controversial project ever recorded in Philippine history was the Westinghouse’s Bataan Nuclear Plant (2).
True liberation will mean that we enter our desert of repentance and conversion. Change lies only at the heart of every person. Let us begin there. Values for living justly will be preached in parishes, prayed for in the homes, re-taught in schools, discussed in small communities and groups. Support structures will be required for a righteous life and fair dealings. After our personal and communal “desert” conversion, we will, please God, be ushered to the freedom we seek.
God’s Help is always needed.
We need God’s grace, if we are to encourage one another, forgive each other, pay our debts to the justice that we all violated, and start again, not at the banks of “our Sea of Reeds”, but beyond the streets of EDSA. Believers and lovers of God, like true Christians, do not have to hate, destroy each other even if they want to correct the mistakes of the past or the present and of each other. Many are critical of the present governance particularly in the areas of truth and justice. But we can restore truth and justice without resorting to violence and hatred. A nation built on contempt is completely unimaginable. As pastors we cannot tell you less, even if some will resent the way we teach. It is for everybody's good, especially the very poor among our brothers and sisters that we now address this call for communal renewal.
We need the leaders from the highest to the lowest and their families not only to lead us, but also to give us examples of repentance and true humble conversion. We also need people with other ideas but with positive emotions in nation building. Given the example and encouragement, the citizens will be inspired to follow where in the past they hesitated to proceed --- to their “desert” transformation.
Ngayon, diretso na tayo sa hindi natin kaagad gustong puntahan --- sa Disyerto ng ating mga masamang karanasan at kasalanan na dapat nating baguhin! May Pag-asa po ang ating Bayan at ang ating sarili. Basta’t sa pagbabago kay Kristo Hesus tayo ay magsama-sama.
In prayer let us beg Mary and Joseph to lead us back to the Christ that we had lost in the past! God bless us all!
+ Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales
Archbishop of Manila
Bp. Honesto Ongtioco
Bp Jesse Mercado
Bishop of Cubao
Bishop of Paranaque
Bp. Deogracias Iniguez
Bp Francisco San Diego
Bishop of Caloocan
Bishop of Pasig
Bp. Gabriel Reyes
Bp. Antonio Tobias
Bp. of Antipolo
Bishop of Novaliches
Bp. Jose Oliveros
Bp. Leo Drona
Bishop of Malolos
Bishop of San Pablo
Bp. Luis Antonio Tagle
Bp. Pedro Arigo
Bishop of Imus
Vicar Apo.of Puerto Princesa
Bp. Edgardo Juanich
Bp. Leopoldo Tumulak
Vicar Apo. of Taytay
Military Ordinariate
Bp. Francisco de Leon
Bp. Broderick Pabillo
Auxiliary Bishop of Antipolo
Auxiliary Bishop of Manila
Bp. Bernardino Cortez
Auxiliary Bishop of Manila
Palm Sunday, 2008
(1) Samuel Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, p. 67.
(2) Ricardo Manapat, Some are Smarter than Others, ($1.9B in 1981 to $2B in 1982), pp. 324328;
Today we are experiencing a social and political mess. This however goes beyond the question of truth to the search for probity. Probity is about the integrity of all, the accuser and the accused. We are unhappy and we feel betrayed. And yet as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us “in spite of our great disappointment our great hope can only be God who has loved us and who continues to love us to the end, until all is accomplished”, (Spe Salvi, 27). We also know that together we have the capacity to correct and purify the nation by starting with ourselves.
The Model for Change is the Desert.
The history of salvation teaches us that the long road to freedom inevitably passes through the desert of purification and conversion. Having escaped from Pharaoh, via the miraculous crossing through the Sea of Reeds, the Israelites considered themselves liberated. But they were not yet free, because they wanted to go back to their old ways in Egypt. “Should we not do better go back to Egypt?” (Numbers 14: 2-3).
The chosen people hesitated at the shores of the Sea and remained enslaved. So Moses led Israel away from the Sea of Reeds, and they entered the desert of Shur. (Exodus 15: 22). Believing that Pharaoh was the idolater refusing them the worship of the true God, it was in the wilderness where the people discovered that they too were guilty worshipers of golden idols. (Exodus 32: 1-29). People were disciplined and converted from their greed (Exodus 16: 17-21); and the desert which the Israelites feared to enter became for them a place of purification, discipline and conversion, before they could enter the promised land of freedom, forty years later. There are yet no proven easy short cuts to conversion and renewal.
Looking back at EDSA I, euphoric and heroic as it was, it appeared that the event became the Filipinos’ day of crossing to freedom; but that was only the first step that hardly anyone knew. The “desert” awaited the people who would be purified and converted, before they become fully liberated. But people preferred the convenient streets as the easier route to an imagined freedom, and feared the “desert experience” that awaited conversion and new beginnings.
Corruption as the cancer of the nation.
We cannot add more to the wrath of God for lies, untruth, injustice and evil. Conscience, as the voice of God within, already tells us of what good there is to pursue and what evil to avoid. Our people are known to be God-fearing and God-loving; sadly, they fight, deceive and kill for money.
Shamefully we have been known to be a nation whose prime industry has been identified as politics simply because politics is the main route to power, which, in turn, is the main route to wealth (1). In this country people use politics to get money, and more politics to protect more money. “Corruption radically distorts the role of representative institutions, because they become an arena for political bartering between clients' requests and governmental services. In this way political choices favor the narrow objectives of those who possess the means to influence these choices and are an obstacle to bringing the common good of all citizens.” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 411).
The subordination of the public good to individual or group interests is what corruption is all about. In whatever form it takes, the practice of corruption is both immoral and unjust. Corruption is worse than lies, because lies are employed only to cover it. Whenever Government money is stolen or whenever suppliers or contractors’ money is offered as bribe to secure projects, to the disadvantage of the Government graft or corruption is committed. Graft is the acquisition of gain by dishonest, unfair and sordid means through the abuse of one's position in politics, business, etc., while corruption is the improper enrichment of politicians or civil servants or those close to them by the misuse of public power entrusted to them. [BIR, Revenue Memo Circular 12-2005]. As an injustice to the Government and people graft and corruption are against the Seventh Commandment and have the added element of betraying one's country.
The Universal and All-time Application of the Seventh Commandment.
The Seventh Commandment, “Thou shall not steal”, applies to all, as individuals or as groups. Thus, if one holds on to money or its equivalent that is not his or hers (or theirs), justice demands restitution of the stolen or bribe money to the owner. (CCC, 1459). If the owner can no longer be located, then the money should be given to the poor, or to a credible institution that will give the money for the poor or give true services for the poor.
Restitution was the constant teaching in relation to the violation of the Seventh Commandment in the Bible. “If anyone steals..., he will pay back”. (Exodus 21: 37).“Look Lord, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount”. With this confession, the Lord Jesus blessed Zacchaeus with salvation. (Luke 19: 8-10). The teaching of the Church on stealing is this: No Restitution, no Absolution. In the words of Jesus: with Restitution, there is Salvation. (Luke 19: 9). An authentic conversion demands willingness to restore what has been stolen and the resolve not to steal again.
The penitent should not be so complacent about one's faith as to consider oneself truly absolved before God on account of faith alone, even if one has no contrition... For faith without penance would effect no remission of sins. (Council of Trent).
The mandate of the Seventh Commandment is also addressed to traders and ordinary citizens in all practices of business, commerce and trading. Fraud in business, over pricing, bribery in contracts, cheating in scales, cheating in legitimate taxes and the smuggling of taxable goods, including also the smuggling and trafficking of substances for abuse to damn the innocent and the weak members of society, etc. --- all these are among the many forms of violating the Seventh Commandment.
Our Response: Our desert experience.
The old and the young, from kindergarten through high school on to the tertiary level of education till up to the licensure exams, are all to be formed and guided towards integrity, trained never to cheat in studies and exams. The “discipline of the desert” is to be taught and applied, if anyone is to succeed at any level towards “the fullness of life.”
The Seventh Commandment covers not only the present corruption deals that have been recently exposed, but also all deals, at all levels of government service, of all administrations and governance, no matter what came out of the past or will come out of the present or future inquiries. “Thou shalt not steal” covers also all trading of even ordinary citizens.
We suddenly notice that the widespread corruption we see in others is also the corruption we detect in ourselves.
Corrupt practices and fraud prevailed in the cities, towns and even in small Barangays. In the last two generations there had been tens of thousands of graft-ridden contracts in Government, the biggest single controversial project ever recorded in Philippine history was the Westinghouse’s Bataan Nuclear Plant (2).
True liberation will mean that we enter our desert of repentance and conversion. Change lies only at the heart of every person. Let us begin there. Values for living justly will be preached in parishes, prayed for in the homes, re-taught in schools, discussed in small communities and groups. Support structures will be required for a righteous life and fair dealings. After our personal and communal “desert” conversion, we will, please God, be ushered to the freedom we seek.
God’s Help is always needed.
We need God’s grace, if we are to encourage one another, forgive each other, pay our debts to the justice that we all violated, and start again, not at the banks of “our Sea of Reeds”, but beyond the streets of EDSA. Believers and lovers of God, like true Christians, do not have to hate, destroy each other even if they want to correct the mistakes of the past or the present and of each other. Many are critical of the present governance particularly in the areas of truth and justice. But we can restore truth and justice without resorting to violence and hatred. A nation built on contempt is completely unimaginable. As pastors we cannot tell you less, even if some will resent the way we teach. It is for everybody's good, especially the very poor among our brothers and sisters that we now address this call for communal renewal.
We need the leaders from the highest to the lowest and their families not only to lead us, but also to give us examples of repentance and true humble conversion. We also need people with other ideas but with positive emotions in nation building. Given the example and encouragement, the citizens will be inspired to follow where in the past they hesitated to proceed --- to their “desert” transformation.
Ngayon, diretso na tayo sa hindi natin kaagad gustong puntahan --- sa Disyerto ng ating mga masamang karanasan at kasalanan na dapat nating baguhin! May Pag-asa po ang ating Bayan at ang ating sarili. Basta’t sa pagbabago kay Kristo Hesus tayo ay magsama-sama.
In prayer let us beg Mary and Joseph to lead us back to the Christ that we had lost in the past! God bless us all!
+ Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales
Archbishop of Manila
Bp. Honesto Ongtioco
Bp Jesse Mercado
Bishop of Cubao
Bishop of Paranaque
Bp. Deogracias Iniguez
Bp Francisco San Diego
Bishop of Caloocan
Bishop of Pasig
Bp. Gabriel Reyes
Bp. Antonio Tobias
Bp. of Antipolo
Bishop of Novaliches
Bp. Jose Oliveros
Bp. Leo Drona
Bishop of Malolos
Bishop of San Pablo
Bp. Luis Antonio Tagle
Bp. Pedro Arigo
Bishop of Imus
Vicar Apo.of Puerto Princesa
Bp. Edgardo Juanich
Bp. Leopoldo Tumulak
Vicar Apo. of Taytay
Military Ordinariate
Bp. Francisco de Leon
Bp. Broderick Pabillo
Auxiliary Bishop of Antipolo
Auxiliary Bishop of Manila
Bp. Bernardino Cortez
Auxiliary Bishop of Manila
Palm Sunday, 2008
(1) Samuel Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, p. 67.
(2) Ricardo Manapat, Some are Smarter than Others, ($1.9B in 1981 to $2B in 1982), pp. 324328;
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Paranoia, The Word of God & the Christian Faith
Being beloved = having everything that we need to live eternally.
If you went to Mass last Sunday and still remember the Gospel then, (Jesus' healing the Blind Man born blind from birth), one can easily understand today's readings, today being Friday of the 4th week of Lent. The first reading is from the book of Wisdom which mentions the plan of the evil ones against the righteous one. The Gospel shows us Jesus in Jerusalem in view of the Feast of the Tabernacles which every devout Jew is called to celebrate. The Gospel text ends up with the often-used phrase "his hour had not yet come."
As I read the Word of God, it dawned on me that there can be people who have serious difficulty in the area of trust. I thought about those who are classified as PARANOID or those who have PARANOIA. They usually keep in their minds thoughts of others intending to hurt or kill them, hence their very strong and rigid defenses. They can be so isolated because of their fears, and a very strong sense of self-protection is paramount in their minds. They limit their relations and activities and take every precaution in order to maintain their security, their sense of safety. Lacking trust in others, they may have sleepless nights and have a very high stress level which can lower one's self-esteem. However, it can be a lonely life, one that has in mind only limited views and ways. Sooner or later, the paranoid person can break down, trapped in his fantasies and psychosis.
But the Word of God can be very freeing. Jesus Himself, knowing that He was to be killed, something that may have really harrowed him as days of its fulfilment came closer "braved through" it all and fulfilled His mission. Knowing that He was doing things not on His own will but because He was sent for that mission became the rock on which He stood and worked. He must have known that if the time comes, that time would be the time of God: the kairos and not the chronos. Just remember this: when the kairos came, Jesus was given courage to face it all, carry the cross, bear the pain and forgave. The reward? The Resurrection on the third day!!! Kairos can indeed be very liberating!
What the Christian faith gives us is God's call to live the freedom of a beloved. In Christ, the Beloved, we all partake of His Love and mercy. God is calling us during this Lent to learn to trust in Him as He can recreate us anew. Being beloved = having everything that we need to live eternally. Everything in between or along the way to its fulfilment becomes bearable, tolerable, forgiveable. One need not imprison oneself in false thoughts! God's plan in Christ is not to condemn but to save, to love and to give us His life.
Indeed, the Word of God can be very liberating. It can set the Spirit free to live in the freedom of the beloved. It can make us sing with praise and worship. And if you care, the youtube of Sandy Patti's song can help a lot in this: please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-J2CbJ-fEc&feature=email and enjoy this very uplifting song.
God bless
If you went to Mass last Sunday and still remember the Gospel then, (Jesus' healing the Blind Man born blind from birth), one can easily understand today's readings, today being Friday of the 4th week of Lent. The first reading is from the book of Wisdom which mentions the plan of the evil ones against the righteous one. The Gospel shows us Jesus in Jerusalem in view of the Feast of the Tabernacles which every devout Jew is called to celebrate. The Gospel text ends up with the often-used phrase "his hour had not yet come."
As I read the Word of God, it dawned on me that there can be people who have serious difficulty in the area of trust. I thought about those who are classified as PARANOID or those who have PARANOIA. They usually keep in their minds thoughts of others intending to hurt or kill them, hence their very strong and rigid defenses. They can be so isolated because of their fears, and a very strong sense of self-protection is paramount in their minds. They limit their relations and activities and take every precaution in order to maintain their security, their sense of safety. Lacking trust in others, they may have sleepless nights and have a very high stress level which can lower one's self-esteem. However, it can be a lonely life, one that has in mind only limited views and ways. Sooner or later, the paranoid person can break down, trapped in his fantasies and psychosis.
But the Word of God can be very freeing. Jesus Himself, knowing that He was to be killed, something that may have really harrowed him as days of its fulfilment came closer "braved through" it all and fulfilled His mission. Knowing that He was doing things not on His own will but because He was sent for that mission became the rock on which He stood and worked. He must have known that if the time comes, that time would be the time of God: the kairos and not the chronos. Just remember this: when the kairos came, Jesus was given courage to face it all, carry the cross, bear the pain and forgave. The reward? The Resurrection on the third day!!! Kairos can indeed be very liberating!
What the Christian faith gives us is God's call to live the freedom of a beloved. In Christ, the Beloved, we all partake of His Love and mercy. God is calling us during this Lent to learn to trust in Him as He can recreate us anew. Being beloved = having everything that we need to live eternally. Everything in between or along the way to its fulfilment becomes bearable, tolerable, forgiveable. One need not imprison oneself in false thoughts! God's plan in Christ is not to condemn but to save, to love and to give us His life.
Indeed, the Word of God can be very liberating. It can set the Spirit free to live in the freedom of the beloved. It can make us sing with praise and worship. And if you care, the youtube of Sandy Patti's song can help a lot in this: please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-J2CbJ-fEc&feature=email and enjoy this very uplifting song.
God bless
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