Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Author: A Dose of God Today

  • When movement to love gives life

    When movement to love gives life

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    July 7, 2020 – Tuesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070720.cfm)

    Homily

    The Book Hosea speaks to us of Israel’s continuing guilt and of God’s boundless love and mercy. What Israel had done reflected through Gomer, the wife of Hosea, who broke the covenant with God. Israel deliberately became unfaithful to God because Israel believed that there will be more power and wealth with other gods. She was seduced by the promises of others. Yet, she was being blinded by her desire to have more and did not realize the fullness of life with God.

    Israel was led to believe that with those other gods, Israel will have life at its abundance and security. However, this was not the case, Israel in fact experienced her downfall and destruction. What Israel always wanted was immediate satisfaction of desires as to the hunger for power, for wealth and security.

    Thus, as Gomer fell again and again and lost her way every time, Hosea would always come to bring her back to his side. Gomer might have been blinded by the glamour of others and fell into sin against her husband, yet, Hosea never failed to be faithful to her. Hosea never gave up on Gomer. Hosea would always assure her of his love and faithfulness. This is love indeed that brought freedom and assurance to the troubled Gomer.

    Moreover, our Gospel today speaks of a  man possessed by a demon and could not speak but when Jesus freed the man, he began to speak. The man was prevented to speak by the demon in order to hide what was wrong with him. Thus, the demon’s work here is also in silencing us, keeping us quiet so that the demon will continue to torment us and others around us.

    Yet, as the demon was driven out, the man also spoke because he found again his freedom. The man found himself again as Jesus found him.

    This was how the heart of Jesus was also moved as he saw the multitude of people who were suffering. Jesus’ encounter with those people made him more connected to them and to the struggle they had to endure.

    This tells us of a God who is being moved upon seeing us just as Jesus’ heart was moved with pity because he felt their pain and troubles in life.

    In a way, this is the very picture we have in the first readings. Hosea, most of all, understood his wife Gomer. Hosea was always moved with pity and so would come to her rescue. Hosea’s action was not just limited with his pity but it was ultimately a movement from his heart, a movement of love.

    Jesus too upon seeing the man possessed by the demon and the many people who were troubled and abandoned was moved with pity because of his love for the people. Jesus’ action to respond was a movement of love, a movement from the heart.

    This movement of love is truly liberating and saving. Gomer who represented the people of Israel and the man possessed by the demon and those many people had experienced that liberating and saving movement of God’s love.

    This is the invitation for us today. We may be moved also with pity that comes from our love and not just of pity itself. Indeed, the Lord invites us that like him we too our heart will be moved to respond to the needs of our brothers and sisters around us. Hopefully, this will also move us to respond with love to the different needs in our own capacity and gifts. Thus, be moved with pity and love today so that we may also give life, comfort and assurance and Jesus has shown us. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Let God speak in your heart today

    Let God speak in your heart today

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    July 6, 2020 – Monday 14th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070620.cfm)

    Homily

    “I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.” Prophet Hosea reminds us today of this.

    Indeed, the Lord leads us into emptiness, into situations of our life where we become vulnerable, unpretentious, without our facades and masks. It is in those situations where we can hear God the most because of our emptiness like the desert. God then speaks to us in our heart as Yahweh spoke to Israel in her downfall.

    There are two concrete situations where God speaks in the experience of emptiness of a person as told to us in the Gospel of Matthew.

    First, a synagogue official who was most probably had many doubts in Jesus but was able to hear God speaking through his desperate experience. His love for his daughter and his desperate plea to heal her led him to Jesus. In that experience, God spoke to his heart and believed.

    How? The grief and sorrow of that Synagogue official were situations where God made himself present in a very surprising way. God’s presence was revealed in Jesus as he willingly journeyed with the official towards the place of his sorrow and grief, towards her dead daughter. This was his desert, his place of emptiness where he was most helpless. And Jesus got up and followed the man. It was in that experience that the Synagogue official felt closer to God.

    Second, a woman who was suffering for many years ended her bitterness as she encountered Jesus. That very suffering in her life led her not into a hopeless scenario by committing suicide, and ending her life to end her suffering. However, the very encounter with Jesus gave her hope that there was something beyond her suffering, beyond her bitterness, beyond her sickness. This was hope for healing, hope for a better life. In this way, God also spoke to her, there in the desert of her suffering that there was indeed hope for healing and life for her.

    Moreover, the woman with hemorrhages was surprised at the power of God. Certainly, Jesus had somehow allowed this woman to touch him. And when Jesus saw her, Jesus also treated her warmly and affirmed her faith.

    From here, there are two invitations for us today.

    First. Seek help. God also intervenes through our participation. Remember, the woman touched the cloak of Jesus. This means that God also does not want us to be just a passive receiver of graces and blessings. On our part, we do something. So take the initiative and realize what we need. Reach out to people who can help us. Certainly, this does not mean that if we are greatly suffering then we can do nothing for ourselves. With our participation and willingness, God gives us the grace.

    Second. Allow the Lord to touch us by allowing Jesus also to walk with us in our own desert, in our own emptiness. Jesus took the hand of the dead girl because the official allowed Jesus to journey with him into his own desert. This means that God also touches us through the help of other people. God walks with us when we allow him to by allowing others to be with us. By allowing God to be with us, then, we shall surely find assurance and confidence. Thus, through the love, support and care of our family, friends and community we too will experience healing and a fulfilling life. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • In need of a friend? Come to Jesus

    In need of a friend? Come to Jesus

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    July 5, 2020 – 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070520.cfm)

    Homily

    What burdens are we carrying now? What makes us worry at the moment? What are those that we are most afraid of? These questions are surely relevant to us. They tell us about our dispositions and even would tell us about what we are hoping for. We hope to be liberated from our burdens, to be free from worries and anxieties. And usually we want them to disappear immediately.

    At the beginning of the quarantine, many have thought that the situation will die down soon. Yet, when we were under the Enhanced Community Quarantine and people began to lose their jobs and business, we began to worry and became anxious. As the Corona Virus infection continue to rise in our country, we become more afraid. As we have been confined in our homes for months now, some have become paranoid and depressed. At present, these can really be our worries and anxieties.

    As we pray to God to hear our pleas and answer our prayers many of my friends and those I know have become impatient of this situation we have now. I wanted even all these things to end very soon. Others might have been thinking also that all their suffering will end at once. But, there is a danger around here. There might be a temptation in us to think of a God who does magic and can take away all those concerns that burden us.

    Contrary to what we think of God like a magician, our readings today reveal the true character of God. God does not offer us magic but what God offers us rather, is his gentle, merciful and understanding kind of friendship.

    This is what the first reading reveals to us today. The Hebrew people were burdened by their current situation. They were subjected to foreign powers. They became slaves and were taken out from their own land. Thus, they hoped for a savior who will free them from that suffering. They have expected of a savior, a king who will bring armies and slaughter all their enemies. However, the prophecy of Zechariah was different from what people hoped for. The savior or messiah will come to bring peace not another war; he rides on a donkey not on a battle tank. The messiah conquers by humility not by violence. This means that the messiah transforms the community from within, and brings inner peace.

    This is what St. Paul tells us in the second reading. When the Spirit of God dwells in us, we are transformed from inside. Jesus gives inner peace when we allow the Spirit to dwell in us. This is the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead, who brought him out of darkness and misery into the joy of freedom and resurrection.

    The prophecy of Zechariah had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He is the king, the messiah who rides on a donkey, who lives in humility and brings inner peace and freedom. Our savior and king tells us today, “Come to me all you who are tired and lonely and those of you who are overburdened!” Jesus invites us to come to him and to welcome him in our life.

    He is neither a king who terrorizes us with his power nor a master who subjects us with his influence nor a wizard who waves his wand to remove all our difficulties at once. Jesus gives us a humble invitation to come to him as our friend – a true friend who is gentle, humble and compassionate, willing to walk with us.

    Thus, when we come to Jesus and trust him to be our friend, then he offers us his yoke.  During the time of Jesus, the yoke is that which is put on the necks of two animals to plow the field for planting. There are usually two cows so that the weight becomes lighter and the plowing is easier and faster. Yes, the yoke that Jesus speaks about is from this image. That yoke actually symbolizes the Gospel that we receive today – and that Gospel is Jesus the Lord himself.

     It is in this way that Jesus offers himself to be our friend who will be with us. He is not promising us to remove all troubles in life at once, as his life was also filled with pain and suffering. He tells us today that though life may be filled with problems, with worries and anxieties, with fears and self-doubt, with failures and insecurities, with shame and guilt, yet, we will never be alone in our struggle.

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     Jesus invites us to carry those troubles with him, to pull our burdens with him, to share our trials with him, to draw strength from him and to allow him to help us. In truth, the Lord does not do good things for us, but rather, he does great things with us. He does not do miracle for us but he does it with us. In this way, we may attain inner peace, freedom and confidence with the Lord no matter what burdens we are carrying at this moment.

     But let us also remember that our experience with Jesus as our gentle and compassionate friend is not meant to be for us alone. Each of us who have experienced that friendship is called to be a friend to others. Therefore, in return that experience with the Lord will allow us to become willing and generous friends – who is ready to cheer up a friend filled with doubts, who is ready to give comfort to a friend suffering from grief and sorrow, who has a listening heart to a friend who needs someone to talk to, so that we too will become God’s instrument of brining freedom and inner peace to our overburdened brothers and sisters. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • New Normal: To be Human BEING or doing?

    New Normal: To be Human BEING or doing?

    July 5, 2020 – 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070520.cfm)

    Homily

    We are now approaching our fourth month of living life under pandemic era. While lockdowns and quarantine are easing out but still under threat of possible surge since viable vaccines are yet to be found, we cannot deny from now we live our lives along with the realities and threats of viral pandemic infections. Life indeed has changed and still changing, and we have to cope with what our lives has now become. As CoVID-19 are now here to stay with us, whether we like or not we need to think through now and beyond about the so-called new normal life. Time for us then to discover the New Normal.

    New normal life is not only about how we live our lives now as we adapt with our changing world, but it also involves looking back on our recent past – on how our “Normal” lives has been then before pandemic as well as looking forward on possible near future – on how “New” our lives can be. Rather than just reacting to  daily demands of present challenges of life, we may respond by having a wider view of our life then, life-now, and life-can be OR what was “Normal” then and what is/can be “New” now.

    Perhaps we could say that our life back then has been convenient. Normally, we had MORE in terms of access, independence, mobility, resources, and possibilities yet also more stressed, tired, burdened, lonely with work, responsibilities, roles/functions, trivialities, but less time, healthy, depth and principled lifestyle in person and in spirit. And Now…. we abruptly find ourselves Limited. The very things we normally enjoy and complain about back then are now (if not deprived) constricted. The more we normally had then are now less, though the less we had then we now have more.

    Somehow back then we normally concern ourselves with Quantity in life, and now we value more our Quality of life. We have been enslaving ourselves then with treasure-hunting and amassing/wasting things, but now we find ourselves time to treasure-valuing (giving value to what we have and who we are now). Back then, we busy and tire ourselves with lots of activities and actions, and now we have to take care and enjoy our presence and relationships. We realize now that there is more to life than just our actions and what we have done, and doing in life. We realize that we are human beings, and should be not just mere human doings. Time for us to BE Human than just DO human.

    In our gospel, we hear Jesus personally invites us to “Come to me”. In response, we tend to think and ask: “to do what?”. Normally we tend to control and fix life-invitations and challenges with plan, program and activities (things to do & not do). But what Jesus inviting us for  is not to do anything but just “to BE with Him”. He needs our presence and not our works, our beings, not our doings. He knows already our over-burdened efforts and works, and our tired-weary souls. His invitation then is to slow down, have a good break and be with HIM, in His presence under His yoke (care and protection) since there is more to Him and us than just His and our works.

    His being and presence we always got and have to live with our lives. As shown to us in our first reading, God’s glory is ultimately all about our eternal peace and joy being and in His presence, not as celebration of end-result/reward of our hard work and struggles in life. Paul also reminds us that we are more than just flesh but we are of God’s spirit and in God’s presence. We should have been, still is, could and always will Be with God’s spirit and presence in life. To be in His presence and spirit is His invitation us to be now and always.

    So, what our new normal life can be?

    Charles Eisenstein once said “we sense that normal isn’t coming back, that we are being born into a New Normal: a new kind of society, a new relationship to earth, and a new experience of being human”.  

    Thus, to be responsible participant of the birthing of the New Normal, like with the birth of a new child in the family, we need first to say goodbye and let go of the Normal lives we use to have, and then take on the NEW identity, attitude and commitment to BE BETTER human Being than doing, Presence than actions, Quality than quantity, Valuing than having, and above, In-Spirited than In-fleshed, thus Godly than manly Persons we can be. Lord, Thanks for all that has been, and Yes to all that will be. So Be it. Siya Nawa. Amen.

    (By: Fr. Aphelie Mario Masangcay CSsR, a Filipino Redemptorist  Missionary stationed in Gwangju South Korea, though now still stranded in Cebu until further notice for available flights.)

  • How welcoming am I?

    How welcoming am I?

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    June 28, 2020 – 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062820.cfm)

    Homily

    When I was younger, I used to play, eat and even sleep at my playmates’ house or them in our house. I grew up in this environment being assured that I was welcomed. I also witnessed how the adults at that time would do the same where they also felt welcomed. Indeed, that culture made me realize how a community becomes more compassionate and generous as every house and every person welcomes others.

    This brings me to what our readings this Sunday is reminding us, that is, the call of hospitality or the invitation to be welcoming.

    Our first reading tells us of the story of Prophet Elisha who was welcomed by a rich woman but childless and whose husband was old. Elisha, though a stranger, was welcomed into their home. In their culture at that time, a childless couple would surely suffer shame for having no child. Elisha who was very aware of this feeling of the couple particularly of the woman, prophesied something that would made them truly happy. Elisha promised the couple that by the following year she will certainly have a child.

    Thus, though it seemed that it was only Elisha who was welcomed by them but in fact, Elisha on his part also welcomed the desire and the longing of this couple.

    This tells us now that welcoming others into our homes or into our lives, brings grace. Making ourselves open for others allows the grace of God to also work in our lives. This is what Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans.

    Paul reminds us that baptism is a way of welcoming God into our lives. Moreover, it is also God’s way of welcoming us into God’s divine presence. That is why, Paul told us that as we were baptized we also join in the death of Christ. But how? Christ died for our sins. And in baptism, our sin dies because we are being forgiven. Through that forgiveness then we also rise into a new person just as Christ rose from the dead.

    The grace of baptism lies here because as we welcome God into our life and God welcoming us, this becomes a “mutual welcoming.” When welcoming becomes mutual then true relationship begins to form and develop. Consequently, God is our Father, and we are God’s children.

    This is the same also when we take the risk in welcoming others into our life. True friendship only develops and strengthens when there is a mutual welcoming of each other. This mutual welcoming involves sharing of stories, sharing of pains, sharing of joys as well as sharing of hopes and dreams.

    Recently, a dear friend visited me after months of lockdowns. Since our movements now have been eased for a bit, compared to the situation during the Enhanced Community Quarantine, we had an opportunity to catch up with each other personally even for a short period of time. Such simple encounter was indeed a form of mutual welcoming.

    However, we also know that in welcoming others we may get hurt. This happens when there is no mutual welcoming in our relationship. A relationship that is colored with manipulation or abuse or betrayal or pretensions is such a toxic relationship. This kind of relationship gives us pain and trauma which could lead us to sadness and misery in life.

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    This happened to a friend who welcomed a person in her life. Yet, unknowingly she was not welcomed at all in the life of that person whom she loved. She was just used and abused for the sake of personal pleasure of the other.

    But then, the Gospel of Matthew tells us and assures us the kind of relationship Jesus is offering to us. Jesus offers us a relationship that gives and promotes life and joy. Although the Gospel sounds a bit harsh for it suggests to hate our parents, but it actually means to place our relationship with God as the first or the beginning.

     Making God as the first priority in our every relationship gives us a good foundation to our other human relationships. The more we become in touched with our relationships with the Lord, the more we also become in touched with our human relationships.

    Consequently, Jesus calls us today to be welcoming, to allow ourselves to open up even though that would mean that we become vulnerable. Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes him who sent me.” Meaning, welcoming others with the intention of loving is welcoming God.

     Making ourselves vulnerable to welcome others is a way of losing our life, yet, in welcoming others, we also realize the beauty of loving and finding our life. Therefore, today, Jesus calls us to be welcoming as we are being welcomed, to be loving as we are also being loved.

    Today also, let us seek forgiveness and reconciliation with those whom we have hurt because of our selfishness, dishonesty and indifference. May we truly welcome others in our life too in the way of loving truly and not as a form of manipulating or using others for our own advantage and pleasure. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR