Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Author: A Dose of God Today

  • God cries with us when we too are in deep trouble

    God cries with us when we too are in deep trouble

    March 29, 2020 –  5th Sunday of Lent Year A

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032920.cfm)

    Homily

    Who among us who have not yet felt or experienced disappointment? Or a failure or a heartbreak? Surely, most of us have these experiences in one way or another. There might be some of us as well who also experienced being humiliated, oppressed or abused. 

    With the global health crisis that we are facing now, Pope Francis in his message at his Urbi et Orbi (to the city and to the world) tells us how

    “we find ourselves afraid and lost, caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm, and realized that while we are on the same boat, all of us are fragile and disoriented.” 

    Indeed, these realities tell us of our suffering. These realities make our day turn into darkness, our bright tomorrow into hopelessness and make our life bitter and horrible. Again, Pope Francis also affirms this as he says,

    “think darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void…”

    With this, I would like to tell you the story of Nanay Celia. I met her in Cebu City 11 years ago. She suffered and died of breast cancer. But before she died I had a deep conversation with her. She told me that her husband left her for another woman. Her two sons forgot about her and abandoned her when she got sick and was diagnosed of stage 4 breast cancer. She was all alone. She began to be angry with everything and everyone. She even got angry with God and cursed God for such suffering she endured. Life was so bitter, she wanted to end everything. She was hopeless.

    But not until a group of missionary sisters found her in her house. She was brought to the sisters’ institution. And it was in that institution that I met her. She knew that she was about to die but before she died, something has changed. The darkness of being abandoned turned into light. Her hopeless life turned into a life filled with hope. Her anger, disappointment and loneliness were all lifted up because she found love, acceptance and forgiveness through the people around her in that institution. 

    This story is not far from our readings today that concretely portray these human realities of failure, disappointment, heartbreak, fear, and even of being helpless and hopeless. This was how the people of Israel felt at the time of Prophet Ezekiel. The Hebrew people were exiled. They were in a land they did not know, where there was no Temple and no God. As a people they were humiliated by their foreign captors. They had no identity and were doubtful of God’s presence in their life.

    This feeling has been expressed in the Psalm, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice!” It is a lament of a person who is in great misery, who felt that God seemed to be deaf of his/her pleas, who felt of a God who seemed so indifferent to his/her horrible situation.

    This is what we find also in the Gospel. Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, were in great misery. They were inconsolable and heartbroken over the death of their brother. That is why Martha, in her sorrow said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died…” It was a statement of disappointment and even of anger. It was actually a statement of blaming God for not doing anything.

    But our readings also today reveal something very important to us. The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel conveys God’s promise of salvation where the Lord shall open the graves and shall have them rise as a people and will be restored to their homeland Israel. Our Psalm also says, “With the Lord, there is mercy and fullness of redemption.” It means that God is indeed faithful to his promise. God is faithful to the covenant. God will never betray us. God will never abandon us because God is forever with us and for us.

    These characteristics of God are most evident in our Gospel. Jesus reveals not just to Martha and Mary but also to you and to me today, that God is never indifferent to our misery, to fears and anxieties, to our feelings. Jesus reveals to us that he is a loving God and a merciful God. He is a God who feels like us who also feels lonely, feels afraid and even worried, anxious and sad. 

    In the Gospel Jesus was described twice to have been perturbed, he was distressed and troubled because something happened to his dear friend Lazarus. When he saw the dead Lazarus lying on the grave, Jesus wept! He cried like us. He feels sad like you and me.

    What does that mean now? It means that our God is not a God who is so far away who cannot hear our cries or deaf to our prayers. God is not indifferent to our suffering, to our questions and doubts. God understands how it is to lose a loved one, or even to be humiliated, to be lonely and alone. God cries with us when we too are in deep trouble. 

    This shows, then, the immensity and the greatness of God’s love for you and me. Jesus prayed to the Father to bring Lazarus back to life. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” What do these words mean to us now? Jesus also wants us to come out from our own graves. That we too will be healed from our own experiences of pain, of bitterness, of hopelessness and loneliness where we too seemed to be lifeless in many ways as expressed in our relationships with others. Coming out from our own graves also means being freed from our own selfishness, arrogance and addictions that come in many forms. 

    We will only be able to come out from our own graves and lifeless situations when we become like the sister of Lazarus, Martha. Jesus asked her, “Do you believe that I can bring your brother back to life?” Mary indeed believed. We too, each of us is being asked by Jesus, “Do you believe in me? That I am the resurrection and the life?” It is only when we come to realize and believe in the goodness and love of God that God also works wonders in us. As Pope Francis says also, “the call to faith, is not so much about believing that God exists, but coming to God and trusting in God.”

    It is only when we come to believe that God is the author of life that we also will value more our life and the lives of others. It is only when we come to believe that God is the God of our life that we also see the many good things we enjoy in this life despite the many difficulties and hardships we encounter. When we truly believe that God is the resurrection and the life that we begin to become true Christians who see light in the midst of darkness, who find joy in the midst of sorrow, who capture a smile in the midst of pain, who embrace hope in the midst of impossibility, who find healing in the midst of so much sickness and who find life in death. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR 

  • Let God be God in your life

    Let God be God in your life

    March 29, 2020 – 5th Sunday of Lent

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032920.cfm)

    Homily

    There was once a seminarian, who wished to leave the seminary because he was so angry, disappointed and frustrated with God  for letting his mother get seriously sick. He prayed to God, “Lord, I have been your obedient follower. I’ve taken care of your people, but how could you let my mother get seriously sick?” And when God replied to him, he heard “Son, I know how you love your mother, it’s good that you have been so concerned about your mother’s health. But can you please give me a chance to heal her? She is also my concern. Did I not tell you to have faith? My plans for her are much better than yours, same as my plans for you are much better than yours.”

    How much of us here, have not been frustrated with God? Yes, in one way of another, we have sometimes experienced how it is to be frustrated with God. Like these past few days of lockdowns and social distancing, there are times or moments in our lives that we have felt angry, disappointed or frustrated with God, especially at times when we were helpless in life, needing his presence but instead we experience his absence and seeming darkness or dryness in life. Yes, like sometimes we are disappointed and frustrated with our parent, sometimes we are also disappointed and frustrated with God, even has some resentments with God, whether we like it or not.

    Like here in our gospel today, people were disappointed with our Lord Jesus. Mary and Martha, his friends were also frustrated with Jesus, saying “Lord, if you have been here, my brother could have been saved”. Days before Lazarus died; they have already informed Jesus how sickly his friend Lazarus, who just lived nearby, has been. But Jesus seemingly did not respond or did not care. Only four days after Lazarus death, that Jesus went to visit. Who would not be disappointed and frustrated with Jesus for not able to respond to a family and friend crisis. 

    The people might have been disappointed or frustrated with Jesus, like we might have been disappointed or frustrated with God. However our gospel today reminds us again that God has a different view of life than the way we see things. For God, our experiences, perceptions and understanding of sufferings, death, problems and crises in life – frustrating and painful it might be, plays a great part or role in God’s plans. Jesus seeming passivity or insensitivity toward Lazarus was his way of teaching us to let God be God in our lives. 

    When he learned that Lazarus was sick, Jesus said: “This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory”. And when he performed the miracle of resuscitating Lazarus, he said: “so that they may believe it was you who sent.” Meaning, for Jesus, there is more to sickness and dying or more to illness and death. For Jesus, sickness and health, life in its greatness and sufferings are opportunities for us to witness God’s graces working in us – a chance for God to heal us or revive us not only from physical but also spiritual sickness or spiritual death, and to offer us fullness of life with Him. It is a chance for God to show us His divine Glory and Mercy and for us to benefit from it, and to know that He is the Lord.

    As one wise guru would say, “Being sick is an opportunity to experience yourself and God in a new way. It is the chance to teach the mind and the soul to remain independent from the body and so connect with your inner resources of peace and silence in God.”

    So whenever we get sick or have experienced death in our family, or is frustrated with God, let Him say to you and let His words reminds you…”Give up, Surrender, Let me Be God to You. Give me a chance to be God, not as you want me to be but as I choose to be. My plans, my ways, my glory are much greater than yours. So that you may have not only life, but life to its fullness with Me.”

    May our prayers these days: THY WILL BE DONE. Amen.

    shared by Fr. Mar Masangcay, CSsR

  • Called to recognize God’s signs and wonders

    Called to recognize God’s signs and wonders

    March 28, 2020 – Saturday 4th Week of Lent

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032820.cfm)

    Homily

    People were arguing to discredit the identity of Jesus. Jesus showed them signs that he indeed was sent by the Father. He is the Christ!

    However, people began to make reasons in order not to believe in him. The officers of the Temple and Nicodemus, a Pharisee were one of the few who seemingly were inclined to listen more to Jesus, yet, they too were discredited.

    As there were many signs that pointed Jesus as the Christ, the more the people also created reasons not to believe. Instead of looking at Jesus to find the truth, “they all went home,” as the Gospel ended today.

    These people went home, not because of the “community quarantine.” They went home and settled with their own beliefs, unwilling to give up their personal agenda, unwilling to allow God to be their God, unwilling to allow Jesus to challenge them and to transform them in the way God desires them to be.

    Thus, instead of going to the Temple or to the synagogue to pray and dialogue with God, they did not. However, the Gospel invites us today to refocus our gaze on the officers of the Temple and with Nicodemus who allowed themselves to be encountered by Jesus. It is through them that we are being asked also today to see Jesus clearly, to recognize him better.

    As there were many signs before that pointed to Jesus, let us also be more aware of the many signs God has given us today. There are many, every day, perhaps we just lack that awareness and keenness to recognize those signs of wonders and everyday miracles. 

    Thus, as we are being asked to stay at home these days, may we never fail to recognize those signs and wonders that God made for us and so to be encountered by God through them. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Understanding the ways of Jesus

    Understanding the ways of Jesus

    March 27, 2020 – Friday 4th week of Lent 

    Click here for the the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032720.cfm)

    Homily

    The Gospel tells us how Jesus was rejected by his own people. Jesus has to go to Jerusalem in secret in order to protect himself from those who were trying to kill him. Yet, even though he knew that he was in danger if seen in public, Jesus still took the risk to be there among his people. Jesus took the risk to speak the truth and make the truth known to all even though it may cause him his life. Indeed, this is God’s way of making himself revealed to us.

                The identity of Jesus of being a Galilean, was not really the issue. It was more than that. Jesus caused turmoil among the powerful leaders in the Jewish society.

    Jesus was unconventional who ate and drank with sinners, forgiven them and freed them. He healed the sick and touched the unclean. He preached about a loving and forgiving God the Father. And as Jesus gained popularity among the ordinary people, the leaders were threatened at his knowledge and wisdom because Jesus was not a well-known intellectual and did not come from a rich and powerful family.

     Jesus himself and all that he did threatened the status quo of the powerful people who were contented with their comfort, with the power and influence that they were enjoying. These “Jews” who in the Gospel of John were referred as the powerful religious leaders of the Jewish society, preferred a strict and vengeful God because it was on that belief that they could advance their self-interest. They too can use their position to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor.

                Thus, they were against Jesus because he was changing their ways. Their hearts were filled with bitterness, hate, anger and the desire to have more; in other words, they were filled of themselves, worshipping their very selves. This is idolatry!

                These were the reasons why they could not accept Jesus or even recognize the presence of God in Jesus.  Because of their blindness and the hardness of their hearts, they did not understand the ways of God. Thus, they wanted to kill him, to silence Jesus. 

                As we continue our journey in this season of Lent, may this Gospel remind us of our tendency to worship ourselves and our own ideas and beliefs. Let us also make our “home quarantine” days as opportunities to humble ourselves in recognizing areas of our lives where we have become complacent, too comfortable and arrogant. And so in this kind of attitude, we may also come to understand the ways of Jesus and recognize him who is within us and among us. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Reconnect with Jesus each day

    Reconnect with Jesus each day

    March 26, 2020 – Thursday of the 4th Week of Lent

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032620.cfm)

    Homily

    The Hebrew people were looking for a “god” to worship, to lean on from their desperation. They were in the desert for many years since their liberation from the Egyptians. They felt hopeless and directionless.

    When Moses was nowhere to be found, they made themselves the “golden calf” and worship it instead of the TRUE GOD who brought them out of Egypt. The people had very short memory. That in times of great difficulty, they turned to a false god believing to find security in it. Indeed, the people forgot God’s promise to them and God’s faithfulness in them.

    We are not also far from these people in the bible. We might have our own false gods too that offer false hopes. We may ask, who and what is our golden calf that we worship? Is it to our addiction and loneliness? Is it to ourselves or some others other than the Lord God? When we become desperate our minds and hearts may become crowded that we tend not to recognize the Lord who is at work in us.

    Thus, in times of difficulties in life we may develop some forms of attachments to compensate and appease our anxieties and the emptiness that feel from within. And so, a person who felt unloved by a mother may seek affection to many women. Or a woman who is rejected by a loved one, may retreat to loneliness and depression. A child who lacks the security of love and affection at home from the parents may succumbed to drugs or alcohol addiction. A child who has been deprived of material things in the past may become a hoarder of things or worst a thief.

    These are forms of unhealthy attachments that only bring us to greater and deeper despair and misery. Consequently, there is a need for us to reconnect ourselves to God who gives us true hope and freedom.

    Thus, like the Hebrew people, we may doubt God’s action and intervention and reject God in the long run. This is what happened also with the Jewish leaders who continually rejected Jesus.

    They have doubted the person of Jesus even though there had been many signs that he performed as invitations for them to believe. The presence of the Father at work in Jesus was already the moment of recognizing Jesus. Yet, these people were full of themselves that their eyes and ears and hearts had become closed and rigid.

    They chose to be disconnected with God because they did not want God’s way and direction of life. Jesus showed to them the many discomforts and risks that they have to undergo once they accept Jesus. What they wanted was that God will act according to what they desire, to what they think and to what they only believed. They were more after of their comfort and privileges that they will enjoy as leaders. Thus, what they worship was not God but their comfort, their influence, their privileges, their very selves.

    However, despite this kind of attitude God would always have a reason not to give up on us. Like what Moses did who intercede to God to forgive the people, Jesus also did that to us on the cross. Jesus wants us to recognize him because in him we find our true hope.

    As we continue our Lenten journey in the midst of corona virus, let us once more claim Jesus, to accept sincerely God in our hearts that we may find our true hope. Reconnect each day with Jesus as we all face our individual burdens and problems, concerns and difficulties and the crisis that our community is facing today. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR