Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Fr. Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Rejoice While You are Young

    Rejoice While You are Young

    September 24, 2022 – Saturday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092422.cfm)

    We seek and enjoy what is fun and entertaining. We take delight and feel happy when the moment brings excitement and pleasure to our senses. This is how the market also captures what we are looking and seeking for. From music, to movies, short funny videos, mobile games and the different social media and entertainment apps and websites, they provide and give entertainment to us though temporary. This is also how we see the surge of social media influencers who bring funny, captivating, intriguing and exciting videos to us.

    And more than these, there are also those who seek self-satisfaction at the expense of others by abusing, maltreating and depriving the weak. Women, men and even children have become a commodity to sex and human traffickers. Others continue to crave with addictive substances and behaviors in order to fill the deep emptiness in their life though these only led many to oblivion and losing oneself in the process.

    These are the realities of life. Yet, more than these we are called to embrace life in its fullness together with its pains and joys, shadows and lights. This is the very reason why the words in the Book of Ecclesiastes in today’s reading make more sense.

    The author of the book tells us, rejoice while you are young and let your hearts be glad in the days of your youth. Indeed, there is so much to enjoy and be thankful for in life especially in our youth though this is transitory. However, it is in our youth that we discover more and understand better ourselves and the world around us. It is in our youth that the Lord allows us to have more failures and disappointments so that we may learn, grow and gain wisdom.

    Although the Book of Ecclesiastes may sound pessimistic in life for everything, as he said, vanishes like a vapor, for all things are vanity. However, he also acknowledged how the Lord unfolds His Divine Presence and blessings for us in the many events and moments of our life. The Lord will judge us then, based on our capacity in fully embracing life and rejoicing our youth in its fullness.

    Therefore, rejoicing one’s youth and letting our hearts be glad in the days of our youth calls us to be more attuned to God’s way of life. Let us remember, God is life-creating, life-redeeming and life-sanctifying. Thus, anything that destroys life, abuses life and suppresses the fullness of life, may it be in our life or the life of others, is contrary to God’s way of life. This is the author wants us to ward off and put away from our presence.

    In the same way, Jesus tells us today in Luke’s Gospel, “pay attention to what I am saying.” The disciples did not pay attention to him when Jesus told them of suffering and death he will undergo. It was either the disciples cannot understand or refused to understand the life of Jesus and his mission. All they wanted was to be just amazed and be entertained by the miracles that Jesus has been doing. However, Jesus is life-redeeming and this is not found in mere amazement and entertainment but in giving oneself for the many.

    So, let us all rejoice while we are young and let our hearts be glad as we make our life attuned in God’s way of life. Kabay pa.

  • An Appointed Time for Everything

    An Appointed Time for Everything

    September 22, 2022 – Friday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092322.cfm)

    We could easily lose track of time when we are overwhelmed by our workloads, business engagements, study loads and many other responsibilities in life. This makes our day tiring, stressful and hectic to the point that time has become so short in order to respond to all the things we have on our hands. And when we cannot meet all the demands, then, we also lose ourselves. We get sick psychologically and physically. Relationships tend to be left behind and not given more importance.

    Aside from these, people also lose time from hiding from their unfounded fears because our anxieties could eat up most of our time to think and discern. Others are perhaps petrified by their traumatic past unable to move and go beyond and losing the opportunity to grow and mature. Meanwhile, others could be busy in indulging themselves in compensating what have been deprived from them in the past to the point that their self-satisfaction is what only matters. All of these would certainly make our life unbalanced and our time disturbed and losing many chances to take life at a time.

    Indeed, there is an appointed time for everything, as the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes tells us. An appointed time that would allow us to breathe, to relax, to begin, to be renewed and to be surprised by the many things that God has prepared in time.

    When we race against time or even take for granted time, then, we shall surely miss those surprising and wonderful things that are happening around us. We shall also lose the chances to behold the beauty and the goodness of people around us.

    That is why, Jesus in today’s Gospel teaches us a simple lesson. The Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus was praying in solitude while the disciples were with him. His friends were there, but Jesus was in solitude, meaning, he was praying alone. We see from here that Jesus took the time to rest, relax, to gather his mind, to pray and to commune with his Father in heaven. Jesus was setting the example to his disciples to have a time for everything and especially a time to pray and a time to behold God’s presence.

    Indeed, such time and encounter allowed Peter to recognize that Jesus is the “Christ of God.” Peter in that opportune time understood that God has revealed the Divine Presence to him.

    This calls us now as well to have time for everything and to allow ourselves to have a quality time with the Lord. In the midst of our overwhelming demands in life, or in the midst of the chaos and internal conflicts we are suffering from, we may find time for Jesus to reveal his challenges and blessings to us. Find time to breathe. Find time to rest. Find time to pray. Find time for Jesus. Kabay pa.

  • LIFE? WHAT IS IT? 

    LIFE? WHAT IS IT? 

    September 22, 2022 – Thursday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092222.cfm)

    Life? What is it? What do we have in life? Life can pretty be difficulty and overwhelming when one races to what only gives him or her pleasure and satisfaction. We may search for the meaning of our life, for the purpose of our life and mission of our life. Yet, life can be puzzling and confusing especially when we are faced with the painful realities of life.

    This is what the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes wants to tell us. All things in life is vanity, meaningless like a vapor that disappears in the wind. He may have sound pessimistic yet, true in his perspective. Nothing remains under the sun for everything passes away even life itself.

    However, not all actually. There is more in the suffering of life, there is more in the pains of life. But this is neither found in pleasure, in comfort, in riches, in power nor in any material possession we have accumulated.

    This was something Herod the tetrarch was after and looking for. He too was puzzled and perplexed at what life was revealing to him precisely because he was after vanity. He was after power and wealth. He was after pleasure and comfort. Such attitude made his heart hardened and cruel. As a result, John the Baptist who called him to repent and embrace life as it is, was beheaded by Herod. Thus, Herod became uncomfortable with the presence of Jesus whom he must have believed would take away his pleasure and privileges.

    What limited Herod was his belief that he will be satisfied with what he possessed and can accumulate in his life. Nevertheless, everything is vanity. Qohelet also says, “What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun?” All that Herod had vanished like a vapor.

    What is rather more in life is in giving life itself to others which we can find there in the relationships we have built, in the friendships we have created, among our families, communities and friends.

    As Herod kept trying to see Jesus, we may also keep trying to meet Jesus, to encounter Jesus in our human relationships, in our many encounters with people and have the courage and faith to give life as Jesus does. Kabay pa.

  • Our True Hope and Freedom

    Our True Hope and Freedom

    September 11, 2022 – 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time     

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091122.cfm)

    Where do we go in times of despair and hopelessness? Where do we find ourselves when we are confused, broken-hearted and afraid?

    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 worshiped 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  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 from 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 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.

    This was how Moses pleaded with God to show mercy to the people who turned to worship a false god. The people were lost because they were desperate. They attached themselves to a false security because of their overwhelming misery. However, as Moses pleaded with God, the Lord relented and embraced again the people to be his own. Such story of desperation, hopelessness and of being lost but, then, of being showed mercy, of being loved and of being found again by God, is the very invitation for us on this 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

    In fact, St. Paul also recalls the story of his life in his First Letter to Timothy. His past life of being a blasphemer, persecutor and arrogant made him so lost. It was a denial of God. Yet, God continued to search for Paul until they had an encounter. Paul’s encounter with Jesus turned Paul’s life completely because when Jesus found him, the Lord was so merciful to him. That experience of mercy led Paul to gratitude. And that gratitude inspired him to give glory to God by becoming a minister and servant of the Gospel.

    Moreover, in the parable, Jesus tells us of a shepherd who sought his lost sheep until he found it and a woman who lost her coin and searched for it until she found it.

    This image of God tells us of a God who searches for the lost. We are the sheep in the story who is driven by our selfish desires. We are the lost coin that has been longed by the owner.

    Nevertheless, God never tires to search for us and embrace us again. God invites us to be with Him, to join with Him and enjoy His abiding presence in our sacraments, in our liturgy and in our daily prayers, and in our community.

    Indeed, Jesus teaches us of a God who invites us and searches for us not just once but in every opportunity of our life.  And this is the truth; God searches for us and desires to embrace us so that we may find true hope and freedom. Kabay pa.

  • Blessing in God’s Perspective

    Blessing in God’s Perspective

    September 7, 2022 – Wednesday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090722.cfm)

    How do we understand being blessed? Our usual understanding of a life being blessed has something to do with material wealth and prosperity – like having a good family, a prosperous business, a successful career, a good paying job, or having a good health. Thus, we think that being blessed has something to do with success and material possessions.  

    That is why, poverty is never a blessing; being persecuted, being sick and being rejected is never a blessing too. If we are experiencing such life, we consider ourselves being unlucky or worst being cursed.

    However, what Jesus told us today is quite opposite. Our human understanding of being blessed is different from God. Indeed, there is a need for us to understand blessing and our life from God’s perspective.

    In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus warns those who in the standard of the world are blessed such as the satisfied, the rich, the powerful, the popular and the influential. The danger lies in the attitude of the heart that becomes independent from God, a heart that rejects God’s mercy and love. In fact, Jesus warns us when we tend to accumulate more wealth for ourselves at the expense of the poor, or when we gather fame and influence at the expense of others.

    Such attitude of the heart is filled with arrogance and self-centeredness that has no need of God. True enough, when we are so filled with ourselves and too satisfied of what we have gained and achieved, we don’t need God anymore. Our successes and we, ourselves, have become ‘gods.’ This leads us to worship our achievements, wealth, our power and ourselves. But then, all of these corrupt us because we will never be satisfied. We will thirst and hunger for more wealth, recognition and fame which will also lead to our own destruction and those who are around us and those blocking our way to gain for more, as any form of addiction will also result in this way.

    Indeed, dependence on these forms of material satisfactions is a mere arrogance and a false sense of security. This is actually the promise of addictions, in whatever form that may be, whether addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex, influence and fame, wealth and power (political or economic power).

    However, in God’s perspective those who are poor, sick, persecuted, those who failed and rejected are blessed because it is in their poverty and difficulty that they also realize their weakness and need of God. Such insecurities bring us to understand that we are so small in this world and we are in need of God’s grace. That is why; Jesus addressed these Beatitudes to his disciples, assuring them of his presence. His disciples left their families and jobs. They went to places where sometimes they have to sleep without roof. Authorities ridiculed them and insulted them for following Jesus.

    Thus, the very presence of God in our life is what makes us “blessed.” Since God favors those who are weak, poor, suffering and struggling in life, they are the ones who are blessed because they understand their need of God. God comes to us when we are ready to accept God in our life and to let God be our God.

    God invites us then, to recognize our own poverty and anxieties because God blesses us with His presence. This is also the message of St Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. Though at that time, they must have believed that the second coming of Jesus was about to happen during their lifetime as he said, “for the world in its present form is passing away.” Paul reminded the people of the need to be more attached to God rather than to what was material and temporary. Paul recognized the importance of ones dependence to God and complete trust in God’s providence. Through the presence of God present in their life, they were indeed blessed.

    So, how blessed are you? The material wealth that we have gained, the influence and fame that we have received, the successes that we have achieved, our good health, our talents and abilities, our knowledge, intelligence and competence are signs of God’s grace and generosity. When we have these, these may lead us to humble ourselves and to recognize that these are gifts and we ought to share them to others. Thus, if you have received much, share the blessings to those who are in need, if you are enjoying success in life, share the experience with those who failed. It is in this way that the Kingdom of God will truly be present among us, and that we ourselves become God’s blessing to our communities. Kabay pa.