Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Fr. Jom Baring, CSsR

  • 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.

  • The Humble and the Arrogant

    The Humble and the Arrogant

    August 28, 2022 – 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082822.cfm)

    In the first reading from the Book of Sirach, the author advices us to be humble because humility pleases God and because humility is God’s attitude. It says, “My child, conduct yourselves with humility… humble yourselves the more, the greater you are.” This was an advice and a reminder to Israel who had become powerful and rich. Their kings and princes were given honor and titles, power and riches, yet, it was not be forgotten that everything comes from the Lord.

    It is only in humility that the people will stay grounded and connected with God and with the people, who they were called to serve.

    Humility, therefore, acknowledges our nothingness before God and that everything we enjoy in this life are gifts from the Lord. We are not to hoard power and riches or material wealth for our own benefit alone but must be shared to all and especially to the least. This will make a nation, a community lifting up one another.

    Hence, this reminds us that not in pride and not in arrogance that we will be truly confident and assured. Pride and arrogance only reveal our insecurities and evil desires. The proud and the arrogant person expresses an unquenchable and insatiable desire to hoard and to have more, demanding others to be served, thus, becoming self-entitled. This attitude leads to corruption, to abuses, to oppression and hence, to destruction of the self and of the community.

    In fact, in the Gospel, this is what Jesus was saying in his encounter with the proud and arrogant Pharisees. The Pharisees, who at the time of Jesus, were at the pedestal of the Jewish Community enjoyed privileges, titles and honor. Indeed, in many encounters of Jesus with them, Jesus would challenge them to look beyond themselves, beyond their comforts, beyond their secured places, and beyond the letters of the law.

    Moreover, Jesus, with the parable he gave, now, challenges the Pharisees to look beyond their entitlements that made their hearts proud and arrogant to the point that they have become indifferent to those in need, and ungrateful to the Lord the giver of everything.

    The Pharisees in the Gospel, have become an image for us who have grown self-entitled, proud and arrogant. We may not be far from this because the moment we use our position, our status, our social class, our educational attainment, our influence, in order to advance our self-interest and to demand praises and honor from others, then surely, we do that at the expense of others. We, therefore, would not think of others, but only ourselves. Thus, having a bloated ego and a self-entitled heart is surely ungrateful, unkind, can be cunning and malicious, and even abusive and corrupt in his or her relationships and dealings with people whether in work, business and daily affairs with others.

    Thus, the parable in today’s Gospel reminds us of the advice in the first reading, to be humble – not to seek places of honor and the recognition of others through our pride and arrogance.

    This paves the way for us to be more connected, grounded and aware of the needs of others and not just our needs. That is why, we also find in the parable the call to be generous and kind particularly to those who cannot repay our generosity. This means that when we make ourselves humble enough, then, we are also able to see and recognize the least in our community by being generous and kind.

    There are now three invitations on this Sunday for us to be humble.

    First, be grateful. A grateful heart humbles a person because we will be able to recognize that we are not entitled at all to receive God’s graces in life. God remains good to us not merely because of what we have done but because, God us simply loving and kind to us.

    Second, seek love not praises. Remember, no matter how rich and powerful we have become, no matter how educated, influential, or famous we may have been, at the end of our life, people remember us on how loving we have become and how much love we have given for others.

    Third, give out of generosity, and not with the intention to gain favor, to seek praise nor to merely advance our self-interest because when that becomes our intention, then, it is not generosity. It is rather the work of the abusive and corrupt, the arrogant and of the evil one.

    So, be grateful, seek love, and give out of generosity. Kabay pa.

  • The Narrow Gate is Wider than We Think

    The Narrow Gate is Wider than We Think

    August 21, 2022 – 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082122.cfm)

    It is a standard procedure in airports that each passenger must go through metal detector devices and the luggage to x-ray machines. Each passenger will pass these, and the nearer we are at the gate, we have to pass through the machines again and by this time in a more thorough and stricter manner. Metals in the body are removed, these include, mobile phones, watches, belts, coins and even shoes at times are asked to be removed. When there will be undesirable objects like scissors, lighters or any pointed objects and even breakable items like bottles which exceed to the allowed size, everything has to be to be surrendered. A passenger has to let go of them or take the hassle again of going back to the check-in counter.

    I realized also that the more I bring unnecessary things in my flight the more it becomes troublesome for me. Besides, if I bring undesirable items too then, I am asked to let go of those things that are not allowed in the flight just for me to be allowed to board.

    This realization brought me into today’s readings. So, I invite you also that we see again and discover how God unfolds his invitations for us today on this 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time.

    Someone asked Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” We would wonder why that man asked about that. Well, the path that Jesus was taking seemed too difficult for this man. This was the reason why he asked the Lord about this. Jesus’ way was totally different from the trend at that time. People believed in a God who was so far away, too powerful and almighty. Yet, Jesus presented a God who is so close with the people. The people believed in an untouchable God who burdens them with so many laws to follow. Yet, Jesus introduced to them a God who heals the broken-hearted, who favored the poor and the despised. Their world taught them that they should be above others, to be rich, famous and powerful. But then, Jesus remained humble and poor, simple and unassuming, weak and powerless.

    The Lord desires that everyone will be saved, and will experience healing and peace, reconciliation and freedom. This is what we have heard from the first reading in the Book of Isaiah. It was an affirmation of God’s desire to gather every one whether Jews or Gentiles, sinners or saints, rich or poor. People from all nations will come to worship the Lord. Indeed, it is God’s desire that all will be saved by overcoming the division and hatred in each one through reconciliation

    However, as it was at the time of Jesus, we continue to prevent the Lord from making us closer to him. Our tendency to advance our selfish desires and interests at the expense of others, stops us in allowing the Lord to work in us. Selfishness and arrogance continue to hold us back from God.

    Yet, God’s salvation is offered to us freely, but not imposed on us. And so it means that salvation also requires our participation. This makes the door of salvation “narrow” because of the commitment that it entails as we live our life.

    To understand this better, the Letter to the Hebrews tells us on how we could enter that narrow gate. It is through “discipline.” The author wants to tell us that the trials and sufferings that we endure in this life are opportunities for us to be disciplined by God. And this is where we can participate with God.

    When we encounter problems and difficulties, and disappointments, particularly in your marriage, with your families, with your friends, with your studies, or work or business – do not retreat or become aggressive. Retreating or being aggressive will do us no good. These trials are opportunities for us to build our personality, to be responsible, to grow with confidence, to be committed, to be honest, and to gain more wisdom.

    But remember, in this kind of discipline, God never desires us to suffer or to be in pain. Pain and suffering are part of this world where we are now. Yet, God, in His wisdom, uses these human experiences of pain, suffering, disappointments, failures, and fears as ways to discipline us. These are doors for us to welcome God in our life so that He may be able to bring blessings upon us, to give us His peace and freedom. Certainly, God desires that we turn to Him and become closer to Him.

    Indeed, trials in life are ways for us to strip ourselves from our arrogance, to let go of our selfish desires, and to turn away from our sinful ways. These are the unnecessary baggage that will prevent us from entering the narrow gate. Yet, when we come as we are, without any pretensions and selfishness, then, we shall see that the narrow gate of Jesus is wider than us. 

    Thus, God’s way of disciplining us is not about punishing us and giving more pain to us, but to correct us, to mold us and to form us according to His desire for us. As we become conscious of this, we will discover the wonder of the process of working with God to mold us.

    Hence today, there are three invitations that I want you to remember and that also serves as your take aways.

    First, show and express God’s desire for the salvation of all. But how? It is by offering and giving of peace and reconciliation. This calls us to recognize pain the we have caused and to amend what we have done. This calls us too to embrace forgiveness no matter how difficult it may be for us. Only then, that we shall find healing and freedom.

    Second, God desires our active participation. This means that in the work of redemption we are not mere bystanders and mere observers. As we participate with God let us listen attentively to His voice in the scriptures, in our sacraments, in our culture, in our current events and with those who are suffering in many ways in our community, so that we may be able to respond with compassion and love, in justice and in mercy.

    Third, be instruments of God’s salvation. This calls us now that in whatever status or standing we have in our society, each of us is called to be an instrument of salvation, of healing and peace to each one and not agents of death and damnation, not agents of curse and hatred, not agents of corruption and dishonesty. Kabay pa.

  • Not Peace but Fire and Division

    Not Peace but Fire and Division

    August 14, 2022 – 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081422.cfm)

    It is confusing or even to some perhaps terrifying. We certainly want peace. We want unity. We want prosperity. Yet, Jesus asked us today, “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” He even said earlier, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”

    What Jesus actually means about this peace is the peace that the world knows. This peace is about the comfort and routine of life or of ‘business-as-usual.’ This means that we go and proceed to what we usually do in life by doing what we want and by satisfying our needs and desires, from mere complacency. This peace only knows about maintaining the status quo, that we are comfortable with and preserving an environment that will not disturb us. Yet, this peace is shallow and remains self-centered. It focuses on our ego.

    However, Jesus is not bringing this kind of peace but fire and division that will disturb us. This includes disturbing our comfort, our current situation, our complacency, passivity and routine.

    This is what we have also heard in the first reading from the Book of Jeremiah. Prophet Jeremiah by being true to the mission God gave him, disturbed the comfort and complacency of those in power and influence. By reminding the people of their covenant with God, “I am your God and you are my people,” they too were reminded that this covenant was bounded in fidelity and receptivity of God’s commands and of giving oneself for others. This role of the prophet includes the denouncement of the misdeeds and unfaithfulness committed especially by those in power and authority.

    But then, Jeremiah’s presence in constantly calling the people to repent, became a sore and threat to those who were in power. This was the reason why they wanted to silence and eliminate him by killing him. Yet, Jeremiah was rescued by a foreigner, Ebed-melech, who realized that Jeremiah was a prophet of God.

    This experience of Jeremiah must have made him realized too that indeed, it is dangerous to believe in God. Believing in God and committing to be faithful to the Lord is dangerous because we shall become a “sign of contradiction” to what is popular, to the comfortable and to the powerful.

    This brings us again to what Jesus said in today’s Gospel that “he has come to set the earth on fire, that he brings not peace but division.”

    Indeed, the Lord comes to disturb us when we have grown so attached with our comforts and when we are so caught up with maintaining to what is only beneficial for us.

    Thus, when we become passive, we do not want to be challenged, we do not want to go beyond and become life-giving. We do not want to confront ourselves and others because it might cost us conflict and division or to sacrifice the contentment that we apparently enjoy. But, God does not want us to become a person who becomes a prisoner of his/her own selfish desires. We will become abusive and corrupt yet the most insecure of all.

    Jesus does not want us also to just go with the flow and remain passive. We might find ourselves to settle to what is only easy, comfortable and beneficial by doing the same things, thinking the same thoughts and imagining the same ideas to the point that we refuse to do more and give more.

    This happens to us when we are trapped in our routine and comfort. We might go to mass every day, receive communion, say our prayers, doing the same sin again, do our work and struggle with the same problems without any change in our thoughts and actions as we relate with others. Or we might just bury ourselves in the same addiction, fall into the same bad habits and then feel guilty but later do the usual things again. Or in dipping ourselves into our abusive practices in our work, business or profession in order to advance our selfish and self-serving tendencies.

    It would be good, then, to ask ourselves, “What are the burdens that I am carrying? What are the sins that prevent me to go forward?”

    If we are able to ask ourselves these questions, then, this will help us to be open to the presence of Jesus. This presence of Jesus will disturb us because it will make us recognize our selfish desires. He disturbs us because he challenges us to go beyond, to go forward and not to settle to what is only comfortable for us. He disturbs us so that he will be able to bring true peace in us and in our community.

    The Lord wants us to find freedom. Jesus is not in favor in making ourselves passive, complacent, self-contained and self-satisfied yet stagnant. Jesus wants us to grow, to be mature and to become the person and community He wants us to be.

    This means that our relationship with God is not limited with what we are doing now, by just attending this Eucharist and that’s it. This Eucharist and the presence of Jesus in this celebration is not to be taken so lightly then.

    The invitation for us is to allow the Lord to touch and to disturb our complacency, passivity and routine so that we will be able to see things differently and wonderfully.

    Hopefully, as we allow the Lord to disturb us, we may be able to see new perspectives in life despite its monotony, more dynamic and life-giving ways of relating with people around us, and a deeper and a life-changing encounter with God through the ordinary expressions of our faith. And remember, this calls us to become “a sign of contradiction” to what is evil, abusive and oppressive by being pro-active, honest and courageous in expressing our faith and the values that we believe as Christians. Kabay pa.

  • Attentive To God’s Presence

    Attentive To God’s Presence

    August 7, 2020 – 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080722.cfm)

    Who among you here have dogs at home? Are you also aware on how your dogs would react whenever you come home? Once the dogs are left at home they can be anxious without the presence of their humans. Yet, dogs display patience and attention to wait for their humans to return home. Their attentiveness allows them to be more conscious of their surroundings. And when our dogs would sense our coming and smell our presence even at a distance, they begin to get excited. Dogs would wiggle their tails as a sign of excitement. And when they finally see us, they would make terrible sounds as their expression of joy, or lick us, jump on us and run around us. This shows us how our dogs can be intimately connected with us. Moreover, the attentiveness of our dogs to our presence has something to teach us on this 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

    The first reading from the Book of Wisdom tells us how the people patiently waited and hoped for the coming of the Lord. They had been suffering for many years from the Egyptians. Their children were massacred, properties confiscated, and they were made slaves until their death.

    We could imagine their fears and anxieties, as well as the feeling of being abandoned by God. But through the presence of Moses, the people realized God’s presence among them. God’s promise was to be fulfilled after all. As a result, we were told how the people prepared themselves for the Lord’s coming who shall free them from that suffering. As a community, they became more attentive to God’s presence.

    In the same way, the second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews allows us to recall the attitude of our grandfathers in the faith particularly of Abraham. Abraham was indeed a man who put his trust and faith completely to God. Abraham left the comfort of his family and friends, to journey to a land that God promised to him.

    Certainly, Abraham also felt anxiety and insecurity as he journeyed with God especially when God gave him Isaac and later demanded that Abraham should sacrifice his son. That was Abraham’s most vulnerable moment in his life. Yet, he realized too that everything he had were all from God. With that, he was grateful to God. That gratitude made his faith even stronger, despite the pain of sacrificing his son. Indeed, he allowed God to surprise him and to unfold God’s plan by completely trusting the wisdom of God.

    The surprise was to receive Isaac back and to become our father in faith today. His close relationship with God allowed him to go beyond his fears and anxieties by making him more attentive to God’s presence and invitations.

    This is what Jesus taught to his disciples in today’s Gospel of Luke. Jesus reminds us to grow in our attentiveness of his presence. The parable in the Gospel is an affirmation to a person who consciously makes himself/herself familiar to God’s presence. It is when we are attuned to God’s presence that we also become aware of the presence of other people around us. As a result, this makes our faith active and alive by being able to give life.

    However, the parable is also a warning to those who have become mediocre, complacent and procrastinator. These are attitudes of a person who is not attentive to God’s presence and has taken advantage the gifts given by the Lord. Therefore, the person is only concerned of himself/herself. This person would become the most insecure, most anxious and at the same time can also be the most vicious and abusive to others.

    Hence, a mediocre or complacent person is only contented in doing things below his/her potentials. It means that we do not really give the best in us but we settle to what is only lesser and comfortable for us.

    Thus, when we become so caught up with our comforts but then we refuse to go beyond by giving ourselves for others, when we refuse to let go of our grudges and hatred, and when we refuse to actively oppose the evils and unjust systems in the community, then, we have surely grown to become mediocre and complacent. We do not want to be challenged because we do not what to make a stand. We do not want to go beyond from ourselves and to give our full potentials for God and for others. We only give what is small and minimal. However, this is a life that refuses to recognize God’s presence and invitations.

    Moreover, a person who procrastinates loves to delay things like in making decisions and actions. This person does not see the need to respond because he/she is caught up with his/her own mood. Consequently, when we procrastinate in our faith, we feel bored, we feel empty, and we feel lifeless and so we see no reason at all to become life-giving.

    What is common with these attitudes is the fear to take risks. Remember, trusting God and believing in Him requires risks. Faith is to take risks as what the Hebrew people showed in waiting for God to free them and for Abraham to journey outside his comforts and in sacrificing Isaac. Yet, it is in taking risks that God makes wonders through us and in us. It is in taking risks that we grow in our consciousness of God’ presence in our life. And it is also in taking risks that we grow deeper in our relationships.

    Our dogs who patiently await for our coming every time we leave home, put their trust on us and so have taken the risk to trust us in providing them an emotional assurance. Hopefully, we too in our journey with God will grow in our attentiveness to God’s presence by taking the risk in believing in him and trusting God’s wisdom by avoiding from our tendency to become mediocre, complacent and procrastinator in our Christian faith. Kabay pa.