Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Fr. Jom Baring, CSsR

  • WINNING THE HEART OF GOD

    WINNING THE HEART OF GOD

    June 15, 2020 – Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061522.cfm)

    Jesus warns us about our narcissistic tendencies. We might not be aware of our tendency to draw other people’s attention to us, of winning their praise. Indeed, there is a need for us to purify our every motivation and action so that we will live free and become true generous Christians.

    Jesus takes this seriously as he reminds his disciples in today’s Gospel. To follow Christ is not to seek the attention of others, or to seek praise and approval of those people around us. A disciple of the Lord does not need to put up a billboard and announce to people what he/she has done and accomplished.

    The Lord is more concerned with our heart so that we don’t have to pretend to be someone else we are not. This happened to the hypocrites in the synagogues that Jesus was talking about. These people pretended to be the best person in their community. They proclaimed and told people how good and righteous they were. They did all these to seek recognition from the people. Indeed, they craved for people’s attention and approval because they too were hungry of power and control.

    People who constantly seek the attention of others and their recognition ultimately manipulate others so that they will be in control and will become powerful. Yet, it also reveals how these people are so insecure on what they have and on what they don’t have.

    In fact, that insecurity boiling in the heart, can make the person vicious at the event when he or she receives criticism from others. The person will surely not be able to stand to be criticized by others for he or she only thinks and believes that he/she is always right and good. Thus, the person would not accept any correction and would be rejecting to any challenge.

    However, as a people who seek God, we are rather called to be more confident with Him, and with our relationship with the Lord. Our generous actions, good deeds, our prayer and religious practices must flow from that relationship. Deepening one’s relationship with God should be our primary motivation and not in boasting oneself. This relationship with God should also lead us to recognize God’s generosity and faithfulness in us despite our failures. Then, this will hopefully inspire us to respond with gratitude to God. To become a grateful person will surely make us a generous person in words and actions. This will make us closer to people around us and to God.

    This is how we could also explain the glorious departure of Elijah. The prophet showed his passion and dedication to the Lord. He was not anymore after anything for himself, but for God alone. Elijah, therefore, had grown in his relationship with the Lord God, the reason why he was taken alive by the Lord to heaven.

    Moreover, Jesus  also invites us today to look closely at our behaviors and attitudes, practices and devotions if these are helping us to be closer and to be more like Jesus or if these are rather, moving us away from God and from others.

    To remind ourselves about this, let us ask ourselves with these questions, “Who is being honored and served by my good deeds, by my generous actions and by my religious devotions? Is it myself or is it God? Do they lead me closer to God and to others or do they rather lead me away from the Lord?”

    By allowing these questions to sip into our mind, may we be filled with the desire to only win the heart of God and not the praise of others. Kabay pa.

  • Love and Prayer bring us to Peace and Healing

    Love and Prayer bring us to Peace and Healing

    June 14, 2022 – Tuesday Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061422.cfm)

    To hit back when we are hurt can sometimes be our immediate response. Even without thinking, a child may hit a playmate when he or she is hurt. Among us adults, this kind of attitude is also evident, as a simple misunderstanding would lead to endless quarrels, lawsuits and even violence. This sounds actually simple and natural yet this has big implications in our relationships.

    Yet, Jesus taught his disciples to “love your enemies and pray those who persecute you.” Is it not ridiculous? Our natural response is to hit back thinking that hitting back takes away our pain and anger. However, Jesus teaches the other way around, to love our enemies and pray for those who have hurt us.

    But, how could we love those who have hurt us, those who have abused us, those who betrayed us and caused us pain in our life? Our immediate response is to take our revenge. If we cannot express physical violence against them, then, we express it in our words and on how we treat others and ourselves. But most of all, we linger to hatred, to pain and anger.

    We do not realize that once we let aggression, violence, hatred and anger to dominate in our hearts and minds, we become prisoners of our own pain. Then, the pain that we endure leads us to feelings of more anger, hatred and bitterness. When we linger to these they will lead us to a heart that seeks only revenge.

    However, we when find love and forgiveness in our hearts that begins with accepting and embracing those painful experiences and go on with life, then, we will be free. Loving one’s enemies or those whom we hate is an expression of mercy and forgiveness that will make us free. It will not erase the scar of betrayal or abuse or pain that we endure but we will be able to stand up, to wipe our tears, go on with life and transform pain into kindness.

    Thus, for us who have done wrong to others and caused damage, Jesus also calls us to humble ourselves and acknowledge our sins. Our Psalm expresses today a humble heart that fully recognizes ones sins and evil done to others. In recognizing our sins, this also entails responsibility to what we have done. Hence, this how justice and mercy shall meet.

    Certainly, the Lord desires that each of us becomes free of guilt so that peace and reconciliation shall be in us. The Lord wants us to be free and not to be prisoners of anger, hatred, bitterness, guilt and violence.

    Showing love then, is not about telling the person, that what he/she did was okay and pretend as if nothing happens. No!  Of course not. If we have caused pain and damage, then, that really happened and there is a need for us to acknowledge and take responsibility from such action.

    Love and prayer, then, bring us towards reconciliation and healing to our wounded heart so that we will be free and at peace. This means that we choose love and not anger and hatred and we choose God and not evil. Kabay pa.

  • GIVE NO CHANCE TO EVIL TO CONTROL OUR HEART

    GIVE NO CHANCE TO EVIL TO CONTROL OUR HEART

    June 13, 2022 – Monday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061322.cfm)

    It was violent, cruel, brutal and merciless. These are some of the words one could describe on what happened with Naboth the Jezreelite. He refused to give up his ancestral heritage but was falsely accused. He was treated with so much brutality, viciously framed for a crime he did not commit and murdered in daylight by the minions of Jezebel.

    And no one stood for Naboth. Nobody dared to defend him. King Ahab, on the other hand, though did not commit the crime directly but played passively. He was passive because he did not want to be involved himself. Yet, he did not also choose to stop Jezebel because he knew he would be able to benefit from such corrupt and murderous act of her wife.

    This tells us really that no matter how much possessions we may have or no matter how secured we can be materially, or no matter how much power and influence we may possess, it does not mean that we will be satisfied. This has been shown already by Ahab even before the murder. Ahab was disturbed and angry because he did not get what he wanted despite he did not need it. Because of that greed of Ahab through the cunning and vicious plans and actions of Jezebel, the little possession of Naboth was taken away from him including his life.

    Is God then, blind to this kind of crime committed against the weak and powerless? Our Psalm proclaims to us today the prayer of a man like Naboth, “Lord, listen to my groaning.” This is an appeal to the Lord to listen to that groan filled with pain. It is a cry for help from a person who find life too much to bear because of the exploitation and abuse from others.

    The author of the Psalm also recognized that indeed, the Lord is not blind or deaf to that painful groan for the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and the deceitful. This is the very image that Jezebel gained after that murderous act, bloodthirsty and deceitful.

    However, what is more puzzling in today’s invitation from the Lord for us is this, “offer no resistance to one who is evil.”

    Does it mean that we become passive to the abuses committed against us, against the weak and the powerless? In the case of Naboth, it was perhaps even impossible to resist because the evil scheme against him was just too overwhelming. He was alone.

    However, to offer no resistance to one who is evil has a deeper meaning. Not to resist to one who is evil, is not allowing evil to control us. Meaning, once we fight back to one who is evil it may bring us into the same position of the one who is evil. We shall tend to resort to the same violence. Hence, responding evil with evil or responding to violence with violence will only bring us into an endless cycle of evil and violence.

    The wisdom of Jesus lies in the offer of peace. To offer the other cheek when someone strikes us on the right cheek, though this sounds ridiculous for many of us, is an opportunity for the one who hurt us to embrace peace and reconciliation. Peace and reconciliation is truly a difficult path. A very unpopular one. However, this is the only way to end the cycle violence and evil.

    Moreover, this is not an excuse to just remain passive to the abuses and other forms of oppression. It does not mean that when your spouse physically abuse you, or a family member is sexually abusing you, or a friend or colleague is exploiting your goodness and generosity, or a powerful and influential person oppressed the weak in the society that we remain passive and indifferent. The teaching of Jesus is meant to keep violence at the minimum and not to escalate more violence towards others and ourselves. In such situations, we are called to get out from the abusive relationship, to demand justice and reparation and show mercy.

    To demand justice then is to make the perpetrator take the responsibility and the consequences. To show mercy is to get rid of hatred and anger within our hearts for us to live freely by offering peace and reconciliation towards those who have wronged us.

    Therefore, God invites us today to live freely by not allowing evil to control us or to have an access into our hearts by holding on to grudges, hatred, anger and selfishness. God calls us to be more satisfied with what we have and to be grateful of the blessing God gave to us so that unlike Ahab, our hearts won’t grow ungrateful and corrupt. God calls us too that in the event when an evil act is committed against us, do not give a chance to evil to have a control over us by resorting to evil also. Jesus calls us to offer peace, not violence, not anger, not hatred, and not also indifference in the face of evil and violence. Offer peace that gives and promotes life. Kabay pa.

  • GROWING IN #RELATIONSHIPGOAL WITH THE HOLY TRINITY

    GROWING IN #RELATIONSHIPGOAL WITH THE HOLY TRINITY

    June 12, 2022 – Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061222.cfm)

    Our faith in the Holy Trinity is central to our Christian Faith and Tradition. So let me remind you that our faith in the Holy Trinity, recognizes and worships the TRIUNE GOD. God’s self-revelation to us takes the form of three different Divine Persons – that is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

    We also need to understand and have a firm belief that each Divine Person in the Holy Trinity is different. This means that God the Father is not God the Son, and that God the Father and God the Son is not God the Holy Spirit. Yet, they are One God. Quite confusing right? Don’t worry, this mystery of the Holy Trinity also confused many because it is beyond logic and beyond the basic mathematical formula.

    Nevertheless, the HOLY TRIUNE GOD, as much as the Bible revealed to us and our ancestors in the faith, like the Church Fathers many centuries ago taught us, God’s self-revelation or God’s Divine Revelation in our human history is through the Person of God the Father, through the Person of God the Son and through the Person of God the Holy Spirit.

    Since, God is One in Three, this must also be understood that even at the very beginning, the Triune God is responsible for the creation of the world, though we attribute creation with the Father, as the creator. The same also with the redemption of the world from sin and death, the Triune God out of great love for the world sent Jesus Christ, the God the Son. The same also goes in sanctifying the world. It is the Triune God that sanctifies and renews the face of the earth through the sending of the Holy Spirit into the world and into our hearts.

    With these, I want you to pay more attention to the word RELATIONSHIP. As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, each of us today also is called to share in the life of our God. We can only share that life through our relationship with the Triune God.

    Now, allow me to journey with you through the readings we have today and see how this relationship is unfolded in us and how does this call today.

    The Book of Proverbs tells us that the Wisdom of God is being personified. It was proclaimed, “Thus says the wisdom of God: “The LORD possessed me, the beginning of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago; from of old I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth.”

    This expresses that the wisdom of God is responsible for all the things we have in the world, both the seen and unseen. More than that, this also tells us how the wisdom of God nurtures life. The wisdom of God creates and recreates, animates and gives life. Thus, this is how the love of the Father-Creator overflows to us, to every living and non-living being.

    This is affirmed in our Psalm today, God’s fingers and God’s hands created many wonders. And everything is created out of love and out of goodness. So, look around you, see and realize how the wisdom of God is revealed to us every day and in every single moment of our life. This, indeed, is #relationshipgoal with the Father-Creator whose wisdom and love gives and nurtures life.

    Moreover, the second reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans tells us also about the grace of peace. Paul speaks of this grace through his faith in Jesus. That faith develops and nurtures his relationship with Jesus. This tells us too that faith, certainly, is not something abstract or a mere idea in the mind. But, it is a relationship with God.

    But, let us also remember, St. Paul, at first, did not like Jesus because he did not understand him. Paul hated Jesus because everything about him was an insult to his personal belief and perspective in life. In fact, his hatred for Jesus made him a violent torturer of the first Christians. But then, something happened. Paul whose name before was Saul, met Jesus when he was on his way to Damascus. And when he met Jesus, what he only saw was light and that light blinded him.

    His blindness moved him to seek help and seek the grace of healing. Thus, his encounter with Jesus brought him to the true light. This was how he recovered his sight but now seeing in a different perspective. He began to see and understand things through the love of God to him.

    This was how Saul got his name Paul, as a way of change in his life, his story of conversion to Jesus’ friendship. Now, Paul became convinced of this friendship with Jesus, in fact, in his letter to the Romans, Paul expressed his #friendshipgoal with Jesus. Paul personally felt and experienced God’s love and forgiveness for him through the person of Jesus.

    Finally, in today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about the Spirit of Truth who shall be our guide. The gift of the Holy Spirit as we have celebrated it last Pentecost Sunday, is God reaching out into our hearts, to bring that peace, renewal and life in us. Thus, the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son (John 14:26 and 16:7) so that God may be in us and we, in God. This is how the Holy Spirit purifies and sanctifies us or makes us holy in our daily lives.[1]

    This is now the #relationshipgoal with the Holy Spirit. Moreover, St. Paul reminded us in his letter that the Holy Spirit has been given to us already. In effect, the gift of the Spirit makes us comfortable with each other. It means that we don’t consider ourselves as strangers to one another, but a family, a group of friends not afraid of one another. Because in this friendship we open up ourselves to one another and to God, all our imperfections and weaknesses, sharing our strengths, talents, riches and our very life.

    Now, out of these, there are three more hashtags that calls to grow in our #relationship-goal with the Holy Trinity.

    First, #Nurture. As God the Father nurtures the whole creation, as a person, nurture your talents and gifts so that you may be able to develop and realize your every potential in the way God desires it.

    Second, #Buildrelationships. As Jesus came and dwelt among us, he encountered people personally by building friendship with them. This is evident on how he gathered and called his disciples. Through a personal encounter, Jesus built lasting and intimate friendships. Thus, as a person, make friends, build healthy relationships.

    Third, #ReachOut. God has reached out to us through the Holy Spirit who shall remind, teach and guide us. Through the Holy Spirit, God’s presence dwells in us. That is why, be daring enough to reach out also to others, make your presence felt by those who need a friend. Be bold enough to extend and give yourself for the sake of others, for that brother or sister who may be struggling right now. Be there for that person. Be God’s presence for those who are troubled. Kabay pa.

    [1] Arlandson, “A Brief Explanation of the Trinity.”

  • A WHISPERING SOUND

    June 10, 2022 – Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061022.cfm)

    Elijah realized that he missed so many things and was distracted by many overwhelming events in his life. Consequently, he failed to see and recognize God’s abiding presence revealed in the most ordinary ways. This tells us that in order for us to keep our focus on God and not on those overwhelming fears and threats that we may have at this moment, is to also keep a constant awareness of God’s presence. God reveals his divine presence in ordinary and simple ways. In ways, if we are not fully aware, we could just take for granted.

    Why? Because God does not come to threaten us with His presence or to threaten us with his power. The Lord comes “like a tiny whispering sound” to caress us and to comfort our troubled hearts. This was the experience of Elijah as he went out from his hiding place and encountered God, not in those imposing and overwhelming wind, earthquake and fire, but in that whispering sound.

    This invites us now that for us to welcome God also, then, like Elijah we have to do our part. We have to step forward or to go ahead of our fears, of our sins and failures, or our sadness and grief.

    The Gospel today describes this movement of welcoming God in an attitude that leads us to freedom by “tearing off and cutting off” those that are dragging us into the cave of our fear and selfishness. Remember, Elijah’s fears dragged him into the cave to hide. Yet, as God invited him, Elijah also has to cut off or to stop even for a moment those fears that dragged him deep into the cave of his fear. True enough, as Elijah did that, he too found courage to meet God who waited for him.

    The words of Jesus in the Gospel give a deeper meaning, “If your right eye causes you to sin, then, tear it out and throw it away,” or “if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” Jesus wants us to tear off and cut off sin from our system that only separates us from God and from others. Jesus wants us to tear off and cut off our fears that are dragging us down to the cave to hide.

    May we have the courage then, to meet and encounter the Lord even in the most simple and ordinary ways so that God may also transform us, free and heal us today. Kabay pa.