It was through the widow in Zarephath that Elijah was sent by the Lord. The land was in drought, people were poor and growing hungry because of the scarcity of food. Yet, the request of Elijah for some bread and water did not prevent the widow to give the small things she had. Indeed, the widow remained kind and accommodating to the stranger, Elijah, expressed through her generosity.
Through her generosity, it allowed the Lord to work wonders with her who despite her poverty and insecurity in life she remained kind. Consequently, the Scripture revealed to us how the jar of flour never been emptied and the jug of oil never been dry. This is God’s generosity and providence.
Generosity, then, is also an expression of trust and confidence in the providence and kindness of God. The Lord shall never let a generous and trusting person to run out of surprises in life.
But aside from the surprises that God does through our generosity, is also the effect of our generosity to people around us. The Gospel of Matthew today speaks of this as Jesus proclaims, “You are salt of the earth. You are light of the world.”
A generous heart brings life and light. It inspires and uplifts those who are struggling. Thus, a true believer of the Lord expresses generosity that comes from the heart in order to bring life and light into our homes, communities and organizations.
This may calls us then to express our generosity by not just extending our material resources to those in need, but also our presence and friendship, our understanding and compassion to those who need them. Kabay pa.
The caress of a mother or even of someone who is motherly to us, would always bring comfort and healing to an injured knee from running around to a broken-heart because of failures and hurts in our relationships and dreams. In fact, when we are caressed by our mother or by someone who is motherly to us, it soothes us and relaxes us. This is the wonder and the power of a motherly caress, loving and caring.
Today, just after celebrating the Solemnity of Pentecost, the Church celebrates and honors Mary, as the Mother of Church. The Gospel of John tells us how the crucified Jesus gives assurance to his disciples through the presence of Mary, as a mother. There at the cross, Mary, his mother stood and was in pain seeing how his son suffered and was about to die. Yet, that very moment also became an opportunity for Jesus to declare that presence of Mary as a mother to all disciples as he said, “Woman, behold your son.”
Indeed, the presence of Mary becomes also an assurance of that comfort and healing to the terrified disciples. Her caress as a mother to the disciples must have also given them the confidence. This is what we celebrate now!
Hence, in today’s feast of Mary, as our mother, our devotion to her also calls us now first, to be a comforting presence to one another, to our friends, family and people we shall meet. Second, that our touch may always be a caress that shall bring healingand life and will not become a violent touch that only bring pain, destruction and death. Kabay pa.
What keeps us from truly expressing ourselves? What prevents us from sharing ourselves to others? What stops us from being truly free? Fear of being not accepted, of being rejected and thus, of being hurt prevents us from being free, from sharing and opening up ourselves to and for others.
This is how our traumatic and painful experiences of abuse in whatever form that is, or of betrayal, of failures, shame and guilt, or of separation and death – could paralyze our relationships, damage our self-esteem and hamper our maturity in all aspects of life.
However, God desires that we become fully human according to God’s image, and that is by being truly free and having developed our full potentials as persons in all aspect of our life.
Today, as we celebrate the Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit into the Church, we are being reminded today of this desire of God for us to have peace, to be free, to be filled with all the good things that God offers us as individuals and as a Church.
So, allow me now to bring you a bit deeper into our readings today that we may also be able to see and claim what God has prepared for us today, on this Pentecost Sunday.
The Gospel that has been proclaimed to us today would tell us about the terrified situation of the disciples. The disciples were in hiding. They were terrified and so they locked themselves because of so much fear. They did not want to go out anymore, to socialize with their other friends and relatives or to continue preaching about the kingdom of God and healing people’s illnesses. They were rather filled with fear.
This tells us that fear can actually paralyze us. Fear can prevent us in making movements and in making decisions. Consequently, when we become fearful we also settle to what is only minimal and comfortable for us, then, this makes us complacent. We wont take risks because we are afraid of rejection and failure or of the possibility of another pain and hurts.
But then, such attitude could also make us controlling and demanding in our relationships to the point that we direct others on how they should treat us, or accommodate us and love us according to how we want it. We do not think of others then, because we do not want any compromise. We only think of ourselves, locked in those painful past but terrified of the present. This was how the terrified disciples kept themselves in a locked room. It was a paralysis to love and be loved, to forgive and be forgiven.
This is the very reason why Jesus appeared in the midst of his fearful disciples. Jesus wants them to get out from the attitude of fear. Jesus penetrated those fearful and closed hearts of the disciples and gave them PEACE. And that peace filled their hearts with the Holy Spirit. With that, it completely changed all of them.
The Holy Spirit indeed calmed and gave confidence to their terrified hearts, healed their wounded hearts, forgave their hearts that were found guilty, freed their imprisoned and locked hearts, and filled their hearts longing for love.
In fact, in the Acts of the Apostles, it was proclaimed to us how the Holy Spirit changed the disciples. That is why, aside from the noise that sounded like a violent wind and the tongues of fire that rested on each of them, there was a more interesting expression of the Spirit that happened there. The disciples of the Lord who were mostly Galileans proclaimed the goodness and power of God. Though they spoke in their own native language yet strangers and foreigners understood what the disciples were proclaiming about.
Yes, foreign peoples grasped what the disciples of Jesus had proclaimed because at that moment, they became confident and unafraid. They were able to get out from their fears of being persecuted, from their doubts about Jesus and from their insecurities of the coming days. They realized how good God is. They truly believed that “Jesus is Lord.”
All of these realizations were fruits of their journey with Jesus. With the Holy Spirit, the disciples found peace in their hearts, meaning, these fearful and doubtful disciples had at last found and recognized God in their life, in their human experiences. This is how the Holy Spirit creates and renews us, as the Psalm proclaims to us today. As we are being renewed by the Spirit then we shall begin to see and recognize God’s indwelling presence in everyone and in everything, and in every circumstance of our life.
Jesus said, “Peace be with you!” which also means, “I am with you!” because Jesus is the Prince of Peace. The Lord who is with his disciples sends them now. And so, they have become witnesses of Jesus – witnesses who convey God’s offer of salvation and love not just to a particular group of people but to all, to Jews and Greeks, to rich and poor, to you and to me.
This is also how the foreigners understood the disciples of the Lord and in effect were converted to believe in Jesus. Thus, a church was born, a church that is not fearful of persecutions and a church that joyfully sings God’s goodness and love.
What is it to you and to me now, as a church gathered here today?Our birthday celebration today is not meant to be a mere remembering of the distant past. This feast of the Pentecost calls us rather to relive and to re-experience the first Pentecost – and that is to experience again that confidence with God, being secured by his love, by being courageous and honest enough to share the kindness of God and his love to others.Because you and I, have already received the Holy Spirit.
We may be constantly aware, then, of the Holy Spirit in all of our human experiences and relationships. In that way, we may be renewed by the Spirit who is ready to free a heart locked in fear and insecurities, ready to calm and give confidence to our terrified heart, ready to heal our wounded heart, ready to forgive our heart that has been found guilty, and ready to fill a heart longing for love. Kabay pa.
There would be times in our life that we cannot help but compare negatively ourselves with others. We begin to see more defects, more failings, more pain and more insecurities in our life especially when we are also going through something and when life gets rough for us. That helplessness must have come from our desire to understand our situation and to cope up with the struggle we are going through.
Thus, we compare our insecurities against the fortunes and blessings of others to justify our situation. This must be our way of coping. Yet, we also know that it does not help us see beyond and move forward. The more we compare ourselves with others, the lesser we see ourselves and belittle our worth. This only brings us into a dead end.
This is how our relationships and understanding of oneself affect us when we grow in this kind of perspective and attitude. It can be a plague not just among young people but even among professionals, siblings, neighbors and colleagues. The bitterness of comparison and insecurities can poison our relationship with one another.
However, it is always God’s desire that we discover our full potentials, develop more our capacities and grow maturely in our relationships and become life-giving. This is what Jesus wanted for Peter to realize also.
In today’s Gospel, Peter expressed his anxiety to Jesus over the beloved disciple. Peter was anxious and perhaps also curious on what would happen to the beloved disciple. Peter asked, “Lord, what about him?” He must have other questions in mind like, “What are your plans for him? Do you have something in mind for him aside from me?” That anxiety of Peter must have come from jealousy because of the fact that the disciple was called “beloved,” meaning, the favorite of Jesus. This was how also word (gossip) spread among the brothers that the beloved disciple would not die.
Yet, Jesus said, “What concern is it of yours?” Jesus wanted Peter to recognize his potentials, to fully embrace what he was capable of, and to respond generously to Jesus’ call for him and not be distracted by what others have. Jesus wanted Peter to trust him completely because Jesus shall work many wonders with Peter and in each one of them according to their talents and personalities.
In fact, the Gospel told us today, “there are so many things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.” This, indeed, is a statement how the Lord worked wonders with Peter and in each of the disciples.
In each of us too, Jesus works many wonders with us if we would allow him to. Hence, these are God’s invitation for us today.
First, when we begin the cycle of comparing ourselves from others, catch that mentality and attitude then begin to shift our perspective. Let us begin recognizing our own worth, reclaiming our potentials and talents. This will surely help us to become confident with ourselves by becoming more grateful.
Second, to trust fully the Lord. Trusting the Lord does not mean that we will not be able to feel frustrated and disappointed anymore. The Lord may bring or call us to situations that we personally do not want. The Lord may work wonders with us in the way we do not expect it to be that way. Thus, trusting fully the Lord is allowing ourselves to become confident with ourselves and confident in God’s presence doing many wonders with us and through us. Kabay pa.
Peter was asked by the Lord, “Do you love me more than these?” And Peter responded that his love for the Lord was beyond his failings, beyond his fears, beyond his denials, beyond his doubts. His love was a response of a greater love he received from God who despite his human failings, he was blessed and called.
Such love moved Peter to respond fully and offer completely his whole life and to let go of other things in his life. Those things include his hurts and pains, his personal dreams, career and even family, moved him to be completely available for God and for others.
This is a story that totally changed a person’s understanding of himself, a person’s perspective of life and relationships, and of a person’s belief in God. Remember, Peter was hopeless after the death of Jesus. He was filled with guilt because of his denial of Jesus. He was in darkness. This was the reason why we went back to fishing, going back again to his old self, old way of life and old ways of coping from problems and trials in life.
Yet, we also find the presence of Jesus, who never surrendered on Peter. There was the Risen Lord calling again Peter and the other disciples to find and recognize the Lord even at that disappointing night of catching nothing.
Love then is beyond our human feelings. Love is beyond our light and joyful moments in life even beyond our failings and pains. Love entails our daily commitment and generous response. It calls us to care for others, to look and tend for the welfare of others and to be able to give life for others.
This was how Peter was asked three times and was told also three times to tend and feed Jesus’ sheep, that is God’s people, God’s Church. Peter in return understood that he was loved by the Lord beyond his failures and inadequacies. Peter saw his potentials and gift to become a loving and a life-giving person to be expressed in his ministry.
In the same way, the Lord also calls us today, to respond in love that we way also be able to recognize that despite our failures, we are being loved unconditionally. And that despite our other attachments in life, we are asked to make it clear that God is our priority, that the Lord takes the central part of our thoughts and hearts.
May this allow us to constantly change our selfish and fear-motivated thoughts and actions into a free, caring and life-giving act of love wherever we are at this moment, and whatever is our status today. Kabay pa.
A DOSE OF GOD TODAY 