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Category: Fr. Mario Masangcay, CSsR

  • Fulfilling God’s commandments?

    Fulfilling God’s commandments?

    March 10, 2021 – Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031021.cfm)

    There was once a man who went to the priest to seek advice. He asked the priest, “Father, what else must I do to lead a holy life? Well, so far, I have not taken the Lord’s name in vain. I have not profaned the Lord’s. I have not dishonored my father or mother. I have not killed anyone. I haven’t been unfaithful to my wife. I have not stolen. I have not borne false witness against anyone. And I have not coveted my neighbor’s wife or good.”

    The priest replied, “So, in other words, you know God’s commandments & have not broken any of them.” “Yes” that’s right“, the man replied. “But have you kept or fulfilled the commandments?” priest asked. “What do you mean?” said the man. “I mean: have you honored God’s holy name? Have you kept holy the Lord’s Day? Have you loved and honored your parents? Have you sought to preserve and defend life? When was the last time you told you wife that you loved her? Have you shared your goods with the poor? Have you defended the good name of anyone? When was the last time you put yourself out to help a neighbor?” Have you loved others as you have loved God and yourself?” You may not have broken God’s commandments but have you fulfilled them?

    Surely we are familiar with God’s commandments. Moses even reminds us today in our reading that we should observe God’s decree and statutes. But what is our attitude towards God’s law and commandments? Is it enough just to observe and not break it or are we doing or fulfilling what it directs us?

    Jesus in our gospel today reiterates to us his listeners that He has not come to abolish the Law and Prophets but to fulfill it. Here, Jesus particularly denounced our minimalist attitude and tendency towards God’s commandment. For Jesus, God’s commandments are more than just human tradition and religious observances or practices. Keeping God’s commandments is not a matter of not breaking or breaking the law but more on actively living out and practicing (i.e. obeying & teaching) its true spirit in our relationship with God and others. In other words, God’s commandments are to be observed not because God says so, but it is & should be our rightful attitude and behavior with God, and through it, we might share God’s salvation and may have life to its fullness.

    Sin of omission is our sin for not doing what should be done or for failing to do what we should do. In other words, the sin of not living what we believe and of not practicing what we preach, and not fulfilling the commandments.

    During this season of Lent, we are called not only to be sorry for the sins that we have done but most important, we must ask forgiveness for the sins of failing to fulfill and do what we should do. And above all, Lent is the time to make thing right before God & others.   May the Lord then, in his love and mercy, forgive us not only for breaking his commandments but failing to fulfill it in our relationship with God and others, & so that we may have anew right relationship with Him. So Help us God, So may it be.   Amen.

  • General House Cleaning

    General House Cleaning

    March 7, 2021 – Third Sunday of Lent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030721-YearB.cfm)

    When was the last time you have a general house or room cleaning? When was the last time you yourself have cleaned your own house? Or how many times have you yourself have cleaned your own room?

    Do you believe that a simple activity of cleaning your room or house yourself can be a learning and life-changing experience? Yes. Try to do a general cleaning of your house or just your room, and you get to know a lot of things about yourself as well as be in touch with your present priorities, needs, resources, response, expectations, difficulties, frustrations, adjustments, and challenges in life.

    Tedious and tiring chores it may be, if we really reflect on it, house cleaning can be a necessary exercise and opportunity to improve your life. First, by house-cleaning, you will not only get a good physical exercise, you can also have a review of your life. You see, clean and treasure again what you have at present – like, your gifts, resources, plans, resolutions, and dreams. You can be in touch again with your present state of being – your difficulties, adjustments, & struggles, and make reality check of your identity, commitments, and decisions. Second, cleaning your place could be your chance to re-arrange and re-adjust your needs, wants, priorities and expectations in a more realistic manner. Along the way, you may have collected a lot of clutters, stuffs or abobots in life that are not valuable, important, and useful anymore in your journey. House-cleaning is the time to let go and say goodbye to non-essentials and to take care of what are really essentials and truly important in life. Lastly, house-cleaning can be the chance to renew and re-commit to life you choose to live. As you clean your room, you begin take hold and control, direct and make sense of your life again, and in effect, making your life more livable, tolerable, and meaningful.

    You might wonder why we are talking about house or room-cleaning today.

    Our liturgy and its readings today are telling us a simple and profound message: We are today’s God’s home, and we do need cleaning at times.

    Beyond the story about Jesus making a scene and being angry and wild inside the temple, Jesus in our gospel today is doing and calling all people then and now for a General House Cleaning. For Jews then and us today, the temple is considered to God’s home – the sacred place where God resides, lives, and dwells. We need then to revere, consecrate, respect, and behave well and righteously in God’s temple for it is where God incarnates and reveals Himself. God’s temple then is moment in space and time where and when we meet God and be with God. And at the very core of Jesus message is that God’s presence is not anymore confine into a place but now accessible and presented to all through and in Jesus. Jesus is the New Jerusalem. Jesus is God’s new temple. And whoever believes in Him, God and Jesus will reside in him.  This means that we who believes in Christ today are now the extensions and representations of God’s temple. We are then today’s God’s sacred home where God resides, lives and dwells.  This is how fortunate, privilege and sacred we are and we should be.

    However sacred, fortunate, privilege Home to God we may be, we do need at times house or room cleaning. As today’s God’s home, we may be undeserving, unworthy, and unruly to such honor and dignity. Sometimes we may not recognize, appreciate, and commit with such dignity, and worse, may neglect and reject the privilege of being and becoming God’s home. And during these times, we need spiritual house-cleaning. We need to review our life, re-arrange and re-adjust, and recommit our life according to our identity as God’s home.

    Lent is the time for our general spiritual house or room cleaning – the time to review life, the time to re-adjust and re-arrange one’s life, time to recommit to life in order to be and become today’s God’s home anew.

    Again, when was the last time you yourself clean your own house or room? Try to do it again these days and it may improve your life for the better, as a person as well as a Christian.

    Jesus during the first Sunday of Lent challenges us “Repent & Believe the Gospel”. God in the Lord’s Transfiguration last Sunday during the second Sunday of Lent proclaims to us: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him”. Now on the third Sunday of Lent Jesus confronts us: “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace” – meaning, make God’s home Sacred, righteous & holy in us. In other words, let us do a good general spiritual house-cleaning & consecrate anew our lives to our Lord Jesus Christ.

    So Help us God & Bless Us always. So May it Be. Amen.

  • Great Leaders

    Great Leaders

    March 3, 2021 – Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030321.cfm)

    Months from now, we will find ourselves preparing for national and local election. Campaign fever will then be on the hype. Candidates will have their own way and gimmicks of selling and advertising themselves. Meaning, they broadcast their own greatness, i.e. how great they are that they should deserve our votes.

    But what is greatness? What does the world consider great nowadays? Who do we regard as great people today? Where does greatness rest? How do we measure greatness? Is it in popularity, good looks, eloquence, wealth, family heritage, influence, prestige or power? Do we still fall for the allurement that greatness of leaders lay in guns, gold and goons? Are people great because of their successes, achievements, awards and credentials?

    Jesus has indeed a different view and perception of what greatness is. Here, Jesus was warning his disciples of his coming suffering, persecution and resurrection, but his disciples were more pre-occupied and concerned about who is the greatest among them. He then rebuke and warned them: “whoever wishes to be great among you, you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you, you shall be your slave.” In other words, if you want to be great, be servant of all.  If you want to be first, be a slave to all. For him, there is greatness in humble service and true greatness resides in humble service. He wants us to be servant-leaders, leaders who lead not by power or greatness but through humble service to others.

    Many candidates for government office and leadership today declare that they decide to run because they claim they want to serve the Filipino people. They also advocate that only through their greatness and power they can serve us, Filipino. They promise that if we vote for them, they will serve us more and better than before and others.

    If they are really serious with their promise of service, the test is after the election. If they win, would they serve us or serve themselves? If they lose, would they still serve us?

    Jesus is telling our would-be leaders today: “If you want to be great, if you want to lead, if you want to be first, be a servant and slave of all. Practice what you preached. Walk the talk.”

    For us now who have another chance to practice our right to vote our leaders, may we be wise enough to choose our leaders by their humble service to the nation rather than by their popularity, power and authority-based greatness.

    As we pray to have good conscientious leaders, may we also be conscientious and wise enough to elect & vote rightful servant leaders for the future of our country & society. So Help Us God. So May it be. Amen.

  • L-I-S-T-E-N

    L-I-S-T-E-N

    February 28, 2021 – Second Sunday of Lent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022821.cfm)

    Once a man approached a priest and asked, “Father, how come God seems so absent and silent? Why we don’t feel and hear him listening to us anymore as He used to be? Why does God no longer speak to us His people?” The priest sadly replied, “It is not that God no longer speaks to His people. It is that no one these days can stoop down low & silent enough to listen. No one… can stoop down low & silent enough… to listen.”

    Occasionally (if not most often) we experience the absence and silence of God in Jesus. Though we trust and believe that God is with us – the Lord is with us, we live through moments in life where God and Jesus seem distant and silent. But is God really no longer listening and talking to us? Has he really abandoned us? Or is it we become too noisy, self-preoccupied, or high and far enough to listen to Him?

    During last Ash Wednesday this year, Pope Francis in his message suggests some things that we may fast from this Lenten Season. Like fasting from hurting words, sadness, anger, pessimism, worries, complaints, bitterness, selfishness, grudges & finally, from words. Noteworthy is his last final suggestion: “Fast from words; be silent and listen.” Sound simple, but we do know how difficult for ourselves to be deprived of and abstained from words nowadays. With a lot of things happening & going on, both our world outside & our world inside ourselves are getting noisier & noisier to the point that we cannot anymore hear ourselves & don’t know anymore how to listen to others, much more to God. If we really come to think of it, sometimes we do truly need to fast from our words so that we may become silent in order to listen to God, others & ourselves. We do know the destructive ill-effects of miscommunication, misinformation, & fake news to our lives today, simply because of our irresponsible use of our words & our unwillingness to listen. At this time, we should be wise-enough to be careful to use our words, for it can make life Better OR Bitter. Learn to listen first before using our words.

    It is also interesting that if we happen to play with the letters in the word: LISTEN, we may realize different levels of meaning. Try to rearrange all the letters in the word: Listen, and form other words using all & same letters… Well, from the word, “Listen”, we can form the words “silent” & “enlist” & nothing else. From these words: listen, silent, enlist, we may form the challenge: “Enlist oneself to be silent in order to listen”, or “Be silent, enlist oneself to listen”, or “Listen, silently enlist oneself”. All of these reflects the need to for us to willingly be quiet ourselves in order to hear what is being said. In other words, to opt for silent listening amidst our noisy words & our noisy world.   

    In our gospel today, we hear that the apostles heard God saying to them: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; LISTEN to Him.” Their experience of the Lord’s transfiguration has the same very simple message: Jesus is His beloved Son – God’s gift and word to us, so we must acknowledge and listen to Him intently. And we can only do this – acknowledge and listen to Jesus – like the apostle, not in noise, pre-occupation, and ambitions of our hearts, but in the shadow of God’s seeming silence and absence. Only by experiencing God’s silence that we recognize God’s glory in Lord’s transfiguration, transformation in our lives and hear intently God’s will for us now.

    In other words, “Be Quiet (Don’t be noisy) for the Lord is with us and He has something to say for us. Huwag kang maingay, Narito sya at may sasabihin sa atin. Ayaw’g saba. Ania siya ug naay ika-sulti nato. Di pag-gahud, Ari siya. May inug-hambal sa aton. Jesus is God’s word for us. So, LISTEN to Him. Makinig Sa kanya. Minaw Niya ba.

    Pope Francis also once said: “People listen to radio, to TV and to gossips throughout the day, but do we take a bit a time each day to listen to Jesus?” True, we spend a lot of time listening to and knowing about others. We also may spend some time listening to and knowing about ourselves. But do we spend some time to listen to and know Jesus? Listening to Jesus entails praying low enough in and with God’s silence. Only in silent prayer, we can recognize Him and listen to Him. Thus, we do need to fast from our words in order to be silent enough to listen to Him.  

    So next time you find yourself restless and sleepless at night, stop counting sheep. Talk to the shepherd. Pray then silently and listen to Him, for the Lord has something to say and then you will hear what He got to say, especially during this Lenten Season & on our pandemic times.

    So Help us God, So May it Be. Amen.

  • Of Peter & Judas

    Of Peter & Judas

    February 21, 2021 – First Sunday of Lent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022121.cfm)

    What’s the difference between Judas & Peter? We know both are trusted disciples of Jesus (Peter as the coordinator, Judas as the treasurer). Both also have failed the Lord through Peter’s denial & Judas’ betrayal. But what’s the difference between them?

    After all things happened, Judas ended and gave up his life by killing himself thus giving the risen Lord NO chance to forgive and love him again & anew. Peter however despite what happened, humbly waited until the Lord resurrection, thus giving the risen Lord the chance to forgive and love Peter again and anew. In other words, Repentance and Faith made the difference. Unlike Judas, Peter repented and still believed in the risen Lord – which gives the Lord the chance to forgive and love Him again and anew.

    The very basic message Jesus always preaches us is that: “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand”. This is the fullest expression of God’s covenant to us – that God is already near and always here with us through His Son Jesus. And as response, this Gospel of God’s blessing challenges us “To Repent and Believe the Gospel”. Amidst this Good news then, all we have to do, and what is required of us is to choose repentance and faith in Jesus as our response to the good news of God’s grace upon us always. By our repentance and faith then, we allow and give God’s gospel a chance to forgive and love us again and anew, and in effect change our lives now for the better.

    And along with God’s message, our response of repentance and faith entail a few realizations…

    First, a realization that “there is something wrong here”. Repentance and faith begin to happen when we realize that our very life now is out of sync, or out of tune with God’s message. There is something wrong, missing or lacking with one’s life – that we are not what we should be and what we choose to be.

    2nd, a realization that “I am wrong”. Repentance and faith occur when in all honesty, openness, and courage we admit that we our very selves here are to blame and are the very mistake and wrong.

    3rd, a realization that “I need to change & help”. Only by taking responsibility for our mistakes, (not by blaming others) and by accepting God’s mercy and other’s help, Good news & good things start to happen. If you want change, begin with oneself.

    4th, a realization that “I want to be…I choose to be”. Repentance and Faith require not only changes but also commitments. It is all about starting again and starting anew – giving oneself another chance in life. It is not only about leading a life away from something, but leading a life toward something better and meaningful.

    5th, a realization that “I believe in God and His Good News of Jesus as God’s kingdom is here now at hand”. Repentance and Faith thrive only when, like Peter we always allow and give God’s message a chance to forgive and love us again and anew, and thus make our life better.

    In sum, repentance and faith demand our realization that: “there is something wrong here, and I am the one wrong – needing change and help, choosing and wanting to be better again, and believing anew in God”.

    Remember Jesus commanded us not only to repent but “to repent and believe”. This means that as much as repentance is a choice, believing the Gospel is also a choice. Obeying the command to repent and believe then is a choice. Requiring someone to repent and believe is thus useless, unless repenting and believing is their own choice.

    The Gospel has already always been preached to us: “The Kingdom of God is at hand”. All we have to do now is like Peter to choose “To repent and believe the Gospel”, as we were reminded last Ash Wednesday when we received the Ashes to begin Lenten Season this year 2021.

    So Help us God. So May it Be. Amen.