Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Fr. Mario Masangcay, CSsR

  • Faith Status

    Faith Status

    February 11, 2021 – Thursday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021121.cfm)

    In social media, one may publicly publish one’s relationship status. This is more than just about our civil status or legal relationship status as single, married, engaged, widow or separated person, but more so about a short description of the state of one’s relationship with significant others in the society. And there are many ways people would describe in their profile their own relationship status in social media. Not only the usual “in-love, committed, happily married,” others would even post some double meaning descriptions like, “complicated, looking & searching, available, negotiable, available but non-negotiable, negotiable but non-available” among others.

    All of these are just but reflections that fundamentally as human persons, we are in relationship with others. By nature we are not solitary alone being, but social beings – social animals who are in relationship with others & one another. Our creation story in our first reading today is a reminder that God has created us as related & inter-related with our world & with one another. Lahat tayo ay magkaugnay. And God knows that it is not good for us to be alone, & thus, he looks for our suitable partners in life. Human social being as we are, somehow, we should have our own relationship status in life that would describe the state of our relationship with an-other & others.

    Social being as we are, we should also however, be reminded that we are spiritual being. As much as we are in relationship with others, we are also in relationship with God. If we have a relationship status, we should also have our own faith status that would describe the state of our relationship with God in life.

    We may realize the need for faith status beyond relationship status in our gospel today. Surely Jesus & the Greek woman shares distinct social & relationship status. Di sila magkaugnay. Dili sila mag-abot. By culture, birth, civil status, race, and gender, there are both unsuitable to one another. However, both share the same quality of faith. By their relationship with God, they can relate with one another. They share the same deep faith in God regardless of their relationship & social status, and in effect, healing & miracle happened.

    While we concern ourselves with our social life & relationship status, perhaps we should also consider our faith status? What is the state of our relationship with God? How would we describe the state of our relationship with God? How is our spiritual life?

    Today, we honor our Lady of Lourdes. The apparition of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception at Lourdes, France is a constant reminder of our Mama Mary to us that we do have our spiritual life, that we are in relationship with God, that we have & should grow in our faith status in life & only through then miracles & healing do happen in our world & life.

    May we grow in Faith.

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

  • BREATH GOD

    BREATH GOD

    February 9, 2021 – Tuesday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020921.cfm)

    O, Kamusta na? Nakakahinga pa? Ginhawa pa? Still breathing?

    With a lot of things happening & going on, to say the least, life nowadays is and can be suffocating. We do find ourselves at times breathless & drowning with a lot of restrictions & limitations that even it takes a lot of effort for us to do simple things as natural as breathing. Wearing face masks & shields outdoor limits us to breath naturally & renders us at times gasping for our breath. So, Jal Jineazoyo? How are you? Are you well, okay? Still breathing?

    After putting order into chaos, through his breath, God in our first reading creates life. Yes, by means of his “pneuma” – His breath, God has created, creates, & will continue to create life. All the blessings, graces, & good we have always in life are created by God through His breath. When God breathes, life is created, nourished, protected & sustained.  And through the Pneuma – the Spirit of His resurrected Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, God continues to create & renew our Life now & always.

    As God continues to do so, however, His creative & creating actions are also hindered by our human ways & traditions.

    From our gospel today, we get a sense of how limited & limiting it is for Jesus to continue to God’s work of creation in our lives. While Jesus proclaims & partakes God’s blessing of creation and redemption for all, people then were only concerned about limits, boundaries & restriction as to the proper norms & practices based on traditions. Here we get a glimpse of the tension between God’s offer of fullness of Life and the restrictions of our human ways & standards. Somehow God is giving us His breath – air to breath & live, but we are still struggling on how to breath naturally. We concern ourselves as to how to control our breathing that we are missing & wasting the air, breath, life being given us. That is why Jesus cannot help but to complain: “You nullify God’s word (ways & means) in favor of your tradition you have handed on.” Instead of cooperating in God’s creation, we try to program, limit, control, & restrict His offer of life by our handed-on traditions & practices. Thus, when God breathes, life is created & given us.  But when we program & control our breathing, we limit & restrict life and creation.

    Be conscious then of our handed-on traditions & standards we expect from life itself for it might not be of God’s life-giving Breath but of our own self-imposed impaling restrictions & limitations. And then, when things are suffocating & breathless, don’t forget to breath. Breath in God’s offer of life to us. Let His Pneuma, breath, Spirit flow into our whole being. Allow it to transform & renew us, rather than be restricted, drowned & strangled by our human traditions & standards.

    So Help us God. So may it be.

  • God’s offer of Life than just health to us

    God’s offer of Life than just health to us

    February 7, 2021 – 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020721.cfm)

    A group of barangay leaders once went to attend a week-long seminar on leadership and public service. Since they have heard a lot about the speaker of their seminar, they looked forward meeting him hoping that they could learn some new wisdom about leadership and service. As they arrived at the venue, they happen to see a simple man around, and ordered him to bring their luggage to their respective rooms. The man obligingly obeyed their order. And off they went visiting other sites since they still have more time to spend before the seminar. As the seminar begins, much to their dismay, they were all ashamed of themselves because the man whom they asked to bring their luggage to their rooms is the very guest speaker himself.

    We hear from our gospel today Jesus responding to the immediate needs of the people. As he arrived in Peter’s house, Jesus healed the fever of Peter’s mother-in-law, and until nighttime he cured all the sick people of the community. Yes, Jesus is indeed a compassionate healer, who reaches out and responds to the needs of the people. But we must also know that in responding to people’s need, Jesus also have to stop and leave them, so that he can continue his mission. Though he is a frontline healer, for Jesus, His main mission is to preach and spread the Good News and to build God’s Kingdom, rather than just responding to the immediate needs of the people.

    Jesus is more than just a healer of life but he is The Giver of life. He is more than just trouble-shooter or mechanics but he is the engineer or builder. He is more than just our “kargador” but he is the guest speaker himself. Jesus is the Life-giver Himself, more than just our frontline healer. He is God’s offer of Life than mere health to us.

    Like the people of his time, sometimes we only recognize Jesus as he heals and responds to our immediate need. So that we may be happy, we only want Jesus to satisfy our urgent needs. We want Jesus to create miracles or magics, to ease our pain and free us from our life’s loads and burdens. Like those baranggay leaders, at times we may have considered Jesus only as our “Kargador” baggage-carrier to lighten our loads, serve our needs and ease our pains. Sometime in life, we see Jesus as a mere gasoline station – we recognize Him only whenever we need Him, when we run out of gas.  Sometimes, we need Jesus to be just our caregiver who should readily respond to our immediate needs – without caring about the message He preached, story to tell, role to play in our lives as well as His life and mission to partake & live with us.

    Well, surely Jesus will respond hands-on and on-hand to our needs and hope, for He do know what we need & what we are going through in life. But Jesus can offer us more than just carrying our burden. He is the guest speaker who offers us more than just lightening our loads, cure our sicknesses, free us from our problems or filling-up our gasoline tank. Jesus comes to us to renew our lives and offer us God’s kingdom. His mission is to preach the Good News of Salvation. He came not only to respond to our immediate petty needs but to heal and recreate our land and the world now. He comes so that we may have life – life to its fullness, and not just life to our satisfaction.

    Be reminded then of what Jesus say to us  in our gospel today, “Let us move on to the neighboring villages so that I may proclaim the good there also. That is what I have come to do.”

    In this Eucharist, we pray that our faith in Jesus moves us not to limit & abuse God’s graces for us, but rather move us to be more open & trusting to God’s plans & will for us now during these pandemic times, and thus participate fully in the Mission of Jesus of sharing God’s offer of Life & Salvation to all in our world now & always. Amen.

  • Look at Jesus

    Look at Jesus

    February 1, 2021 – Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020121.cfm)

    “If you look at the world, you will be distressed. If you look within, you will be depressed. If you look at God, you will be at rest.”

    These are the words of wisdom and advice coming from Corrie (Cornelia) Ten Boom, a Christian Dutch Nazi-concentration camp survivor who experienced & surpassed not only the cruelty & inhumanity of Nazis people during the war the indifference of her fellow prisoners but also her own unfreedom/ helplessness in the concentration camps.

    We may not have the same experience with Corrie in life, but we do have a sense & we could easily relate with her words of wisdom & advice. It is distressing indeed to look at world today. With the limitations & difficulties we are going through not only now during but even before pandemic, life has been quite stressful & distressful nowadays. No wonder cases & concerns for mental health nowadays are also on the rise, because if & when we look within ourselves, life has also been depressing. The disappointments, frustrations, worries, anger, & helplessness we are going through now, caused by our distressing, inconvenient & limiting world, could be so depressing, bounding & possessing. (mahigtan ug matuok ta, sa ato pa makapabuang nato).

    Not unlike with our demoniac or the possessed man in our gospel today. Dramatic may our gospel be, we cannot deny that the man is already possessed & overburdened by his demons and crushed by people’s stigma on him. Like him, with our distressing world & depressing selves, we may also have felt possessed, burdened, & shackled by a lot of things going on & happening in our lives nowadays.

    But most significant in our gospel today is when the demoniac “catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostrated himself before him”. In other words, he looked & gazed on Jesus, went near, & bowed down not only in fear but more so in respect & honor to pray to Jesus. In the same way, if & whenever we also recognize, welcome & allow God thru His Son Jesus into our lives, we will be at peace & at rest, even in midst of our today’s distressing world & depressing self. Not only that, we will be also free from our life- shackles (kadena/higot) & receive a new direction & mission in life. So, For hope & direction, never stop looking at & looking for Jesus in life. 

    Corrie Ten Boom indeed is correct to advise us on life: “If you look at the world, you will be distressed. If you look within, you will be depressed. If you look at God, you will be at rest.”

    Another way of saying this: “If you cannot sleep, stop counting the sheep. Talk to the Shepherd.”

  • Be Influenced & Influencing

    Be Influenced & Influencing

    January 31, 2021 – Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/013121.cfm)

    It is once said that “Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.”

    We do all know something about leadership & authority. Many people have exercised their leadership and authority on us. In many ways, they have influenced us. And we have also exercised leadership & authority on others and in one way or another has influenced them. We do know how to be influenced by others & to influence others, as well.   

    Sometimes it is even easy to tell who mostly influences other people’s lives. They will quote their parents or a teacher or someone they grew up with who have greatly influenced & lead their lives for better than worse. Yes, influences can be negative. But as soon as someone says: “As my mother always used to say…” practically what follows is surely something that influenced the life of the speaker in a positive way. We consider these leaders or authorities as the great peoples in our lives – the one who made us feel great about ourselves & helped us grow. They have in one way or another helped us form our values & principles in life, and have greatly impacted our lives to be a much better person.

    That is what real authority does. It is life-giving, growth-giving, affirmative, positive and helpful. The word itself is an indication of this. It comes from a Latin word “augere”, meaning “to make grow”. Authority then is power or influence not to lord over and control others but to help others grow. Leadership lies not on the power or control you have on others but on the influence & impact you have for others to grow. Not power to lord over others but power to influence & form others.

    That is why true indeed, “Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” It is all about our influence to foster growth on others & help them become much better version of themselves, even with or without our presence.  

    In our gospel today we heard that “his teaching made a deep impression on them… because he taught them with authority.” The people who listened to Jesus that day in Capernaum were struck by his authority & leadership.

    That is what happened to the people when they listened to Jesus in their synagogue. Hearing him they (even the demoniacs & possessed) began to open up & understand their own potentials & possibilities for life & growth. He gave them hope. He treated them as friends and equals. He did not talk them down, did not flatter & sweet-talk them as the scribes do. He told them instead to be true & be realistic about themselves than they had ever been before. Through the words of Jesus with authority, they realized that God calls them to greater things than they never had thought possible. They come to experience then God’s leadership in their lives.

    The same thing happens to us whenever we listen to Jesus, as God’s word for us through the Scriptures. Every time we read or listen to the Word of God, especially to the gospels, challenging it might be, we are influenced by the wisdom and message of Jesus. The words of Jesus have greatly influenced our lives that whenever it is proclaimed to us again and anew, it constantly offers us life, faith, and hope. It challenges to grow to be a much better person before God and other, and it also empowers us to do great things for others.

    Being led & influenced by Jesus in our lives do not usually make life easier, but definitely it makes life much more worthwhile! His authority, leadership, & influence do make us now do what all leaders should do: Foster growth and life in oneself & others. In other words, influenced & led by Jesus’ authority, we should also now lead & influence others, by fostering growth & making other people’s lives better.   In this Eucharist today, may Jesus, the Word of God continue to influence and direct our lives so that we could also be a better influence in fostering growth in our church, society & nation. Amen.