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Category: AUTHORS

  • General House Cleaning

    General House Cleaning

    December 5, 2021 – Second Sunday of Advent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120521.cfm)

    To clean the whole house. A family activity and exercise that should be done regularly but rarely done, because it is demanding & requires a lot of work.

    To do general house cleaning is difficult indeed, but if & when we do it occasionally, we can learn a lot of good things & may promise some changes in life. Simply because, we know that general house cleaning is not only about cleaning things in our home.

    General house cleaning could be our chance to treasure the treasures-found. As we go through daily lives, eventually we collect a lot of things received, bought, and possessed along the way. As we clean our house then, we got the chance to re-evaluate, i.e. to give value again & anew the treasures what we have owned & collected, to let go the excess & what we do not really need, & share these now to those who are in need. Through this, we may able to recognize, count and share our blessings, and may able to declog & make our lives easier & lighter from unnecessary burdens & concerns.  

    General house cleaning may also be our chance to review our life. As we clean our things in the house, it could happen that we remember our past experiences & memories, become in touch once again with the spirit, values & principles-held in life, recognize our present realities & state of life (like, kids are not anymore kids but now teenagers, & teens are becoming adults), & realize the new changes & challenges required to adjust with our current status of life.

    General house cleaning may also be our change to rearrange our lives (not only our home). By responding & planning for the challenges of the new changing realities in life, we may update, upgrade, reconfigure or reformat our outdated systems & ways within the house that would best suit to our changing & growing family. In other words, to do the things rightly in order to make things right in life now.

    To re-evaluate, review & re-arrange may just be some of the good things & benefits of doing general house cleaning. Demanding it may be, but if & when we do it, it offers us ease & direction in living our lives.

    During this 2nd Sunday of Advent, we are challenged to, through the witness of St. John the Baptism, from the words of Prophet Isaiah: “Prepare for the way of the Lord.” But we may ask: “What is more to prepare? What more we should prepare? Come to think of it, we are already prepared. As early as before October, we already decorated our house. Christmas trees & decors are already placed. Gifts to be given, food for celebrations are being prepared. Some have their parties & reunions already. Some were already tired & impatient waiting for their gifts & bonuses. What else is & should be prepared? 

    The preparation we are challenged to by the Sacred Scripture is not our usual preparation of decorations, gifts, food, parties, bonuses & others. The expected preparation required of us is “to make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain & hill shall made low. The winding road shall be made straight & the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of the Lord.” Simply put, To do General House Cleaning – to clean our whole home, to make things right rightly for the Lord. What is asked of us then is – an update, upgrade, reconfiguration & reformatting of lifestyle suited for the Lord, us & others now.

    The Lord become one of us & being with us is not just a decoration in life where we only use when needed or where we only maximize when we wanted it. Christmas – the birth of the Lord, God’s incarnation into our lives should be the suited Center, Way, Guide & Direction of our Christian lives. Meaning, what preparation expected of us is not house decoration but general house cleaning.

    Now, when was the last time you had your general house cleaning? When is your general house cleaning?

    As the year about to end & we are now fast approaching Christmas, why not do your general house cleaning these days? Ask nobody to do it for you, but rather do it yourself, so that, you may have a new perspective, meaning, & purpose in life, and thus, may have carved a new space for God’s word, Jesus Christ into your life. Amen.

    NB. Say a little prayer for me as I also celebrate my 25th year of priesthood today on  this year’s 2nd Sunday of Advent.

  • Shake Well

    Shake Well

    November 28, 2021 – First Sunday of Advent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112821.cfm)

    A wise man once said: We are like a bottle of medicine. For him not to forget, God puts a label on it, that says: “Shake well, before using.” – Shake Well Before Using.

    Like a tasty cooked meal or well-brewed coffee, there are things in life at its best when it is cooked, brewed, stirred, or mixed. Only by means of these processes, we may able to benefit and enjoy how good, effective & tasty these things are.

    Same way for us Christians. Human as we are, we do not like to be disturbed and bothered in life. We rather prefer an easy, comfortable & complacent life. But we also cannot deny that we are in our best selves, not in our contented, perfect, healthy lifestyles. Our greatness is rather shown in times of our endurance, faith & courage amidst struggles, sufferings & difficulties in life. Our best & greatness usually lie at the times when we are somehow disturbed, stirred, shaken, broken & hard-pressed by our present life struggles & challenges.

    We have witnessed & we are witnesses to these during these past few months. We have been through & still going through a lot during these pandemic times. Our life in our world nowadays has been chaotic, distressing, & difficult due to this novel yet incomprehensible disease & sickness that infected our lives. True indeed, we find ourselves lost, disturbed, & knocked-out in life, but amidst all these, we have also witnessed how our faith & humanity stand up for the occasion & show our best & greatness by our generosity to share our help & concerns with one another. Yes, amidst our present life-challenges and difficulties, we have seen the worse, as well as the better of humanity, and of our faith.  

    Consider, our Saints become saints not because they were perfect & sacred human beings, but because these people were able to endure & persevere in their Christian faith amidst life-difficulties & their own worse & limitations. Likewise, limited & worse we might be, we Filipino are greatly acknowledged these days not only in our country but also in the whole world, for the love & care we, (& mostly our Filipino frontline health workers), extend to respond in sharing our life & faith to those who are sick & dying.  

    Just like a bottle of medicine, for us to be an effective & worthy medicine of God to others, there are times & moments in our Christian lives that we need to be disturbed, stirred, and shaken well by life-challenges & difficulties from our complacent & comfortable lives. In other words, before using, we need to be shaken well, & indeed, we are being shaken well lately.

    Amidst these challenging & confusing pandemic times, somehow perhaps God is shaking & stirring us well for us to be better person, better witness, better Christian, better medicine for others. And Jesus warns in our gospel today: “When these signs begin to happen, stand erect & raise your heads because redemption is at hand.”

    That is why, friends, during this Advent season, wake up, stand up & await in hope for great things about to happen in our lives, thus prepare & make us ready to own God’s promise of redemption through Christ & make us living witnesses & medicine of His blessings to others.

    May God’s word, God’s peace, disturb & shake us well now & always. Amen.  

  • Again OR Anew

    Again OR Anew

    November 21, 2021 – Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112121.cfm)

    “If & when given another chance, would you do it again or anew? Would you do it as before or better than before?”

    2014, before going to Korea to minister our Filipino Migrants & workers, I was assigned as a parish priest in our big Redemptorist parish found at the very heart of Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental Philippines. However, amidst the busyness and burdens of my responsibilities then, I was more drawn to the challenging life-question: “At this stage of your life, if and when given another chance by the Lord, would you do it again or anew? – would you do it as before or better as before?” These questions challenged me to review (to look again) my life as it, to think outside the box and out of my comfort zone, and to openly consider once again another vocation God is challenging me to be at midway of my life. While I responsively considered “a life not again but anew, and a life not as before but better than before”, eventually I found myself in Gwangju Korea, serving God and the Church as Redemptorist missionary in an entirely unique culture, working with new set of people, both fellow Filipinos and foreigners, doing migrant ministry, which specifically distinct from what I was used to do in parish work. Because of this and since then, my life is never the same again. Never I could imagine then to live my life in Korea for five years then because I reconsidered a life anew and better than before with our Lord. Difficult it may be but surely my life has been more fruitful, enriching and blessed than as before.

    Sharing you my life-experience somehow give and offer you a glimpse of the spirit and meaning of our celebration today of the Solemnity of the Kingship of Christ.

    Today on the Solemnity of Christ the King, we celebrate the reign of Jesus Christ in our Christian life. We, the whole Christian world proclaim and witness today to Christ’s leadership and sovereignty in our Christian lives. Jesus Christ our King is our Way, Truth and Life who is our leader, guide, and force in faith & life as it was, as it is, and as will always be. Also, today on the Solemnity of Christ the King marks the end of our liturgical year. For the past year of Christian worship, we have followed and journeyed with the Lord in our life as we praise, believe, proclaim, serve, love, and live our faith in God with Jesus. Our recent past year with the Lord amidst pandemic does have its own challenges, difficulties, sufferings as well as blessings, growth, and opportunities.

    As we bid farewell to liturgical year B (reflecting mostly on the Jesus story as told to us through the gospel of St. Mark), better also for us to review our life with the Lord this past year, and be more open to consider another and a new chance to journey in faith with our Lord. Perhaps also consider the question: “At this stage of your life, if and when given another chance by the Lord, would you do it again or anew? Would you do it as before or better as before?” – “Sa buhay ko ngayon, kung at pag-binigyan ng muling pagkakataon ng Panginoon, gagawin ko bang muli o panibago ang aking buhay? Gagawin ko ba gaya ng dati o mas Mabuti pa ang aking buhay?”

    https://reasonabletheology.org/jesus-christ-our-king/

    These questions take into account two important considerations: the role of Jesus in our life and our choice to follow and journey with Him in our life always. On one hand, these challenges give importance to the role of Jesus in our life. The life that we have and live now is a life of chances and opportunities God has given and shared us. In simple words, our life is a gift from God – not made, built, and programmed by us. Now, consider how we live our life now. Do we recognize, believe, and worship our life-giver and life-sharer God who gives us the chance to live our life now? Does Jesus have a part, a role in our daily lives? Or rather, we recognize, believe and worship only ourselves &/or our life now with others than God? So, in humility, healthy for us to reconsider our life as “If and when given another chance by the Lord” for we don’t really know how this God-given life could and will be.

    On the other hand, these challenges give importance to our choice to follow and journey with Jesus in our life always. As we consider our life as God-given chances and opportunities, we should also have to make a choice and commitment to live, lead and journey our lives in accordance and in faith with our Lord Jesus Christ.  Here we are to live our lives as Christians disciples – following and journeying with Lord in life creatively. Being Christian is our choice of lifestyle – our way of being & living our life as human in the world, and participating in God’s recreation of our world. Living our life as Christian then gives meaning, spirit, and direction to live our God-given life anew and better than before, as well as fully reveals to us the leadership and sovereignty of the Lord’s kingship through our lives to the world.

    Our gospel reminds us our Lord Jesus Christ is a rejected and persecuted King and Leader. His kingship then is not based on his command and authority with us His disciples, but on our choice to follow and journey with Him in life – living our life with Him. More than honor, praise, prestige due for Him as our Lord and King, Jesus desires our companionship, participation, and commitment to be and live with Him in our journey of life. Ask not the Lord like Pontius Pilate: “Are you the King?” but rather “Is Jesus my King?” Rather than probing on His kingship, anew and better then recognize, believe, choose, and live our lives with Jesus as our Way, Truth and Life in our world.

    Again, as we say Goodbye to Year B and say hello to another chance, but a new year of living with and in the Lord’s kingship, healthy for us to reconsider this question: ““At this stage of your life, if and when given another chance by the Lord, would you do it again or anew? Would you do it as before or better as before?”

  • LIFE-lived In & With CHRIST

    LIFE-lived In & With CHRIST

    November 14, 2021 – 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111421.cfm)

    Corrie Ten Boom, a Nazi concentration camp Christian survivor, now a well-known inspirational writer, once said: “If you look at the world, you will be distressed. If you look within yourself, you will be depressed. If you look at God, you will be at rest.” These words of wisdom are learned from her life-experience of the cruelty of war and racism, not only before her captivity in Amsterdam while her family were helping in hiding escaping Jews, and during her captivity in the concentration camp of Germany, and after her release and liberation, but also based from her experience of life struggles and faith journey in general, as Christian.

    If and whenever we reflect on these words, we somehow can relate with her on how we also experience our life-struggles and faith-journey as Christian in general. Though we may not share the same experience of life with her, but her words offer us a realistic but still hopeful view of our Christian life: “If you look at the world, you will be distressed. If you look within yourself, you will be depressed. If you look at God, you will be at rest.”

    True indeed, distressing it is to look at world today. With a lot of things going on – war, racism, discrimination, alienation, poverty, moral decadence, corruption, crisis, natural and human disaster, migration, pandemic and other, we cannot help but be distressed, upset, worried and be bothered with life nowadays and in near future. And while looking at our world today with distress, we cannot also help but be depressed, helpless, and hopeless within ourselves as we try to adjust, adopt, and respond to our troubling world. Addiction, crimes, sex, violence, drugs, suicide, abortions, marital breakdowns are just mere manifestations of how depressed we are and we can be within ourselves, due to the reality of our world outside and our life within. These are the common pains we are experiencing life nowadays as it is.

    Worse, Jesus in our gospel today even warns us of these on-going and coming distressing and depressing realities of life in the world to happen. We cannot help but be bothered of Jesus’ cosmic depiction of the end-time, “Sun will be darkened, moon will give not its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” We may not have yet experienced end-time as Jesus described it, but with our experience of our life’s common pains nowadays of increasing fatality & sickness, easy for us to see that at most we are already on our way towards destruction and end-game of life.

    We might have been experiencing life at its worse nowadays, however, Jesus promises us a life, not as how we look and experience it, but Eternal Life with God. Jesus proclaims and promises us: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Lilipas man ang Langit at Lupa, ngunit ang aking mga salita ay hindi lilipas: Mahanaw man and langit ug yuta, apan akong pulong dili gayud mahanaw).

    Here Jesus is teaching us that eternal life is not about life without end, or endless life, or our life/world now not passing away. Eternal life with God is not the extension and expansion of our life as we look and experience it. Surely, we desire not the extension and expansion of our common pains & struggles in life. But what Jesus promises us is eternal life that gives us meaning and purpose as we experience life’s common pains.

    In & with our experience of life’s common pains, Jesus is thus offering us eternal life of common purpose. He is offering us Himself as our Way, Truth and Life that would give us meaning, direction and purpose as we struggle with life and journey in faith amidst our common pains of life. Jesus wants us to live our Life In & With Christ.

    In other words, Jesus offers us Common purpose and meaning amidst common pains of life. Common pains thus take place and will happen in our life here on earth, but rest assured, Jesus, God’s word, and love for us remains for us and with us forever. Ika nga: (Matupok man lahat ang buong daigdig, hindi magmamaliw ang aking pag-ibig.

    So, whenever we find our life distressing and depressing, and as we long for rest and peace in life, just be reminded of and learn from the wisdom-shared to us by Corrie ten Boom: “If you look at the world, you will be distressed. If you look within yourself, you will be depressed. If you look at God, you will be at rest.”

    Siya Nawa. Hinaut pa unta. Amen.

  • GENEROSITY IN OUR POVERTY

    GENEROSITY IN OUR POVERTY

    November 7, 2021 – 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110721.cfm)

    At the beginning of this pandemic, if you can remember, there was a kind of panic buying that happened. When the government announced to impose ECQ then MECQ in major cities, people lined up in markets and supermarkets to secure their food supply as well us vitamins and sanitizers. There was even a time that it was too difficult to buy alcohol, even bread and canned goods. Malls, supermarkets and pharmacies have regulated the purchase of food and medical supplies. There was even a time here in Cebu when the Provincial Government regulated the purchase of oxygen tanks because of panic buying.

    What really drove people to panic buying? What also made people to hoard things? It must be the thought of running out of supply and of fear for not having enough. There might not be enough for us that leads us to get what we need as much as we can, but not minding the needs of others.

    Such attitude can actually still exist even without a crisis. We could believe that we always need to secure something for ourselves. Thus, people who tend to accumulate things, whatever that is, whether food, toys, clothing, gadgets or even attention and acceptance from others could suffer from a feeling of inadequacy and endless insecurity. Because of that feeling of being insufficient and insecure then, it would lead us to accumulate more and even to the point of becoming a greedy hoarder.

    Yet, this attitude of the heart prevents us to become generous and to become persons God desires us to be. However, our feeling of inadequacy and insecurity should not even prevent us. These are ways for us rather to become life-giving and to be truly generous.

    As a matter of fact, true generosity is expressed out of our poverty, out of our insecurities. This is what we have heard in today’s readings. So allow me now to bring you a bit deeper into the scriptures revealed this Sunday.

    In the First Book of Kings, Elijah asked for water to drink and bread from a widow. Remember, at that time, there was famine. Food was scarce. In fact, the widow expressed to Elijah her food insecurity. She only had a handful of flour and a little oil in her jug. Those must not even be enough for her and her son to be fully satisfied. She knew that after consuming that, there will be none anymore. This was the reason why she said to Elijah that their death was coming. Meaning, that will be their last meal for food has gone out.

    But the surprising event was, the widow out of her poverty and food insecurity did not even complain but gave her last bread to Elijah. And a miracle happened, the Lord repaid her generosity. Her flour never ran out and her oil never ran dry. For a year, they were able to eat and they survived from the famine.

    The same expression of generosity was told to us in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus observed how people gave their offerings or tithes and saw the difference between scribes, the rich and powerful people in contrast with a poor widow.

    The scribes or the scholars of the law were merely concerned of getting attention and praise. They want people to recognize and honor them. They sought for that, expressed in their lengthy prayers yet they would amass the remaining properties of the widows and indifferent to their struggles. These people just wanted and desired power, control and dominance. Hence, their contribution to the Temple was something of a show. What they gave was only something from their excess, not from the heart. They were concerned on what they can get and on what was beneficial for them. This was the warning Jesus gave to his disciples. Jesus, actually, denounced the three attitudes of the scribes and the powerful in that society.[1]

    The first attitude Jesus denounced was the desire for prominence and influence rather than the value of giving oneself to serve others. The second was the desire for recognition, esteem and control rather than promoting the good of others through humble service. And the third that Jesus denounced was the desire in attempting to use one’s position, one’s power for self-gain and self-promotion.

    However, in these three desires and attitudes of the scribes and the powerful at that time, there was no true worship of God. They could have been faithful in their attendance in the Temple and in their daily devotion, but then, their hearts were filled of themselves.

    They were not worshipping God. They worshipped themselves. They were not giving something to the Lord. They were investing to get something out of it.

    True generosity and true act of worship can be found in the person of that widow who offered her last two coins to the Temple. Her coins were greater in value than the many given by the rich and powerful.

    Why? Because what she gave was not an excess of her wealth. What she gave was her everything. She just gave all she had. That poor widow gave back to God what she has and gave out of her poverty, completely trusting God’s providence and being contented of what she has on that day. This is God’s invitation for us today that we grow in our desire not to accumulate more, not in our desire to be honored or to gain power and dominance over others, but to grow in our capacity to go beyond ourselves, beyond our poverty and insecurity by giving from our heart.

    Thus, share generously what we have now to those who are most in need and give to God out of our gratitude. We do not have to wait to become materially rich before we give, because even the poorest of among us can give something to others. A gift given out of our insecurity is our best act of generosity. Hinaut pa.

    [1] From the Homily of Bishop Manny Cabajar, CSsR, DD.