Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: AUTHORS

  • UPGRADING INTERRUPTIONS

    UPGRADING INTERRUPTIONS

    July 18, 2021 – 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071821.cfm)

    A lady once went to visit a friend who is a public high school teacher. As they chatted at the school canteen, however, they were continually interrupted by students who came for his friend’s advice  or opinion on something. Eventually she asked her friend, “How do you manage to get any work done with these interruptions?” Her friend replied, “At first, I resented interruptions in my work. But one day, it suddenly dawned on me that interruptions are part of my teaching work. Educating students is not so much what I teach them inside the classroom, but moreso about how much time and attention I spent them outside the classroom.”

    That teacher could have devoted her time on her lesson plans. She could have attended much of her time to her private life and not be involved with her student’s lives. But being caring and generous that she is, she made her work consists of being available to her students’ needs. No wonder she was greatly loved and respected by the students.

    We do experience interruptions in our life. Especially people who are in caring profession like teachers, priests, social workers, government and bank employees, frontliners, doctors and nurses experience lots of disturbances at work. And usually these interruptions are particularly difficult especially when the request is not of our own choosing, when we don’t feel in the mood to help, when we are forced to respond and when it causes a lot of inconveniences. In such cases, a real sacrifice is involved. Most of the time, we have to forget ourselves and set aside our feelings and present plans to address the pressing needs of others than ourselves.

    Good for us to know that Jesus himself, like us, also had to cope and contend with disturbances & interruptions in his ministry. Jesus too had his plans upset and postponed because of other people’s needs.

    In our gospel today Jesus saw the need of his apostles for rest and recreation. After sending them on a mission to proclaim the good news, to heal the sick and to cast out demons, Jesus understood his apostles’ need to recharge their energy. They had been through a lot while on mission that they need the time to eat, enjoy, & process their experiences with Jesus & the people. With this, Jesus planned to take them off to a quiet place for a break because frontliner caregiver as they are, the apostles also needed caring.

    However, as we have heard, things didn’t work out as planned. The ordinary people sabotaged their rest and recreation. And how did Jesus react? Not with annoyance but with compassion. Jesus was moved with pity for them. Inasmuch as he attended and took care of his apostles’ need for a break, out of compassion for them, Jesus also responded to the pressing needs of other people.

    Nobody likes interruptions. We know how annoying & limiting interruptions are. However, there will always be interruptions in life. They are inevitable – cannot be avoided. Be as it may. Somehow our readings today may also teach us some lessons about our experiences of interruptions in life.

    First, interruptions can be God’s way of taking care of us. The Lord said in our first reading: “I myself…take care, gather, bring back, appoint..” Meaning, What God does Himself to us are His hands-on interventions in our lives that will definitely disturbs us. As Paul said, Jesus is God’s intervention in our lives, who totally can disturbs, change & renew our lives. Jesus is God’s cure to save & help us to live our lives for the better.

    Second, interruptions can be our way of taking care of ourselves. As interruptions happen, we are moved to give more attention & value to what is important and we really need. The disciples needed to rest, recreation & recharge, and the people needs God’s healing, care, inspiration & meaning through Jesus’ words & ministry. In crisis-disturbance, we are to adjust, adapt & cope with our bare necessities. We evaluate – we put value on what we have & longs for the better than the usual.

    Third, interruptions can be our way of taking care of one another. As it caused us to be conscious of our needs, life-interruptions make us also feel the needs of others & moves our hearts to compassion to help. It challenges us to do whatever we can to contribute & fulfill our mission in life for them & for us.  Life-interruptions moves us to sympathize & empathize with one another.

    Simply put, whatever, whenever & however it happens to us then, now & in the future, these interruptions can be the chance for our intervening, disturbing & interrupting God to take care of us, & can be our opportunity to take care & be a better versions of ourselves & of one another. Interruptions call us to faith, self-care, compassion & personal mission.

    If we really come to think of it, our present experiences of Covid pandemic is & has been indeed a great interruption to our lives. Needless to say, the disturbance, crises, & challenges, Covid pandemic has done and cost in our lives nowadays. However, somehow like a major medical operation or dialysis procedure, perhaps this pandemic is God’s intervention to save from our own sickness & destruction. The interruptions we are going through might be God’s way of saving, curing & healing us from usual our toxic & abusive-lifestyle that make us sick & has brought cancerous diseases & infectious viruses to our nature, environment, physical bodies & personal lives. As we cope with the challenges of the pandemic times, we come also to see & value more the need for us to reimagine our lives, be more clear with our priorities & steadfast with our values, purpose & principles in life.  And above all, we come to realize that we need each other, we feel for one another, & we contribute what we can for a much better life ahead.

    Somehow the pandemic, virus, quarantine, immunization we are going through are God’s evasive, interrupted, inconvenient procedure for our upgrade, from corrupted & infected system to a better version of our humanity & our world. With the Lord and our compassion for one another, somehow what we are going through nowadays is God’s way of care-giving & care-taking us now & always.

    Lord, Interrupt & disturb us, once in a while (if not always), … that we may realize how sick we are,…. how we need You & one another,…. how we can help & take care of one another and…. how God is working & intervening to protect & save our lives & world now especially during these trying pandemic times. Amen.

  • GOD OFFERS US FRIENDSHIP

    GOD OFFERS US FRIENDSHIP

    July 15, 2021 – Thursday 15th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071521.cfm)

    I AM who am is God’s name given to Moses. This name reveals to us that God remains present, sees and listens to the present situation of the people. Indeed, God’s name and presence expressed God’s concern. Moses was told by the Lord, “I am concerned about you and about the way you are being treated in Egypt.”

    This tells us that God is neither indifferent nor too far from us to care about us nor too high to reach. In fact, it is God who continually reaches us and desires for our liberation and salvation. This is how God shows his faithfulness in the covenant that God created with us. God never forgets. God remembers us all the time.

    This is the care and affection that we have heard from the Gospel today. Jesus offers us his friendship that gives support and company. Jesus expressed this in two points.

    First, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest.” This tells us of God’s initiative and willingness to suffer on our behalf. Thus, dying on the cross to spare us from eternal damnation.

    Second, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” This tells us of Jesus’ desire to accompany us, to be our friend to whom we can share our burdens and struggles. In this friendship, we shall find comfort and rest.

    These are also the invitations for us today – to come and welcome the Lord’s presence always and to accept his offer of friendship. As we learn Jesus’ way of loving, we may also learn to become a friend to people around us who shall also offer our presence and affection, understanding and love. Hinaut pa.

  • Hapag

    Hapag

    July 14, 2021 – Wednesday 15h Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071421.cfm)

    Surely we are all now familiar of the painting called “Hapag ng Pag-asa” painted by Joey Velasco. Surely you have seen it. How could you have missed it? Like the Last Supper painting, Hapag is a painting of Jesus having meal (breaking bread) with street-children, instead of his disciples. As it grew into popularity, Joey Velasco made a documentary-video “Kanbas ng Lipunan” to revisit those street-children on the painting, listen to their stories & their reaction about the painting.

    One of them,  “Emong”, as he saw himself on the painting, somehow  said: “while nangangariton on a very hot day, We saw Jesus walking along our dirty & noisy street. Seems tired, alone weary & hungry. So, niyaya namin sya kumain. We invited Him to eat into our corner. Shared our pagpag (left-overs) with Him as He also shared us His little bread. Then we talked & shared about our stories, journey & struggles. Then, menasahe namin sya. We also laid down to rest & sleep for a while. That day was our salu-salu & we have Jesus with us.”

    Easy for us to see the painting of Jesus having salu-salo with street-children AS the Lord lovingly reaching out to us poor & needy people. Emong’s take on the painting however provides a much wider perspective. It is not only God reaching out to us, but it  also we, like the poor street-children is reaching out & responding to God, who needs also our acceptance, welcome, care & hospitality. The street-kid Emong reminds us that God’s blessings & grace of salvation work with our response & participation. God has everything to offer us always for our salvation & He do need our child-like response & participation. Great indeed to be helped by the Lord. But it is much greater when we help the Lord in His work of salvation. There is Pag-asa/HOPE whenever God & people/the Lord & us collaborate with one another.

    And In our Gospel today, Jesus particularly  praises innocence & challenges us to have an innocent childlike attitude & view about life now & here after.  Why? Because, common sense tells us that mature people tends to deduce, judge & conclude positions, while innocents tend to induce, imagine & propose possibilities. Mature people tend to critically denounce, while innocents tend to pronounce & proclaim with wander. Even in our mature & old age, we should never lose & forget our ability to be childlike – open to live & view life not only from our own perspective, but also  wandering about God’s better work, will & plans for us.

    Like Moses before the burning bush, we can only experience God’s presence in our midst, if & we start again & anew to be curious & wondering about what is going on & happening with us now along with what God is doing & offering us now. Somehow we do need at time to be palaboy, wandering aimlessly in like Moses & Emong, so that we may see, respond & contribute in the mission of Jesus Christ.

    The Lord Jesus is always reaching out to us. He has a message to tell us.  He has God’s grace to offer us now. All we need now is like Emong, the streetchildren, & Moses, to reach-out, share & do our part – taking care, responding & helping our Lord Jesus to do his mighty works & renew the face of the earth.

    Lord, like the little ones, make us see what you see in us, what you are offering us, what we can offer & help you to do you will, especially during these pandemic times. Amen.

  • Other Christs

    Other Christs

    July 11, 2021 – 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071121.cfm)

    Let me tell you first about “Fr. Jo”. Fr. Jo is a Redemptorist Missionary from Germany who is now stationed and working in a Spanish-speaking Mexican community in United States. For years, he has lived with the Mexicans in the US, that he is now well loved by the people. Though he is a German by nationality, but his ways are like that of Mexican now. To the point, people would consider him more Mexican than themselves. They would take Fr. Jo as one of their own.

    One day, in a catechism class, a religious sister intended to lecture the kids about the second person in the Holy Trinity. She started like this, “Kids, I like to introduce you to someone you should know. He is a person who loves you most. Until now, he takes care of you sincerely. He is always present whenever you need him. He is the most kind and very good person whom you should know. He has always been there whenever you need Him. I wonder, is anyone of you here already knows who he is?” Then, there was this little girl who raised her hands and said confidently, ”Sister, I already know him”. Glad that the little girl already knows about our Lord Jesus Christ, the sister asked her: ”So tell us, who this person is?” and the little girl replied: “Fr. Jo.”

    Yes, we come to know Jesus not only through stories about him in the bible, and through our parents and catechists but we usually come to see, hear, touch, feel and experience Him through the faith and life of persons or people who reveals and represents to us the person of Jesus in our midst. These significant people, like Fr. Jo are God-sent and church-sent preachers, missionaries, and evangelizers who, by the witness of their words, actions and life, they become living witnesses and representatives of Jesus, for us to know Jesus personally in our own very lives now. Since then and until now, Jesus continues to send us his missionaries and prophets for us to recognize and know Him in our lives. And reviewing our life, we could identify people who have greatly influenced our faith – maybe a priest, a family friend, the tricycle driver, your neighbor, labandera, carpenter, a relative, teacher, or some stranger you meet along the way – that through them we come to know and believe in Jesus.

    Yes, the best & most simple way for people to meet Jesus & know about Christ & Christianity is through & by means of us Christians ourselves – our Lord’s other christs – who are faithful believers, followers, and witness of Jesus to our world today.  

    We come to know Jesus in our life through Christians who comes in our way and has influenced our lives and faith. We also come to know Jesus because we let him come into our lives – because we welcome him into our lives. When Jesus sent his disciples, he advised them “stay in whatever house you are welcomed.” Meaning that we come to enjoy and share God’s grace because we welcome and allow Him into our own hearts and homes.

    Missionary life is fascinating, if not intriguing for us. In my 29 years of being Redemptorist missionary, people usually asked me how I fend for myself as I live in the mission areas. People asked me, “Where do you live? Where do you sleep? How are you in terms of food?” I reply: “I usually rely and depend on God’s generosity and the hospitality of the people in the area”. Then with the usually follow up question: “Dili ba lisod? Is it hard?” My reply is: “usually when the people know that I am a missionary, who visits them and shares my faith with them, their doors (most times, those of the poor), are always open. They willingly welcome me in their homes, sharing their food, beds, stories, life and faith, same as I share with them my life and faith, as missionary of Christ.  And honestly, as we share our faith-life experiences together, I come to witness that during my visits and conversation, people who welcome me into their lives and faith are so blessed as much as I am also with them blessed.

    I always believe that God is never absent from any place in the world. He usually reveals himself in and through the faith and life of us, his followers and believers. And usually hospitality is the first sign of God’s presence. Whenever  then we welcome someone, especially a stranger into our lives with the spirit of hospitality and faith, God’s presence and graces are always present. God’s offer of Salvation to us thus happens in the context of His visits to us. His grace and blessings thrive on our hospitality, on how we welcome Him, through today’s God-sent missionaries into our own lives now.

    Remember what Yahweh said in the book of revelation: “Listen, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into his house and eat with him, and he will eat with me.” And what Jesus assured us who welcome God into our lives, “My father will love them, and we will come to them, and make our home with them.” In other words, through His representatives & witnesses, we are blessed because the Lord comes to visit us & we willingly welcome Him into our hearts & our homes.

    Through today’s Christian missionaries and prophets, especially during these pandemic times, may we be always conscious and open to welcome our Lord’s continuing “visits”, and be transformed and blessed by His offer of grace, salvation and life anew. Amen.

  • HAIN KA NA IGSOON: REMEMBERING FR. RUDY ROMANO, CSsR

    HAIN KA NA IGSOON: REMEMBERING FR. RUDY ROMANO, CSsR

    + Emmanuel T. Cabajar, C.Ss.R. D.D.

    Fr. Rudy Romano was abducted by the military in the outskirts of Cebu City. He became a ‘desaparecido’ victim among so many in the country during the Martial Law regime. After fruitless years of struggle to find him, it was felt that, for the sake of his agonizing relatives and friends, a closure had to be made. Without proof of his death the Redemptorists decided to celebrate a funeral Mass for him.

            Thirty-six years have gone by since his disappearance. But many still remember him as a missionary priest who felt for the poor, especially the most abandoned and marginalized. To be poor is to be voiceless and Rudy offered himself to be their voice and courageously advanced their valid cause and noble aspirations. That is why many regarded him as a martyr for the cause of the poor and oppressed. He was willing to pay the price in taking sides with them.

            I have fond memories of Fr. Rudy. He was two years ahead of me at St. Alphonsus Theologate in Cebu City but we were classmates in some subjects. Common interests often brought us together. Instead of taking a midday siesta we would often do carpentry work or develop photographs in the dark room or give some haircut to a confrere. We used to call him affectionately ‘the scientist before his time’ due to his inventiveness and creativity. The many gadgets he invented attested to that. Out of copra sacks he made backpacks for us and assembled portable cooking tripods for our excursions and long treks in the hills of Busay, Mt. Manungal, Balamban and Toledo.

            However, more than anything else, I personally remember Fr. Rudy as a preacher of the Word of God. He dedicated a large part of his pastoral work to the ministry of the Word. He was engaged in the rural missions. He tried to develop Fr. Fil Suico’s visionary intuition into some concrete missionary method. I saw some of his missionary footprints in Northern Mindanao, from Iligan to Gingoog. One early morning, as I was jogging in Mambajao, Camiguin Island, I saw a stone marker at a junction. Engraved on it was an expression of local people’s sentiments, ‘Handumanan sa Misyon” with Fr. Rudy’s name on it.

            The preaching of the Word of God has the capacity to act as a light of truth that illumines the concrete situation that the people live at the moment. Being rooted in the Redemptorist tradition of prophetic announcement of the Good News, Fr. Rudy preached like an artist, knowing how to make simple and ordinary words come to life in the people’s here and now. That is why the Word of God springing from his inner conviction touched the wounds, the injustices, the victims, the exploited while causing the ire of powerful arrogant perpetrators. If we must keep the memory of Fr. Rudy alive, the reason must be that the prophetic preaching he tried to practice is still very relevant today.

            Our mission is never simply to preach on majestic pulpits billowing with incense as if the Good News were floating on the clouds. We have to proclaim the Word in a way that enlightens, awakens, challenges even if it annoys and opens up wounds and surface conflicts so long as it brings healing to people who hunger and long for the experience of God’s saving power. This kind of preaching pierces real human life but cannot get along with the powers of darkness and evil. This is the kind of preaching we must do and this has to be rooted in prayer and trust in a compassionate God.

            This commemoration of Fr. Rudy Romano offers the Redemptorists a timely and relevant challenge. Are we prepared to shake ourselves up and force us to look honestly at our own preaching in parishes, shrine churches, and retreat houses today? Are we willing to wrestle with the Word of God and be fully engaged with the world’s complexities and be open to the ongoing revelation of God in the signs of the times? Are we willing to ensure that the Word takes on flesh as Good News for the poor and the needy? Are we prepared to always speak and stand for the truth even if it would mean losing our privileges and financial stability and security?

            Undoubtedly, this stance would find echo in those who love the truth and who truly love the poor. Blessed are we if we are true to the Gospel!

    (A song composed by Bishop Manny Cabajar for Fr. Rudy)

    HAIN KA NA IGSOON

    Hain ka na igsoon ning dugay nang panahon?

    Hain ka na igsoon? Gamhanan patubagon!

    Nganong ikaw gidumtan, gisakmit sa dautan?

    Mao ba ni ang bayranan paglaban sa uban?

    Nganong ikaw igsoon gidid-an sa katungod?

    Nganong gipasipad-an, gidan-ok sa kalisud?

    Dili gyud mi moundang kon di ka makaplagan.

    Kalingkawasan barugan: pangandoy sa tanan!

         Bangon mga igsoon,  tanlag ang pagasundon!

         Nasud pagamugnaon, kaisog magbaton!

         Asdang mga kauban, lihok sa katarungan,

         Nasud may kagawasan, padulngan sa tanan.

    Nganong ikaw gidumtan, gisakmit sa dautan?

    Mao ba ni ang bayranan paglaban sa uban?

    Nganong ikaw igsoon gidid-an sa katungod?

    Nganong gipasipad-an, gidan-ok sa kalisud?

    Dili gyud mi moundang kon di ka makaplagan.

    Kalingkawasan barugan: pangandoy sa tanan.

         Bangon mga igsoon, tanlag ang pagasundon,

         Nasud pagamugnaon, kaisog magbaton.

         Asdang mga kauban, lihok sa katarungan.

         Nasud may kagawasan padulngan sa tanan.

         Hain ka na igsoon, hain ka na igsoon,

         Hain ka na igsoon, hain ka na?