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Category: AUTHORS

  • Bonded by the Lord’s meal

    Bonded by the Lord’s meal

    June 6, 2021 – Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060621.cfm)

    In almost every Filipino homes there is a picture of Last Supper near the dining table. Have you ever wondered why in all places such picture of the Lord’s last supper is hanged near the dining table?

    This is because we, Filipinos love celebrations. We like to be part of big party or fiesta. Basically, we are meal-oriented people. We like to eat, and mealtimes are important and meaningful activity for us. Yes, we like to eat, but we like to eat together. We eat not only for nourishment but for companionship as well. For us, eating is not only a usual routine of nourishing our own physical body, but also a common activity of strengthening relationship and bonding. That is why we eat together not for the food, but for the companionship and covenant it brings. Mealtime for us is not only the time to eat, but also the opportunity to encounter – to experience one another.  This is why we don’t like to eat alone. We like to eat with companion, because for us, meals, eating, tables would mean celebrations, table-fellowship, sharing, bonding, rituals, and communion.

    The word ‘companion’ is an interesting word. It comes from two Latin words: cum which means “with”, and panis which means bread. So a ‘companion’ literally means someone whom I share bread with. And it is only a few (not all) you enjoy having meal with. There has to a bonding – a relationship first, which is deepened by the sharing of food and drink. Usually, by inviting a person to a meal, we seal our contracts, we show acceptance and approval. We know that once you are invited to take part in their table – to eat with them, it would mean that you are already accepted.  You become one of them. You belong to them.

    This is why we like the picture of the Last Supper hanging on near our dinner table because we want to be part of Lord’s celebration of life.  Taking our meals in front of the picture of the Last Supper, whatever the food is, whether lechon or bulad or ginamos, would mean we want to be a companion of Jesus and his disciples in their party celebration. This is why it is also particularly difficult for us to not able to attend Holy Mass during these pandemic times, & how insufficient it is, just to take part of the Holy Mass through the live-streaming. In other words, we do like to renew and strength our faith-relationship with Him. We want to be accepted and belong to His community. We like to be part of His family-banquet, His party. And All of these are greatly done and signified until now in our table-fellowship in the Lord’s Eucharist, in our celebration of the Holy Mass. 

    Today, we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. Today, we recognize and celebrate Christ’s continuing Presence and His binding promise of love and redemption to us, through His gift of Himself in a form of bread and wine. Our readings today remind us that as in life we feed ourselves with food, the Lord also feed us with His food, not only to nourish us but also to strengthen our covenant relationship with Him. Jesus in our gospel today specially has offered us His body and blood, as our inheritance of God’s manna in the Holy Eucharist. By sharing us Himself in body and blood, Jesus sealed us new covenant-relationship with God. And because of this, we are continually nourished by God’s graces and we are in communion with Christ’s eternal life. In other words, through His body and blood, Jesus is offering us not only God’s food for our faith-life journey but also a meal-time party (or a food trip) with God. That is why every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, we are in covenant or in companionship with God, with Jesus, and with one another. Thus, through our table-fellowship as family and community in our celebrations of the Lord’s Eucharist every Sunday and also as Filipino in front of the picture of the Lord’s Supper, we are united with the Lord and we take part with His glory and work of redemption. 

    Perhaps if we say nowadays, “We are what we eat and who we eat with” (Tayo ay ang Anong kinain at sino ang kasama), in attending Eucharist, we as Christian proclaim that through the body and blood of Jesus we are having party-meal (food trip/ breaking bread) with God now and always.

    For those who are not able to receive communion during live-stream Masses, nowadays they pray Act of Spiritual Communion of St. Alphonsus, saying “I desire to receive you into my soul. Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart… Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.” Such words express our deep desire to be in communion with Jesus, to be part and companion of His eucharistic sacred life.

    During these pandemic times, we pray that we may always be in communion & in companion with our risen Lord, be nourished by His body & blood, and be always united & bonded, not separated from His love & mercy.

    So Help Us God, So May it be. Amen.

  • Blessing in Disguise

    Blessing in Disguise

    June 5, 2021 – Saturday of the 9th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060521.cfm)

    A certain village trickster would constantly make fun of his church devotee neighbor. At times he would say: “What’s the point of praying, where and when God is not even helping you.” In response, the poor lady devotee would just smile in silence. Once the trickster overheard his neighbor praying: “Lord, I thank you for this daily bread. I pray that I may have enough provisions for this week, as my son’s family is also needy at this time. But it is not my will, but your will be done. I trust in you. Amen.”

    Trickster as he is, he bought a bagful of grocery, put it outside his neighbor’s door, and waited for lady’s reaction. As his neighbor joyfully found the bag of grocery, he butted in & said: “It’s from me & not from your God. See, how right am I that your God does not care for you?” Nevertheless, the devotee neighbor joyfully praised God saying: “Thank you Lord for all these blessings before me…. & for letting my good neighbor pay for it.”

    The cursed life & misfortunes of Tobit & Sarah in our first reading were now getting better. With their full faith & fidelity to God amidst life-challenges & difficulties, grace upon grace was abound anew in their lives. And all along without knowing it, they got angel Raphael to help & guide them. All along, the one who journeyed with them was their answered prayers – an angel in disguised Raphael, as God’s messages & interventions to their life’s burden & misfortunes. As they cooperated with God’s plan & will, life for them is getting better than before & what it was back then.

    Jesus in our gospel today reminds us that God hears & knows our heart’s desires, and He responds from all that we got and not from our surplus. Even without knowing it, we are worthy of His graces & blessing in our lives, whenever we are whole-heartedly & not half-heartedly believing & trusting in His ways, like that of Tobit, Sarah & the poor widow. Whether pure or superficial, God knows our heart’s intentions & readily respond to our prayers, as long as we cooperate with His ways.

    Remember God listens to our prayers & blesses our present needs. God’s blessings however usually come in disguise. We only have to believe & trust wholeheartedly and purely that things in life will turn out better than what we want & expected to be. Who knows? Perhaps the shrewdness, hypocrisy & stupidity of others might be God’s blessing in disguise for you and others. Perhaps what we are going through nowadays are blessings in disguise for our betterment.

    Here we are before you Lord. You know where, what, how we are now, and need to be. We believe & trust that You love us always & want what is better for us. Make us aware and benefit from your constant Blessings that usually comes to us hidden in disguise. May Your will, not mine & ours, be done.

    So Be it. Amen.

  • Marriage: TO Whom and FOR Whom?

    Marriage: TO Whom and FOR Whom?

    June 3, 2021 – Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060321.cfm)

    Having married to his childhood sweetheart only a year & a half, in fear & anxiety, a man told his father: “Dad, Marriage is not for me.” After few minutes of silence, the father gave this advice: “Son, I make this really simple. You marry not to make yourself happy, but to make someone else happy. Marriage is not for you because you are married for a family & your future child. Marriage is not about you, but about the person you married.”

    Easy for us to think that ordained priests and consecrated religious people are married to God & church. Rightly so, for they dedicate their lives to & for God & the church. It does not mean however that lay Christian couples & family are not married to & for the church. Christian marriage & family life is a discipleship – a way of following Jesus & loving in marriage to God through His people.

    The arranged marriage of Tobiah & Sarah in our first reading may have highlighted the human, social, sexual & cultural dimensions of marriage, but above all it gives importance to the spirituality & sacredness of marriage. What is given value here is that marriage is not about & for oneself but for your beloved whom you love in life, and above all for God.

    Christian couples do have their marriage in the church because they consider their love & marriage to each other as sacred & holy, and they wish to make their life now & always as their sacred offering to God & His church. Their marriage then is not about themselves but about each other living their love-life for God & His Church through their own family & Christian community. Same way with ordained priest & consecrated religious people, Christian married couples are also thus married to the Church.

    Jesus in our gospel today reminds us that it is not enough just to know the commandment to love, but most of all we must live & practice Love. And love is basically not for and about oneself (not for and about you), but Love is all about & for one’s beloved & others. Marriage then is ultimately not for Me and about Me, but for and about An-other than Me. Love lived in Christian discipleship then is not self-centered, self-serving & self-oriented but moreso other-centered, other-serving & other-oriented. If & when we love this way, as Jesus says: “We are not far from God’s kingdom.”

    In this mass, we pray that our love for our beloved & others now in life be our way of following our risen Lord, and be our marriage to God & His Church as our fitting sacrifice & worship to God’s goodness for us.

    So be it. Amen.

  • Three-fold ONE

    Three-fold ONE

    May 30, 2021 – Trinity Sunday

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/053021.cfm#subscribe)

    Once a team of mountain climbers were stranded almost near at the highest peak. As the air grew thin and weather got colder – that made them cold and weak, one of them made a fire. So, together they gather around  the fire and contribute whatever they have to sustain the fire. As they started to enjoy the heat, they share food, as well as their stories and dreams with one another that in effect, sustain and inspire them again. One of them decided to be on his own. So, he took a stick with a fire, and isolated himself from the group. Eventually, away from the group, his fire extinguished and he got sleepy and weak.

    With the team, we get strength and inspiration. Away from the team, we get tired, weak, and dispirited.

    As Christians, we praise God in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. We give glory to God Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We proclaim our creed of faith: “I believe in God, the Father…in Jesus Christ… in the Holy Spirit.” At its very core, our Christian faith is Trinitarian – i.e. unlike any other religions, we uniquely believe in God, the Father-Son-Holy Spirit. As we honor today the Holy Trinity, perhaps now we ask: What does it mean to believe in the Trinitarian God?

    First, the word covenant simply would mean, “coming together”. As God making covenant with us, God wants to “come together for us/with us/in us”. In God the Father, we come to believe a “God-for us” who chooses us to be His own people. In God the Son, we come to believe Emmanuel Jesus, a “God-with us” who makes known to us God’s love for us, and how to love God in return. In God the Holy Spirit, we come to believe a “God-in us”, who inspires, directs, and sustains us in life of faith. To believe in the Holy Trinity then is to be in covenant with God, much as God is in covenant with us. Meaning, as God is for us/with us/in us, we must also be people for God, with God, and in God.

    Second, in the Lord’s ascension, we are reminded that the risen Lord is not-finished yet. His mission of salvation for us is still a work-in progress, and is now a product of the concerted-effort, teamwork of the communion of the Holy Trinity. Our salvation is the teamwork and actions OF our God, the Father who chooses us to be His own, THROUGH God the Son who is loving us always, and WITH the God the Holy Spirit who inspires, directs, and sustains us in life. To believe in the Holy Trinity is thus to be IN communion with God. As God acts and works as one for our salvation, so also we must be in sync, in tune with God’s concerted teamwork for our salvation. Thus we not only to give glory to them but also we are to be in sync with the works OF the Father, THROUGH the Son, WITH the Holy Spirit for our salvation.

    Third, as the Lord mandated us to proclaim our faith to all nations, in our gospel today, He particularly challenges us to make disciples in the name of the Holy Trinity. Making disciples while proclaiming our faith to all nations would mean helping ourselves and one another to be in constant covenant with God, and in partnership-communion with God’s work of salvation for us. To believe in the Holy Trinity then is to lead our lives and faith as Church, a Community of faith. As God is and works as Community, we too must also be and acts as Church – a community of Christian faith, living and witnessing God’s being and acting in our lives.

    The Holy Trinity shows us as Church how to be and act as God’s own People. As much as God be and acts together, to have a Trinitarian faith we too must be and act in covenant, in communion and in community with God and one another. As Church then, we must be faithful people for God, with God, and in God – witnessing our faith in sync with the labor of the Father, through the Son, with the Holy, and living our lives as church community making disciples and proclaiming our faith.

    Remember “the community is the bearer of God’s Salvation”. Salvation thus happens in the context of the church, faith-community, and not of individuals. We are God’s own chosen People, not chosen individual. We all are to be in covenant, in communion and in community with Him and His church. With the church, we are strong and inspired. Without and away from the church, we are weak and dispirited. We are to be in His threefold ONE.

    May we, as God’s own, not be separated from the Holy Trinity and God’s church, but instead always be connected and involved with God’s life and labors of salvation for all nations and peoples, even amidst during this challenging pandemic times. Amen.

  • To Be-Relate-Live with the Holy Spirit

    To Be-Relate-Live with the Holy Spirit

    May 23, 2021 – Pentecost Sunday

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052321-Day.cfm)

    Have you ever experienced a time when you are so caught up with the wonders of the moment that made you say how great it is in your own native language? And then, a foreigner caught up with the same experience as you are having, utter words of how great it is, and also in your own native language?

    Like once, my Filipino friend and I were walking sight-seeing in a street of Brussels, Belgium. We caught sight of a beautiful painting being done in the plaza. In our amazement, we both loudly utter words: Ang Ganda, ano. “Ohh, Such a beauty”. And then a Belgian guy also in wonder say: “Oo nga, napakaganda” (Oh Yes, Beautiful).  All of us (Pinoy and Belgian) where not only caught up with the beauty of the painting, but also with the beauty of the moment where we can communicate and understand each other our appreciation of the experience.

    Perhaps the same experience could be said about a French man who tries to eat Kumtang – a famous Korean beef stew, inside a Korean restaurant with among Koreans, and after tasting it, said: “Masizoyo” (Delicious, Sarap). All understand how great it is, and even a foreigner is able to appreciate it through in the local native language and tongue. In other words, Napa-Koreano sa Sarap. O Napa-Tagalog sa Ganda.

    Our shared experiences of wonders and mutual understanding among diverse cultures somehow describes us the experience of the people and the disciples during the day of Pentecost.

    Church tradition has it that fifty days after His resurrection (ten day after His ascension), on the day of Pentecost, the disciples received the promised gift of Holy Spirit to the church, and inspired them to speak in different languages to proclaim the Good News of God’s salvation. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, people from different cultures then and until now are able to speak, hear and understand each other’s faith in each other’s own native tongues. Because of such experience, today marks the birthday of the Church – the day of birth, the day when the church becomes alive. The gift of the Holy Spirit is thus very essential in the life of the Church. Like a soul to a body, the church is dead without the movements of spirit, as well as the spirit cannot inspire our life without body, the church. We, the church needs the Holy Spirit to live as well as the Holy Spirit needs our Church to offer us meaning and direction in life. For how does the Holy Spirit works in our lives?

    First, the Holy Spirit makes us experience and witness the present moment. Like being caught up with the beauty of a painting or scenery, with the delicious taste of food, with the wonders of the architectures & building, cooking, or working processes, with the intensity of a good book read, a good drama play or movie, and like the risen Lord made Himself known to his disciples, the Holy Spirit inspires us to situate and appreciate ourselves in the present experience. In other words, the Holy Spirit offers us PRESENCE in the here and now.

    Second, the Holy Spirit compels us to share our inspiration of the present moment with others. Our inspiration then is not ours to keep but to be shared with others. Like falling and being in love, the Holy Spirit moves us to proclaim and communicate our life and inspiration with others in a way that we can understand each other. In other words, the Holy Spirit provides us the LANGUAGE to articulate and communicate our inspiration of the present moment.

    And lastly, the Holy Spirit makes us respond rightly and accordingly to the inspiration-given and shared. Like Jesus giving us the mandate and mission to witness and proclaim our faith to all nations, the Holy Spirit encourages us to lead our lives according to our faith-life inspirations. In other words, the Holy Spirit obliges us a LIFESTYLE – a way of being and becoming human in life.

    Like, as Love is one of its gift, the Holy Spirit inspires us to love and be loved, to express humanly such love with an-other and others, as well as to live our lives as loving and beloved person. In the same way with Faithfulness, the Holy Spirit inspires us to have faith and trust in the risen Lord in life, to express, proclaim, and share our faith with others (regardless of culture and race), and to practice and live out such faith in our daily lives. The Holy Spirit thus concretely offers us PRESENCE – LANGUAGE – LIFESTYLE of Love and Faith in life. That is how essential Holy Spirit is into our day to day lives as Christian and as Church.

    We can only receive what is being offered. And it will be offered us in our life, if and when we allow and invite the Holy Spirit into our very lives now. We can only share what we already have. We welcome then the Holy Spirit into our lives now so that others may feel its presence, relate with its language, & live its lifestyle in our world today. 

    As we celebrate the birthday of the Church, we especially once again invite the Holy Spirit into our lives during these pandemic times, as we pray: “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the Earth.” Amen.